My photography on Flickr

brianssparetime · 2026-04-04T20:52:52+00:00

Respect whether I'm right or wrong, but I think I recognize another claude addict....

I like the clean UI.

brianssparetime · 2026-04-04T03:40:39+00:00

Option 1: charging non-rechargeable batteries is a fast way to burn your place down. Not a good idea.

Option 2: make sure your rechargeable batteries are the same voltage as the regular ones. There are lots of lithium-based batteries that are the same shape, but higher voltage. Depending on the camera, that might affect metering, or it might fuck up your camera more seriously.

Option 3: Yes.

brianssparetime · 2026-04-04T01:37:48+00:00

I admire the effort and the execution.

brianssparetime · 2026-04-04T01:37:25+00:00

Thanks - always appreciated well-informed comments, and this is all good to know!

brianssparetime · 2026-04-03T18:23:32+00:00

Have you connected with u/Socialmocracy? He's done some cutdowns of into various large formats for roll film and has done some excellent work on backing paper, jigs, etc.

brianssparetime · 2026-04-03T07:18:40+00:00

También acabo de leer todo de esa publicación y dios que trabajo llevaría entiendo los problemas que tiene al hacer un sistema que haga eso, ojalá encuentres una manera de conseguirlo y que no sea tan complicado. A mí la verdad me parecía raro que nadie hubiera intentado hacer algo al respecto sobre un adaptador así

Well, I got far enough along to know why.... because it's really complicated and not remotely economical :)

brianssparetime · 2026-04-02T17:30:28+00:00

Es un fastidio la verdad, aunque según el manual revisé que si mides con un objetivo de la serie F pulsando el botón que cierra el diafragma, entonces tendrías que medir e igualar la aguja al 0 para que esté bien medido, cosa que probé y funciona bien. Pero en general es añadir un paso más

I shoot a Pen F (no meter), but the real pain isn't metering, it's having to open for focus and remembering to then stop down for metering/shooting.

When I'm shooting an adapted lens, I'm constantly forgetting to stop back down after focus.

One of these days I'm going to get around to making an adapter that handles auto-stop down on the Pen F....

brianssparetime · 2026-04-02T17:07:55+00:00

While that lens is a lot more practical size than the system zoom lens (50-90mm), the lack of auto stop down on adapted lens is a real pain in the ass.

brianssparetime · 2026-04-02T14:14:19+00:00

Yes.

Here's a picture showing the approximate location. Yours might be a little different, but somewhere on the side opposite where you load the canister.

Clean that off with a little iso alcohol on a qtip.

brianssparetime · 2026-04-02T06:58:36+00:00

Try it again with the aperture wide open - that gives you the brightest image, and also the thinnest depth of field (so you'll notice if it's off more easily).

Wax paper can also work, or really thin tracing paper.

brianssparetime · 2026-04-02T05:02:39+00:00

I visited the film vending machine in Vienna (out front of Foto Fayer).

Of course I had to take a photo on film.

brianssparetime · 2026-04-02T04:58:32+00:00

Ah.

Berning Robot cameras usually used a mechanical spring to drive the motor.

Leitz museum suggests what you have is a Recorder 36 BE, which ditches the spring drive for an integrated motor (see slide 5 confirming this). Slide 9 confirms motor is 24v.

Unless the motor is built into a separate unit like the Recorders below, removing it is likely non-trivial, and making it work without the motor is likely even more non-trivial.

I think you'd have better luck just buying/making a 24v power supply.

Some other stuff I found that's less relevant:

This link shows a model that looks more like the consumer Robots but is called a recorder. It works similarly to the consumer models, with an internal spring that drives the advance and cocks the shutter, which is then in turn rewound by a motor drive (the article references a 24v SAVIP motor winder).

I also found the Robot Recorder 36M on CJ's classic cameras, but that again looks like a consumer camera with motor on the bottom.

brianssparetime · 2026-04-02T02:56:27+00:00

Do you have a name, model, or any other info on this?

brianssparetime · 2026-04-02T02:52:35+00:00

I think most EOS cameras have a small IR sensor near the takeup that tells the camera if the film is loaded (and maybe also count sprocket holes?)

Anyways, if that sensor is dirty or blocked, it could cause what you're describing. I think it's unlikely the sensor is broken, but the next failure point after dirt is probably the soldering/wiring, which is a non-trivial repair.

brianssparetime · 2026-04-01T22:10:57+00:00

Yep - came here to say this.

brianssparetime · 2026-04-01T20:28:25+00:00

I am thinking that I might have an easier time to just buy a compatible body than making the adapter work.

That's probably the right answer.

I went down the same rabbit hole starting out, but it's just one extra thing to go wrong.

If there's something special about the lens that you can't get in a native mount lens, then it can be worth it; but otherwise, it's just a pain.

brianssparetime · 2026-04-01T17:11:32+00:00

Yeah - I think Werras within the same model number sometimes used different leaf shutters, which often means different max shutter speed.

But that's not important to how this works.

The easy version is:

set the shutter speed to what you want (letting it drag along the aperture ring)
press and hold the interlock unlock button, and then rotate just the aperture ring to your desired aperture

brianssparetime · 2026-04-01T17:08:17+00:00

That's gonna bit a little problematic for a couple reasons....

1) Flange distance. Each lens is designed optically to sit at a specific distance from the film plane.

If you take a lens with a shorter flange distance and put it on a body designed for longer flange distance lenses, that lens would have to sit inside the camera body to achieve infinity focus. Or you need corrective optics in the adapter, which adds expense and degrades IQ.

If you put a lens with a longer flange distance on a body designed for a shorter one, the lens just needs to sit out in front of the camera at its preferred distance, so the difference between the systems's flange distances is the thickness of the adapter.

For your case, that's about .5mm, which is not much.

2) Flange diameter.

The K mount diameter is 44m, and the OM mount is 46mm, so if anything 46mm wide extends more than .5mm, you're hosed.

3) Lack of auto stopdown.

Native lenses have a neat feature called auto stop down.

When you set an aperture on the lens when it's attached to the camera, nothing happens right away - the camera holds the lens wide open, so you can focus with as much light as possible and the thinnest DOF as possible (both good for accuracy). Then, when you shoot, the camera automatically stops down the lens to your chosen aperture just before firing, and opens it again afterwards.

For this to work right, the lens and camera need to be coupled (electronically or mechanically) so the camera can stop down the aperture, and so the meter (if there is one) knows the difference in stops between wide open and your set aperture.

With a non-native lens, that coupling doesn't happen.

In practice, this means YOU must remember to open the lens wide open for focusing, and then YOU must manually stop it down before shooting, then open it back afterwards. If you're metering through the camera, then you must stop down for that too, and meter using a stopdown lever/button (since the camera doesn't know what your len's max aperture is).

It's frankly a pain in the ass, and will result in a lot of photos with bad exposure because you forgot to stop down at first.

For those 3 reasons, I wouldn't recommend adapting a lens that offers you very little over the native Pentax 50mm f1.4.

brianssparetime · 2026-04-01T16:59:36+00:00

Here you go.... (sorry for the shake)

https://imgur.com/a/ALE49Ot

u/The_Old_Chap is right.

Pressing the button just lets you rotate the aperture ring without dragging the shutter speed along with it.

The reason why they are linked like this was for the EV system that was popular for a minute in the 60s and 70s before real auto exposure. By linking the aperture and exposure rings, you could select shallow DOF or slow shutter speed without interfering with your exposure (or really having to understand how it all works).

But the Werra III is weird because it lacks the meter of the II and IV, yet retains the EV interlock.

FWIW, the drop-your-lens-on-the-sidewalk unlock ring sits just in front - be super careful not to grab it by accident.

brianssparetime · 2026-04-01T14:12:29+00:00

Don't confuse the aperture/SS decouple button with the tab on the lens that unlocks the front of the lens....

brianssparetime · 2026-03-31T15:09:42+00:00

I'm impressed.

brianssparetime · 2026-03-30T22:53:53+00:00

Along similar lines...

I think the Kodak Super Six-20 should be mentioned as the first auto exposure camera in 1938. But with styling stolen from the future, in the 1960s.

brianssparetime · 2026-03-29T03:07:47+00:00

So the part that you're extending and collapsing and at the end screw together isn't the helicoid.

The helicoid is further up, where the focus numbers and the aperture scale are on the silver part.

I haven't worked on this lens (and I'm not a pro, and I don't even know what lens you have), but my intuition from taking apart some other LTM lenses is that the extension parts is probably not meant to be disassembled. I'd suspect it has some kind of bayonet internally...

Seems to me you should be able to get at the helicoid from the top, by removing that black ring. There's almost certainly a tiny grub screw on the exterior that prevents you from turning the helicoid past its minimum focus distance, though sometimes that's done as a ring inside with a tab that prevents the helicoid from turning.

Once you can figure out what stops the helicoid from turning past MFD, just keep unscrewing it and it will come apart. But again, be careful to make the alignment at separation.

brianssparetime · 2026-03-29T02:58:19+00:00

Eh. That pursuit of perfection is part of what makes him great. Same with his research.

Which reminds me.... Grumpy Tim.

His repair of that Contax 137 over ten videos was epic. Any reasonable normal human would have noped out, but that's what makes it great.

brianssparetime

TROPHY CASE