[Marcus Rowland]

Something for myself - a Kiev 4 Russian rangefinder Contax clone dating from 1978. Meter isn't working, unfortunately, and a couple of the slow shutter speeds don't work, but it's cosmetically good and fine from 1/25th up and the lens ( a Jupiter 50/2) is more or less clean - there's one little bit of fungus on an inner element but it isn't bad enough to cause problems. My main use for it is probably ornamental, and to test occasional Kiev and Contax compatible lenses and accessories - I think Nikon rangefinder too though I've never had anything so far. Cost me £29 plus postage which isn't too bad.

[Lord Lucan]

the first basic check would be what is printed on the adapter, unfortunately it is too much compressed on the picture you share

It says "OUTPUT DC175V 20mA" and is the same one as in your first link. However it came with a Sunpak Auto130 and I want to use it on later units, for example a Sunpak 30DX, and there is nothing in the 30DX handbook that says what voltage it should be supplied with or what current it takes - it simply says to use an AD27 with no mention of an AD27B or AD27E, despite the fact that the 30DX handbook must have been printed after the AD27B (at least) had been in existence.

It doesn't help that the people who wrote the handbooks and designed the labels on these devices did not know what they were talking about. The 30DX handbook describes the external power supply connection on the unit as an "Outlet" when in fact it is a inlet, and says it is for an "AC" supply when it is in fact for a DC supply, the AC from the mains having been converted to DC by the transformer-rectifier that is the AD27.

I have done a few more detailed tests and I measured the output voltage of the AD27B as 215 v with no load, but it drops to 165 volts when supplying 20 mA (its nominal rating). So it has very poor voltage regulation. Interpolating, it would produce its nominal 175 v while supplying 15 mA although I do not have the appropriate value power resistor at home to test that. I would expect the current draw while charging a flash unit to vary widely (I can't measure it without opening things up) so the voltage would vary widely too. The 30DX handbook says you can attach a 510 v external battery (which I don't have) directly to the same input! The units take just as long to charge with the mains adaptor as they do with internal batteries (about 10 seconds) but the handbook says it charges in only 1 second with the 510 v battery, so I don't know what's going on inside.

Anyway, I have now tried running the 30DX using the AD27B mains adaptor; no blue smoke appeared, and it works fine.

Extract from the Sunpak 30DX Handbook :
I do not think the adaptor for the 510 v plug, shown circled in the diagram, contains any electronics.
For some reason, Sunpak hammerhead units used a different shaped plug from their hot-shoe units despite sharing the external battery pack.

[mlag]

It says "[B]

I have done a few more detailed tests and I measured the output voltage of the AD27B as 215 v with no load, but it drops to 165 volts when supplying 20 mA (its nominal rating). So it has very poor voltage regulat

Which probably means it is not so critical on these old school electronics. No sensitive modern electronic chips in it 😉.

[tim60]

In many other products the final letters relate to local variants of international products and so the B D E probably refers to countries where the units were tested and certified to conform to national standards.

[ivanvernon]

I got a used battery powered Rigid brand shop vac. It uses two batteries, and came with the necessary batteries and charger. This thing works great and almost sucks the carpet off the floor when I use it to clean my cars. It did not come with any nozzles, just the round suction hose, and would work better with a narrower tip to allow vacuuming in tighter places not accessible toi the large round hose opening, but that's the way it is when you get cheap deals at garage sales.

[Racer X 69]

I got a used battery powered Rigid brand shop vac. It uses two batteries, and came with the necessary batteries and charger. This thing works great and almost sucks the carpet off the floor when I use it to clean my cars. It did not come with any nozzles, just the round suction hose, and would work better with a narrower tip to allow vacuuming in tighter places not accessible toi the large round hose opening, but that's the way it is when you get cheap deals at garage sales.

You should be able to get the individual hose and end tools at your local HomeDepot/Lowes/Menards Ivan.

[ivanvernon]

You should be able to get the individual hose and end tools at your local HomeDepot/Lowes/Menards Ivan.

Thanks, good idea.

[D1N0]

Three came in yesterday













All looking fine. The Mamiya-Sekors are a bit stiff but not overly so. The 150 Mamiya Sekor has an aperture that won't close down all the way (to about F8'ish I guess and very slight haze). I found out my Super-Tak 150/4 was version one despite being in version two livery so I got a s-m-c to correct that (since v2 is supposed to be a bit better).

[WPRESTO]

HELP!!

I just purchased and started using a very high end laptop to replace both a very basic laptop that is falling apart and a big desktop that is starting to be s--l--o---w. Here is the prior situation and the new problem

1) I have for years kept an RTP (=ready to post) folder on DROPBOX. When I want to post an image, I call up that RTP folder and there are all the images, as thumbnails (or "icons"), in alphabet sequence by name. NOTE BOTH DESKTOP & LAPTOP ARE RUNNING WINDOWS 10.

2) The new computer is running Windows 11. When I follow precisely the same procedure for selecting an image to post, the thumbnails do not show. I get a grid of symbols with a little cloud in the lower left (indicating the image is stored in a cloud), but whatever I try I cannot get the thumbnails to show. There is a pull down menu that offers different views, from list through small, medium and large icons , but no matter what I click, no thumbnails/icons appear. This makes it extremely difficult to select an image for posting.

AND this same problem applies to opening DROPBOX directly on the desktop. Whatever I click upon, no thumbnails/icons. HOWEVER, if I log onto my DROPBOX account, I can get the thumbnails/icons to show THE SAME WAY THEY ALWAYS DID ON THE OLDER COMPUTERS THAT RUN WINDOWS 10.


Any suggestions are welcome.

[R.Miller]

It's been years since I used drop box and use onedrive now, but this may be a similar behavior. In onedrive when I setup a new computer with Win11 it defaults onedrive to only store the files online and not locally. You have to open each file to get it to download the file. There is a checkbox in setup to enable cloud sync to your local machine that should then have the thumbnails and such viewable. If you right click the files that do not have a thumbnail does it show online only or local? If you sync them local does the thumbnail appear?

[WPRESTO]

Extract from the Sunpak 30DX Handbook :
I do not think the adaptor for the 510 v plug, shown circled in the diagram, contains any electronics.
For some reason, Sunpak hammerhead units used a different shaped plug from their hot-shoe units despite sharing the external battery pack.

I had a Sunpak 510V power supply purchased long ago (1980's I think) for a 511 potato-masher strobe. It continued working up to 2020 used on Sunpak 444 and 522 units and then it just would not take a charge. Impossible to get a new 510v battery for it so it went into recycling. More recently I purchased a Sunpak TR300 power pack which has a different female socket on the battery so cables from the 10v pack do not fit, but the strobe-end plug of the cable that came with the TR3000 will fit some Godox strobes I have as well as the manual Cactus unit. The strobe-end plug is a design used by Canon that was adopted by Godox, Cactus and some other aftermarket strobes.

[Gary H Perth]

Recently I have been buying up old Nikkor lenses to use on adapters, for both full-frame and crop sensors.

Here are two most recent acquisitions, Nikkor 20mm and 28mm, and by comparison the two Pentax K equivalents (20s on outside, 28s inside beside the AusMU stack)

[pepperberry farm]

Recently I have been buying up old Nikkor lenses to use on adapters, for both full-frame and crop sensors.

Here are two most recent acquisitions, Nikkor 20mm and 28mm, and by comparison the two Pentax K equivalents (20s on outside, 28s inside beside the AusMU stack)

I haven't bought a lens in a while, but it warms my heart to see the AusMU stack here...


(:

[ivanvernon]

I had a Sunpak 510V power supply purchased long ago (1980's I think) for a 511 potato-masher strobe. It continued working up to 2020 used on Sunpak 444 and 522 units and then it just would not take a charge. Impossible to get a new 510v battery for it so it went into recycling. More recently I purchased a Sunpak TR300 power pack which has a different female socket on the battery so cables from the 10v pack do not fit, but the strobe-end plug of the cable that came with the TR3000 will fit some Godox strobes I have as well as the manual Cactus unit. The strobe-end plug is a design used by Canon that was adopted by Godox, Cactus and some other aftermarket strobes.

I still use a Sun-Pak 522, works like a charm.

[ChrisPlatt]

Way back when I used electronic flash and I always liked the Sunpak line.
They seemed more solid; a bit better quality than Vivitar etc.,
and even some of the camera manufacturers own models.

I just ordered 49mm and 52mm rubber hoods for my daughters Pentax MX outfit.

Chris