Need New Camera!

Re: Need New Camera!

John K Jordan

Oh my, hearts collectively sigh for you. I once had my camera backpack case with several cameras and lenses fall out of the back of a car (don't ask how) and when I discovered what happened I was in shock. Miracle on miracle, I got it back and nothing was damaged. (A guy came driving up with "Is this yours?")

You are so right about the amazing engineering in things we use every day. I once repaired a pre-electronic Olympus film camera the guy dropped into a creek from a bridge in the Smoky Mountains. The mechanical and electrical insides were incredibly compactly packed. (The problem with this camera turned out to be a leaf shutter "glued" together from the moisture.)

I recently took apart a smart phone and was also impressed by the components and construction - tiny sensors and cameras, the smallest motor I've ever seen (unbalanced to make a vibrator) and components so small I used a microscope to get a good look. Even the color touchscreen was amazing, a sandwich of so many layers that I had no idea what layer did what.

Hey, if you need any more teaching aids I have a box full of salvaged lens components and I think I still have some old video cameras and lenses around I could take apart and send in pieces - one camera is a full-sized VHS camcorder that is old and high-end enough to likely have a large CCD chip. Might even be 3-chip. The hard case is worth way more than the camera...

Also, I have a high quality lens and leaf shutter from a view camera for which I would like to find a home - it would be great for someone who actually wants to make a view camera. I also have an old Crown Graphic 4x5 that was fun whan I had a darkroom. I'll bet an antique camera buff would be interested if I could find one. I have way too much stuff for my age...

JKJ

Re: Need New Camera!

Gary clarke

I am sorry to hear about your camera. I might add that I enjoyed your tree video. Hope your back in production soon.

You certainly have my sympathy Brad, as .....

JamieDonaldson

...during my camera repair business days I would occasionally have a camera in a bag of parts brought in for repair or reassembly. If the owner had disassembled I would usually charge double for reassembly, meaning it would be close to a new camera price! With current digital cameras repairs are hardly possible, better to buy a new unit because if the old one is more than 2 yrs. old it is already an antique! You will have a grand time trying to select a replacement!

What did your insurance agent say?

Dick Coers

No idea of the value, but is it worth making a claim?

Re: What did your insurance agent say?

Guy Bratt

Box it up and offer it on Ebay as a camera puzzle

Re: What did your insurance agent say?

john lucas

now there's a good idea. People on EBAY will buy anything. Or you could just make a big puddle out of clear epoxy and place the parts i that and call it a Photo sculpture.

Re: Need New Camera!

Brad Vietje

Thanks for your sympathy and your kind offer, John. I can use lens assemblies more than individual elements. I have a box of random lenses for students to play with and characterize (+/- focal length, etc...), but lens assemblies like film or filmstrip projection lenses can make pretty good eyepieces when matched up with a larger compound lens (200-500mm) from a large format photocopier, or an old telephoto lens. Kids really light up when they discover how easy it is to create a working telescope, and some of these are even good enough to see the moons of Jupiter or rings of Saturn, and many have a pretty good field of view, too.

The view camera lens may have a renewed value. A friend of mine is a professional art photographer, and there is a resurgent interest in film, manual tray printing and all that wet lab work for fine art prints. She was able to save a darkroom at a local state college where she now teaches, and she now uses it in her teaching. They also experiment with making their own emulsions on different substrates. I'll bet you could sell that lens and 4x5 darkroom equipment at a reasonable price once again, though there's a lot of extinct/surplus stuff out there like yours.

Safe spinning,

Brad Vietje

Newbury, VT

Re: What did your insurance agent say?

Brad Vietje

Great idea, Dick -- I hadn't even thought of that. I'll have to ask.

Safe spinning,

Brad Vietje

Newbury, VT

Re: What did your insurance agent say?

Guy Bratt

I blew up a bowl last year. I gathered the parts together in a box. I labeled it Bowl Puzzle #274090 and sealed it as a gag gift for the wood/tool raffle for next club meeting.

The epoxy idea might really make some money.

orphan cameras and stuff

John K Jordan

Brad,

This is in my junk pile. 8mm. It was actually a pretty high end camcorder in it's day with excellent controls and may still be good for getting a video feed to something else, or actually turning a student loose with some 8mm tapes. Have the manual. (Prob have some tapes around here somewhere.) It's yours if you want it, but I want the case!

I might be talked out of this one. Another 8mm. The only reason I hesitate is I have a professional $2500 underwater housing custom designed to fit this one. I shot a lot of underwater video with this combo, manatees, etc. Maybe it should be on display somwhere - the housing looks so cool! It has a special parispheric lens that corrects for the dome port lens on the housing for a beautifully undistorted frame underwater.

I also have an old slide projector that might have a good lens, a lens from an opaque projector, and a box with some interchangeable video lenses somewhere that might be useful for educational purposes if you are interested (and if I can find them!) Hey, how about a long add-on telephoto that fastens to the lens of an obsolete Olympus DSLR? - that might be good for something. I have a compact Hi-8 camcorder somewhere too that would love a good home. Too much stuff. That doesn't count the Nikon film SLRs, the old DSLRs, the underwater Nikonos, the Nikon slide scanner, the racks of video decks and monitors, audio mixers, racks of synthesizers and keyboards, digital recorders, and who can remember what else that I plan to never use again. (I used to do a lot of photography and videography/editing, home studio editing suite. I don't even want to think about how much I've spent on "stuff"!)

As I said, I have WAY too much of this stuff and I'd rather feed the llamas, ride horses, turn wood, and play the piano.

Maybe send an email if you are interested in some of this for your teaching.

PS, just for fun, this was my basement "office" before we moved to the farm. My commute was about 15 seconds.



JKJ

Photo, there then, gone now

John K Jordan

Hmm, picture doesn't show on the second camcorder. I checked it after posting so it must have evaporated later.