Minolta Hi-Matic 7s II repair

Minolta Hi-Matic. I bought this camera without knowing much, a film was still inside (but did notice too lately, so no found film images) and looked externally in good working order.

 The camera suffered from acid leakage from the battery compartment, the range finder was completely blocked and also opaque, the aperture blades always closed.

First I removed the top cover of the camera and then the whole range finder assembly (it comes easily of as a whole). The RF has a top cover which is glued on, I removed it. I cleaned it with avgas and then alcohol. I did not remove the mirrors, but cleaned from above, so it is not perfect: however it is acceptable and the mechanism is free again.

Much harder was trying to revitalize the Light Meter and the Aperture.

At the bottom, the acid leaked and completely ruined the wires, I removed everything and with great pain reconstructed the battery holder.

I had to tackle the lens.  I removed the front cover. It contains the cell, but also a mechanism with a ring that rotating regulates the light on the sensor coupled with the shutter speed.

The Sensor element (sealed CdS) has a small PCB and the wires were completely oxydated and corroded. I cannot tell if this is age damage or caused by vapours of the battery going through the lens.

Harder was to get the Aperture. The front part of the lens can be unscrewed, it was very tight and had to use Pliers! I guess the metal stuck a little. Then I could not see how to proceed further and wished not to tackle the lens from the back. No oil was to be seen, but I cleaned and cleaned again with avgas and by miracle this started to move reliable. Fine!

Quite hard was to reconstruct the traces on the PCB. I used a copious amount of solder paste to remove oxydation and slowly proceeded with solder tin and fixed it.

And, then everything reassembled, the compact camera with a very nice 40mm 1.7 lens is ready to go again.

Fomapan 100 in SuperGrain: a film for everything?

Fomapan 100 in SuperGrain 1+12 for 6'30"
Minolta SRT 303 with Rokkor Glass.

Balanced output with exceptional highlight details and shadow detail.

Very good highlight rendition and overall tonal range in this image of rocks and ice:

But then I did even some aerial shooting from a Plane, with good light but standard haze, views of Padova are still amazing.

Ilford Pan-F Rodinal - Ponte San Pietro - Gandino - Giornate FAI Primavera 2019

This time again a classic, Ilford Pan-F 50/18° developmed in Rodinal 1+50 for 13' Agitation every 2' (at 22 °C) which yielded strong negatives, quite pleasing. Almost a little dense.

Some examples, shot with a Minolta 9000 - Rokkor AF 28-8.
Giornate FAI Primavera 2019.

Interiors with strong light result very controlled, with high dynamic range and beautiful rendition:

Inside of Ponte San Pietro new Parish Church

Jacqard loom punched cards - 24mm

An outside view offers a classic film look.

Sisters doing laundry - Gandino - 28-85

Minolta 50/1.7 AF Repair (updated)

Another post on a very common issue: sticky diaphgram blades.
From old Exakta lenses to Nikkor AF Zooms, apparently anyone gets there.

This time, the classic Minolta 50/1.7 has the issue, although in its AF version.

Dismounting AF lenses can be tricky, but in here everything seems fine, except the Iris. I want to avoid regreasing the helicoids because I haven't yet found a satisfactory Grease, even if I tried several! I will try unmounting as little as possible from the lens as possible to get to the Diaphgram Iris assembly.

We can work from the front, by unscrewing in sequence the cone with the name plate first, then removing 3 screws to remove the the front part with the retractable sun shade. Without these parts, the lens is still fully functional.

From the rear, we can remove the lens bayonet and put it aside and we see the picture like this:

AF Rokkor 50/1.7 from the back, mount removed (left)

The optical assembly is in the middle and has two guides, clearly seen top and bottom in this picture. Mark the helicoid for convenience and unscrew them
Now it is possible to unscrew the optical kernel to the back of the lens.
Getting it back will be a little tricky, since the infinite setting needs to remain. Even if I marked the helicoid, I needed a couple of attempts.

The hard part is done! The 50mm is a double-gauss type and it is easy to take it apart. Removing three screws enables to remove the front part and the same is for the back.

What remains is just the Aluminum barrel with the Iris mechanism inside. Now you can clean it by flushing or by opening it.

My first attempt of repair was done with a flush-clean: often this is enough if just a little oil is astray. However it worked for a couple of months, but then the blades stuck again. This means there was a lot of oil in the non-accessible mechanism (the ring that acts as governor for every pin), so a more drastic solution was needed: remove the blades with their governor ring.

The open diaphgram blades, the governor on top

Mounting everything back is relatively easily, except for getting the right screw thread and not damaging the delicate Aluminum thread when screwing it in.

Check the infinity focus.. and that the diaphgram is snappy again!

HP5 SuperGrain - Industrial heritage

Industrial Photography - inside Serimide Impianto Idroforo

Film: Ilford HP5+
Development: SuperGrain 1+15  7'

Camera: Minolta SRT303

Slightly thin at visual inspection, high range negatives.

Here some direct negative scans. Even in difficult indoor lightning situations, the tonal range is impressive.

Pump room - Minolta SRT303 - Rokkor 28/3.5

Here an image with just indirect window light, metal and bricks.
Not only the light Rokkor 28/3.5 defends itself quite well at full aperture, but this film and developer combination extacts good detail and contrast.

Boiler front - Minolta SRT303 - Rokkor 28/3.5

As a proof, here an extreme detail of the boiler plate. You can clearly read "Associazione Utenti di Caldaie a Vapore" ! Not bad for HP5+.

If you like it, the image is on sale, in different prints and on some objects.