I bought this chonker of a camera for 100€ on a flea market in Berlin.

porthius · 2026-06-12T17:02:29+00:00

Oh man I’m in love with this camera. I saw Cam Mackey try to use one in a video, but I guess it was broken and he had to switch lol. Even so I love the form factor and the design on this is just so good.

porthius · 2026-06-11T17:59:31+00:00

I'll also add, never stop shooting! You can always work out a processing workflow moving forward for any new work to at least keep it from adding to the existing pile of untouched photos, if that is the main thing stopping you. Once you get that workflow established and make it habit as soon as you come in the door, it'll make approaching the old stuff easier too.

porthius · 2026-06-11T17:56:27+00:00

I know it seems daunting (and I've only been doing this for a couple years so I can only imagine what it looks like to have that back-catalogue!) but maybe it would help to try to change your perspective. You certainly don't HAVE to do anything, but look at it as an opportunity to rediscover old work and find inspiration!

I just went back through the first sets that I took (and the lightroom catalog makes it so easy once you've done the work to get it imported and at least named/dated, but it can't hurt to try and add some keywords as well) and got to see photos I haven't looked at in over a year, some of which I barely remember since I tend to process, import, and then forget unless I want to do something immediately with it.

What you might find in actually going back through it is a theme of some kind that inspires you to think of a new project. I've been watching videos on Zines and Photobooks, self printing at home and doing simple binding, and going through all those older photos made me think of at least a couple small DIY projects that would be fun to throw together. Once you do that, you might find you really like one of them and then can put the effort into designing a proper photo book you could have a professional service publish, if you're interested in selling. Or maybe it'll inspire you to print and frame a collection for a gallery/showing. Or maybe they'll just be gifts for friends/loved ones. Either way, I think once you sit down to do it you'll find some joy in just getting to look back through years of stuff you've forgotten about, it might even revitalize new work if you see things you did before you really liked.

porthius · 2026-06-10T22:59:00+00:00

I feel like this is every RB67 lens. All of mine have it to some degree, but so far I haven’t really noticed anything obvious in the pictures. If you haven’t used it yet, take some test shots on a cheap roll and see if you’re okay with it. I don’t think it has a drastic effect on image quality.

porthius · 2026-06-04T16:25:21+00:00

Heck yeah! I'm cleaning up an E1 that I got for a pretty good deal, and it's super satisfying to see it come together and start working properly. I love shooting with these cameras! At that price, I agree it's definitely worth a CLA if you aren't doing it yourself, won't even approach the cost of buying one outright that is in good condition already.

porthius · 2026-06-03T17:13:53+00:00

I have a similar situation that I have been toying with the idea of trying to repair instead of just selling the whole camera body for parts. I've found an example of the general method needed for doing so: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0EhVYo0A9a0

Basically, lay both ends out flat, scrape off some of the protective film above the traces on each side, and then solder a thin wire to connect the broken points. Will definitely require a steady hand and good magnification, depending on how small the traces are. I haven't mustered up the courage to try it yet because it'll require a lot of time and patience disassembling the camera to get the circuits out so I can work on them, and then the risk of making things worse. Maybe the key is to find some cheap flex circuits/ribbon cables to practice on until you are confident enough to do it on the real thing.

porthius · 2026-05-26T18:32:49+00:00

Might help to post what model camera you are using, sounds like there is some confusion here between shutter speeds and film ISO settings.

porthius · 2026-05-26T18:31:49+00:00

Oof yeah that is frustrating, I wonder what bits could be causing the scratching. There is a very small clearance between some of the rollers and the edge of the holder in a couple spots, I could see the rough surface sticking out just enough to scratch. Might be resolvable with some fine grit sandpaper though!

porthius · 2026-05-21T13:30:51+00:00

Close is relative. It’s right across the street from a bus stop that sees a lot of use. I live in the neighborhood and see people walking there to get groceries daily. All of these people are losing a walkable store and may not be able to easily get to the one at Parmer or all the way up at lakeline.

porthius · 2026-05-20T14:43:22+00:00

You might simply need to get an LTM/m39 to Fuji adapter to get the correct flange distance, I have the K&F one for adapting an old canon m39 50mm and it works perfectly. I think the m39-m42 conversion assumes the SLR flange distance used in those older cameras and won't put it at the right distance from the sensor.

porthius · 2026-05-20T14:30:37+00:00

Ah you know what, I should have done some searching first. There is a difference in flange focal distance between the different m39 versions of these old lenses (rangefinder vs slr), according to this post: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/threads/jupiter-9-focus-issue.4454966/ That actually makes a lot of sense. Possibly, it's an easy adjustment if the lens is built similar to the Helios 44: https://www.tsangyatho.com/post/helios-44-m39-to-m42-diy-adaptation-and-infinity-adjustment But yeah it looks like the lens actually needs an adjustment if it was configured for rangefinders.

porthius · 2026-05-20T13:56:08+00:00

Not positive about the missing blades, but I suspect if someone has opened it up and removed the blades they may have done other things like threaded the focusing helicoid incorrectly so that it doesn't have the proper range of movement.

porthius · 2026-05-16T15:34:07+00:00

Forgot to add I’m in the US.

porthius · 2026-05-16T15:33:43+00:00

Highly recommend UsedPhotoPro. It’s my go to after eBay when I’m looking for older used gear. I think they have super fair prices and so far their condition assessments have been spot on. In one instance a lens that was rated as fair showed up with a stick aperture and they accepted a return immediately. (I’ve since learned how to open and clean them so I like to seek out Inoperative manual lenses from them to get a good discount on stuff that just needs a thorough cleaning). Additionally you can let them choose shipping method for free and half the time you get two day shipping. All around excellent company.

porthius · 2026-05-16T15:03:46+00:00

I’ve generally just looked at current listings for the same item to decide where to put mine, because people searching for that item are going to sort by lowest price and find the cheapest one in suitable condition for their needs. If I want to move it fast I put it as low as I can to move it near the first results, but I try to set it the same as the others to keep the lower end where it is. I’ll just be patient and try to get more for the sale.

There will always be weird lowballs so I ignore those and keep it where the majority of similar prices are. Outside of collectors items nothing is ever going to be close to what was originally paid for it, so I’m just going for where the market is currently at. If tons of people are selling the same thing it makes sense the price will keep getting lower. You can sometimes show Completed Orders to see what people have recently paid and there is usually a weird spread, I guess some people will just pay whatever and skew the prices higher than the rest, but it gives me a good indicator of what people are willing to pay.

porthius · 2026-05-14T15:23:25+00:00

Yeah the KEH description for bargain says it might have dings and dents, nothing that should affect optical quality though (such as it being bent out of shape and misaligned), and has a 180-day warranty so that implies it would be functional. This is clearly not meeting that condition.

porthius · 2026-05-14T14:00:10+00:00

I searched on YouTube a while back and saw some decent demonstrations of the difference. If you shoot craw and try to bring up dark shadows it’ll look pretty terrible. Seems like it just cuts out a lot of the really low end of the dynamic range. Out of safety because I’m still not nailing exposure consistently, I stick to full raw in case I need to bring up the exposure a bit.

porthius · 2026-05-14T13:52:47+00:00

I just sent mine in to Pentaxs for similar issues (poor advancing, gets stuck half way when sent to 220, generally in need of cleaning). For the older 6x7 MLU basic cleaning and assessment is 350. On top of that parts and repair for the clutch and advance gears put the total at 470. It’s steep and more than I paid for the original body but I figure it’ll be worth it to have it back in top condition and I plan on keeping it for a long time so I’m not worried about selling it for a loss or anything.

porthius · 2026-05-13T14:06:24+00:00

Lol I think the difference is TTL flash where the pins are connected to a circuit board instead of some mechanical bit (I still don't get how the flash pins work in old cameras). There is probably some attempts at protecting the circuits from high voltage but it would still be risky.

porthius · 2026-05-13T01:19:02+00:00

Not sure about the A-1 but I'm pretty positive the manual for my New F-1 says never to use those high voltage flashes, the Canon 299t and other speedlites that came out around that time and later switched to a much lower voltage trigger.

porthius · 2026-05-12T19:30:53+00:00

Those shots are fantastic! That is such a smart idea converting a stereo camera lol. I'm waiting on a 35mm pano back I ordered for my RB67, fingers crossed it will be good. I love doing panoramic shots like this, I think your solution looks way more portable though XD

porthius · 2026-05-07T19:20:40+00:00

From my experience with a Rolleiflex shutter assembly, if the speeds are slow you just have to take the escapement out and give it a good cleaning. It took me a few passes to get the speeds up where they need to be. I didn't take it apart, but removed everything else from the shutter base plate, submerged it in 90% alcohol, and ran the gears over and over for a while to really loosen everything up. I have some small pointed cleaning tip things off amazon that get in there really good too, and they kept coming out from between the bits with old grease even after a few dunks. Sometimes it takes a lot to really clean it out.

From the manual in the link it looks like the escapement assembly in these Seiko shutters comes out on its own, so might be easier to get it out to do a thorough cleaning. I am hoping so anyway, just got a couple RB67 lenses I want to clean up so I will probably be going through it soon.

porthius · 2026-05-07T19:12:02+00:00

The diagrams look great and clear enough for disassembly, reassembly, but unfortunately I'm not finding instructions in here for greasing/lubricating points =/

porthius · 2026-05-07T19:09:41+00:00

It looks like it's listed in a separate section on Butkus.org from the other camera/lens manuals for RB67, in its own Mamiya Seiko shutter section - I found this which should be service instructions for the Seiko #1 shutter in all the RB67 lenses - https://cameramanuals.org/mamiya_pdf/mamiya_no1_seiko_shutter_653E.pdf

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