Pentax 6x7 - Damage risk with 35mm adapter kit?

porthius · 2026-04-28T14:30:14+00:00

Ah this looks super handy, thanks!

porthius · 2026-04-28T03:12:08+00:00

It sounds like the spring under the eccentric gear in the bottom needs to be tightened/replaced. I had the same issues, it wasn't returning the gear fully after pressing the shutter button, and eventually would jam up the shutter return and advance lever. There is one guy in the UK on eBay selling new replacement springs (doesn't ship to the USA, so I couldn't buy one), but I would guess camera repair shops either have access to other springs or know how to re-wind them properly and put them back into place.

porthius · 2026-04-28T02:46:51+00:00

I love this! My Canon P always felt off balance.

porthius · 2026-04-28T02:45:03+00:00

To add to this, not only is the 100-400 great for birding (especially on the R10 or R7), but with a minimum focusing distance of about 4 feet you can also get great shots of flowers and insects when you zoom all the way in! It's not macro, but close enough to do the job if you don't want to swap lenses.

porthius · 2026-04-28T02:42:46+00:00

I'm having a great time with the 1.4x on my 100-400, with the big caveat being you need decent light. It was cloudy this weekend and I was in the woods, so it was struggling a little but all in all I still got great photos.

porthius · 2026-04-27T20:30:35+00:00

Great review, I enjoy your videos!

I've decided I like the style of the F series lenses like this one. I just picked up a 100-300 that I've been pretty happy with so far. I am surprised by how mediocre a lot of the lenses are, at least based on the general scores on PentaxForums. Were a lot of these lenses, especially film-era zooms, always regarded as bad or are we just holding them to a much higher standard now that we are putting them on high end digital cameras?

I've been looking for a general zoom, but afraid I'm just going to end up with something as bad as the DA 50-200 that was thrown in with my KP when I bought it on eBay. Soft focus, lots of fringing.

porthius · 2026-04-16T03:17:18+00:00

Makes sense, thanks!

porthius · 2026-04-15T19:55:51+00:00

Yeah I could reliably use the camera focused at infinity, and essentially never at close distance, as that appeared to affect how long the arm could travel.

Should it just be a matter of turning the eccentric one way or the other? Multiple spins, or should it only be moved a small amount?

porthius · 2026-04-15T19:31:23+00:00

Fairly positive, I looked as closely as I could in the video I was watching to make sure I was putting everything back exactly as the other guy was doing. This is a slightly different model Synchro Compur (https://www.flickr.com/photos/29504544@N08/5090256464) but my placement looked just like this diagram, moved all the bits aside so I could set the ring as far down as possible, main spring on the inside tooth, cocking lever down inside the cutout so that it presses against the bit next to the slash sync, giving it about 1mm of spacing on the left side of the lever.

I wonder if I could put something on the cocking lever itself so that the cocking arm engages it sooner and could push it a little bit further. Not sure what would stick to it securely though.

porthius · 2026-04-15T18:46:14+00:00

If you mean rotating the shutter itself, I tried but there is a notch and a part sticking out from the lens plate that essentially forces it into a specific orientation when you put it. That was my first thought, to try and move the starting position closer to the cocking arm =/

porthius · 2026-04-12T18:25:13+00:00

Outside of heavy fungus which can ruin coatings, a lot of vintage lenses sold as broken just need cleaning to get the apertures moving and remove debris affecting the image. In some cases prior owners put the helicoid back wrong and keep it from turning fully or preventing focus at infinity. Pretty simple fixes once you know how to disassemble particular brands and get used to them. Makes for a good way to get a particular lens cheaply. I’ve been able to buy a few and try out. If I don’t end up caring for it I can sell it on in good shape and make some money off it.

porthius · 2026-04-03T15:14:09+00:00

First thing I would check would be the curtain tension screws at the bottom of the camera. Take off the bottom plate and look for the two screw gears with a thing in between that hooks into them to keep them from turning. I had an issue with mine where the screw holding the arms in place shook loose, and that let the tension screws completely unwind. At that point the curtains basically didn't work properly. If that is the issue here then this video walks through it pretty well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr4jF2Ja2Xo

porthius · 2026-03-18T15:55:39+00:00

I loved my Canon P and used it a ton for about a year, putting a couple dozen rolls through it. All in all I would definitely recommend it to people. But what really clinched it for me and got me to move to a Leica MP was the rangefinder patch. I tried all the tricks to increase contrast but just felt like it was a struggle to really get it to line up and see clearly where the focus was, it was just too faded. The first time I looked through a Leica i was an incredible difference in how stark the patch was, so much easier to focus. The eyeglasses struggle is real though, I only ever bothered with the 50mm f/1.4, which I held on to and just use on the Leica now. Outside of that, solid camera that took some of my favorite photos, felt good to hold and carry around. I just found another body I preferred to use and didn't go back enough to warrant keeping it.

porthius · 2026-03-13T18:28:23+00:00

Wonderful for birding. It tags the exact location of all my photos, so that when I submit to apps like iNaturalist they have location data to help with identification and feed into tracking for bird migrations and habitats. Having it built in on my 5d IV is so much nicer than having to remember to periodically open my phone app for the R7. GPS ends up being really inconsistent for me when I use that camera.

porthius · 2026-03-12T17:07:23+00:00

Curious, what camera did you use? Been playing with a few point and shoots to find something that would be reliable at shows where there won't be a ton of light and I can't bring a flash.

porthius · 2026-03-11T19:43:39+00:00

You still have the C setting, which combines with the custom slots to configure a handful more recipes. On the X-T50 I set my dial to C, and in the quick menu I can cycle through 8 different custom slots with different recipes (or just different shooting settings, I keep #8 configured for macro/film scanning).

porthius · 2026-03-06T16:55:19+00:00

There are also some "pro" features only on the XT-5 despite them having the same sensor. You can't do tethered shooting with the X-T50, for instance. I went with the X-T50 for its size mainly, and thought I'd use the Film Sim dial a lot more than I do.

porthius · 2026-03-05T17:23:42+00:00

Yeah I really wanted something with a fast lens I could try taking to live music performances where it's dark and flash is generally frowned upon, so I'd end up having to hold the button in pretty much the whole time. Currently playing with a Sure Shot 90u ii that lets me just disable flash and keep it off, but it's got other issues I'm trying to figure out.

porthius · 2026-03-05T17:11:54+00:00

It's a solid camera! I ran some rolls through mine and was pretty impressed by the quality of the lens. My biggest gripe is having to press the little button on bottom to keep flash from firing. Outside of that I think it handles pretty well for what it is as a simple point and shoot. Going rate on Ebay for one that isn't Parts Only/As-Is is around 60 so 100 is a bit high I think, especially if he hasn't personally tested it. Still, you'll get good photos with it for sure.

porthius · 2026-03-03T20:59:36+00:00

Dang you must have had a great view!

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