[BigMackCam]

My A/M-switchable Helios-44M-4 arrived on Friday, and it's perfect... cosmetically near new, optically immaculate, no oil on the blades, A/M switching is crisp, even the focusing is silky smooth - which is kind of surprising, as there's no evidence of prior servicing. The front ring, retaining rings for the elements and rear screws all appear to be untouched.

So, no work required on this one... a welcome change from the norm Original front cap too, though no rear cap. I'll just fit a generic one for now...

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[Marcus Rowland]

Another good car boot day:

Canon Eos 100 with 28-80 lens, lens is in good condition but the camera seems to be stuck on auto.
A couple of hoods and a 58mm polarizer
A boxed Ohnar optical slide duplicator
A set of M42 auto extension tubes
An Olympus OM10 instruction manual (useful since I'll be selling a body next week)
and an Ilford Sprite 35mm body that's not working

all for £27.50

Also a small slide rule, 11 25g packs of beef jerky and 20 individually wrapped 5g portions of 75% cocoa Elizabeth Shaw chocolate for £5.00

Oops, almost forgot the copy of MS Office 2004 for mac for 50p. Useful the next time I sell a G4 processor mac.

[jeallen01]

A "white" aperture block solenoid for the K-30 from a link in the long aperture block failure thread on the forum - to be fitted before the body suffers the failure problem! Not cheap at $53 inc shipping to the UK. It should arrive in about 10 days time, and then I will get it fitted by a local camera repairer.

Also, just "won" an MZ5 and SMC-Pentax M F1.7 from ebay UK for £18 inc. P&P. Again "Not cheap by Marcus' standards", but useful in the context that the body should also have at least 1 white solenoid, and I should be able to re-sell the lens to recover quite a bit of the overall cost (I don't need it as I have a modern auto F-series f1.4 Pentax, which I don't use much anyway) - should arrive around next Thursday.

[Marcus Rowland]

A "white" aperture block solenoid for the K-30 from a link in the long aperture block failure thread on the forum - to be fitted before the body suffers the failure problem! Not cheap at $53 inc shipping to the UK. It should arrive in about 10 days time, and then I will get it fitted by a local camera repairer.

Also, just "won" an MZ5 and SMC-Pentax M F1.7 from ebay UK for £18 inc. P&P. Again "Not cheap by Marcus' standards", but useful in the context that the body should also have at least 1 white solenoid, and I should be able to re-sell the lens to recover quite a bit of the overall cost (I don't need it as I have a modern auto F-series f1.4 Pentax, which I don't use much anyway) - should arrive around next Thursday.

Remember that I get a fair amount of crap as well as the good stuff - and often find that the stuff I thought was good has flaws when I clean it up. Only three of the last five or six F1.7s I've had have been in really good condition, the rest have had flaws ranging from fungus to focusing and aperture faults.

[Liney]

Sorry if I alarmed anyone - As a lab technician I worked with radiation enough to be fairly skeptical of the "All radiation is dangerous" school of thought - there's always some around, and granite emits more than the most radioactive lens I've ever heard of. It's something to think of, and I wouldn't want to cuddle up to a 1940s-vintage luminous watch or some of the more extreme aviation lenses, but the risk really isn't that big with more normal camera lenses. But if you happen to have access to a Geiger counter it might be fun to check.

Sorry to go back a few pages but I thought I should add something here. The luminous dials and figures on old watches were achieved by painting Radium onto the dials. The work was very delicate, and the majority of workers (mostly women) used to use very fine paint brushes which they would lick to get a very fine point. By the end of the 30's so many workers had died this way that new methods were adopted, however Radium was still use until the 50's.

Nowadays Tritium is used which is still radioactive but has a lower background radiation count Gaseous Tritium Light Sources (GTLS) can be bought which fit on your keyring and will give off light for a long time.

As for background radiation from lenses and things, I once visited a nuclear power station. While standing on the floor of the reactor hall (some 13 feet from the core, beneath my feet) I had a wonderful discussion on the levels of radiation you were exposed to without knowing it. The figure that stuck was that I would get a higher background radiation level walking down Union Street in Aberdeen that where I currently was, purely because of the granite buildings.

[DonovanJM]

I picked up a ProMaster xc525 tripod off ebay today. I haven't had a chance to mount my camera yet. It doesn't show up until tomorrow. I hope I like it.

[Arjay Bee]

majority of workers (mostly women) used to use very fine paint brushes which they would lick to get a very fine point.

Just to take us a liitle further into the side bar - there used to be a work related affliction called phossy jaw acquired by the workers, again often women, who worked in the section of the match making factories that put white phosphorus compound on the tips of match sticks. This process was outlawed by international law in 1906.What ties this to the radium discussion is that those afflicted with the condition had jaws which glowed in the dark (prior to the jaw bones becoming completely ruined and rotting out).
Phossy jaw - Wikipedia

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Last edited by Arjay Bee; 03-12-2018 at 12:47 AM.

[Jean Poitiers]

I like the IQ from my 50mm Rikenon, what kind of shape is it in? And why is the aperture strange? Put up a shot of it please.

Hi, you can see it here ... "star-shaped" is not a bad description. Cheers, J

Ricoh Auto Rikenon 35mm f/2.8 (M42) Lens Reviews - Ricoh Lenses - Pentax Lens Review Database

[Jonathan Mac]

My A/M-switchable Helios-44M-4 arrived on Friday, and it's perfect... cosmetically near new, optically immaculate, no oil on the blades, A/M switching is crisp, even the focusing is silky smooth - which is kind of surprising, as there's no evidence of prior servicing. The front ring, retaining rings for the elements and rear screws all appear to be untouched.

So, no work required on this one... a welcome change from the norm Original front cap too, though no rear cap. I'll just fit a generic one for now...

That looks nice, roughly the same condition as mine, except the focus on mine is a little stiff. Interestingly, the A/M switch on yours is different from mine.

I passed up on a number of these lenses until I found one with the A/M switch, in good condition, at a good price.

[BigMackCam]

That looks nice, roughly the same condition as mine, except the focus on mine is a little stiff. Interestingly, the A/M switch on yours is different from mine.

Cleaning and re-lubricating the helicoid on these is very straightforward, as you probably know. An easy job for a wet and windy afternoon when you don't fancy going out!

Could I ask a favour? Would you be able to post a photo of your lens, specifically showing the switch and the rear of the lens (basically per my photos)? I'm always very interested in learning of variations on these and other Soviet lenses.

Thanks in advance

[Marcus Rowland]

The ones I've sold in the past have had a more normal sort of sliding or rotating metal switch mostly concealed by the lens casing - I've never seen one with a side switch like that. I've put a picture of a typical example below.

Incidentally, does anyone know what the slot with moving bar linked to the aperture control is about? I've seen it on some Helios 44-M lenses, not all of them. Is it something that gets used when a different mount is fitted, or is there an M42 variant of some sort that uses this for open aperture metering? The second picture is a 44-M that has the slot, but it's auto only, no manual stopdown.

---------- Post added 03-12-18 at 03:37 AM ----------

Thinking about it, my guess is that the lens BigMackCam posted is a variant designed to be used while wearing gloves. It's obviously intended for the Russian market rather than export, given the Cyrillic labeling (ones sold in Europe generally have Helios in Latin script), gloves would certainly go with that.

[SSGGeezer]

Hi, you can see it here ... "star-shaped" is not a bad description. Cheers, J

Ricoh Auto Rikenon 35mm f/2.8 (M42) Lens Reviews - Ricoh Lenses - Pentax Lens Review Database

I was thinking circular saw rip blade when I saw that image in the review! Interesting though and I would love to see intentional bokeh of recognizable objects to see what the real effect is.

[aslyfox]

Say Hello to My Little Friend Al Pacino - Bing video

well " little " at least in comparison with my old friend that we got rid of today - the 2002 Chevy Suburban 1500 LT which only had 190 K + miles on it, we bought that one new and it had 22 miles on it when we took it off the dealer's lot

( that one " moved on " to the dealership and left for auction already )

___________________________________________________

this one is a 2016 GMC Acadia Denali AWD with 35 K miles

sorry I can't afford enough SMU to show scale

[BigMackCam]

The ones I've sold in the past have had a more normal sort of sliding or rotating metal switch mostly concealed by the lens casing - I've never seen one with a side switch like that. I've put a picture of a typical example below.

Thanks, Marcus. That's the style of A/M switch I'd expect to see on a 44M (I've never seen one on the 44M-x series). A very similar switch can be found on other models like the Zenitar-M 1.7/50, ME1, Mir-24M and others.

Incidentally, does anyone know what the slot with moving bar linked to the aperture control is about? I've seen it on some Helios 44-M lenses, not all of them. Is it something that gets used when a different mount is fitted, or is there an M42 variant of some sort that uses this for open aperture metering?

The "bar" is, as you rightly say, linked to the diaphragm and I believe it forms part of the mechanism for limiting stop down of the diaphragm to the selected aperture - as such, it's part of the internal workings of the lens. Quite why the bar is as long as it is, and exposed at the rear, I honestly don't know. It certainly looks like it might be intended to interface with something in the camera, but I'm not aware of any such feature. I'm as curious to know as you are

Thinking about it, my guess is that the lens BigMackCam posted is a variant designed to be used while wearing gloves. It's obviously intended for the Russian market rather than export, given the Cyrillic labeling (ones sold in Europe generally have Helios in Latin script), gloves would certainly go with that.

You could be right. Every example of this specific A/M switchable model has Cyrillic lettering, and was therefore intended for domestic sale. Interestingly, they all have 82xxxx serial numbers, so it looks like they were only produced in 1982. I also have a theory that this may have been a "cross over" model following the 44M which was also switchable (as your photos above show)...

[BigMackCam]

this one is a 2016 GMC Acadia Denali AWD with 35 K miles

Oooh, very nice, Allen! We don't see many such vehicles over here, due to the fuel prices. That one looks pristine, and at 35k miles it's barely run in, right? Are you planning to take that one up to 190k too?