[45 Mike]

Staff note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means Pentax Forums may earn a small commission if a visitor clicks through and makes a purchase. If you would like to support the forum directly, you may also make a donation here.

---

Congrats, good job there! This particular era of cameras is especially wondeful to me. Use a bit of electrical tape over the ruby window, bend over the end so you have a grip to pull it back when advancing the film. Not too sticky, and works great.

Hmm, it has a metal cover that slides over after advance. I am looking at the roll back and I am about to conclude that the red window is not the culprit at all.

I am about to buy a graflex 6x9 roll back. It has a 4x5 back plate. I am thinking of cutting off the rivets, and making a plate from an old film pack adapter. I hate to spend $75 on something just to play with it!
Sigh.
Maybe I can do something to put this Rollex back in useable condition.

[arnold]

Indeed, i have some info on the lens from an old kodak manual. I have the first Medalist, quite a wonderful camera though I don't use it as often as I'd like due to laziness with the 620 respooling

Thanks for the interesting information. I wonder how this Ektar lens compares with a Pentax 645 with its big format?

[utak]

Here are my Takumar 55/1.8 lenses photographed together for the first time - I recently got the Super-Takumar 55/1.8. (Shot by a Helios 44-2)

This covers the 1958 zebra to the 1972 SMC. Also the Auto-Takumar 55/2 and 55/2.2, and of course the Pentax K. I love them all and I don't even need to think about or covet the 58mm's

[Nesster]

Thanks for the interesting information. I wonder how this Ektar lens compares with a Pentax 645 with its big format?

I don't have a direct comparison, but having shot both in similar situations, I'd say the Ektar is sharper than the Pentax 75mm... well, not sharper, but it has a small-detail rendering where the Pentax ... eh, just show a comparison, ya!










(M,P,P,M,M,P,P,M)

---------- Post added 05-15-2014 at 07:58 AM ----------

Here are my Takumar 55/1.8 lenses photographed together for the first time - I recently got the Super-Takumar 55/1.8. (Shot by a Helios 44-2)

This covers the 1958 zebra to the 1972 SMC. Also the Auto-Takumar 55/2 and 55/2.2, and of course the Pentax K. I love them all and I don't even need to think about or covet the 58mm's

Superb collection, well presented. I'm jealous

---------- Post added 05-15-2014 at 08:00 AM ----------

Hmm, it has a metal cover that slides over after advance. I am looking at the roll back and I am about to conclude that the red window is not the culprit at all.

I am about to buy a graflex 6x9 roll back. It has a 4x5 back plate. I am thinking of cutting off the rivets, and making a plate from an old film pack adapter. I hate to spend $75 on something just to play with it!
Sigh.
Maybe I can do something to put this Rollex back in useable condition.

The rollex isn't too bad... the leak may be around the rails on the camera itself, tape over that should fix things. Actually now that I look closer at your sample, I think it may be a leak in the bellows - the shadow is a tell tale. Before messing with more backs, take the camera into a dark place and use a small bright flashlight on the inside to see where the leak is. Black goo sold for various purposes (electrical, automotive, fabric...) will fix the thing, or you can get some specific stuff from Equinox http://www.equinoxphotographic.com/bellows.htm

---

Last edited by Nesster; 05-15-2014 at 05:06 AM.

[unixrevolution]

Yes, I think it's one of the coolest cameras ever made.


Probably one of the best American Kodak made cameras, and possibly the best American made cameras. The Kardon and the Kodak Ektra are definitely more valuable though.
The Medalist is an odd design, but is superbly built. It is a 620 camera, which a con, but it also means it's affordable. I imagine that if it were 120, it would be 5-10 times more valuable.
Blue Moon Camera in Portland sells modified 120 film for under $10 a roll, so as long as I have a 620 take-up spool, I can shoot this thing.

Well that is fortunate having access to film like that. How is the lens, compared to say the medium format folders of the era, many which were Tessar design or triplets?

You can actually shoot respooled 120 for much cheaper, no expensove modded film necessary. I respool my 120 in changing bags onto 620 spools. It means I soend a lit more prep time than with other cameras, but the Medalist makes it worth it. In my experience theEktar lens is absolutely superb. Huge sharpness and resolution!

[45 Mike]

The rollex isn't too bad... the leak may be around the rails on the camera itself, tape over that should fix things. Actually now that I look closer at your sample, I think it may be a leak in the bellows - the shadow is a tell tale. Before messing with more backs, take the camera into a dark place and use a small bright flashlight on the inside to see where the leak is. Black goo sold for various purposes (electrical, automotive, fabric...) will fix the thing, or you can get some specific stuff from Equinox Equinox Home Page

I was looking at the photo again, and I agree, last night I did just what you suggest, and found 3 bellows leaks.
I am going to get some goop today and fix them and after a cure, I will run another roll through. I may have maligned a perfectly good roll back! :-)

[samtr87]

Most recent acquisition

[Jonathan Mac]

I just looked into re-spooling 120 to 620, I hadn't realised how easy it is. The difficulty seems to be in getting hold of 620 spools. Is it possible to modify 120 ones?

I recently passed up a 620 camera simply because of the unavailability of film.

---------- Post added 05-15-14 at 11:26 PM ----------

Most recent acquisition

That's a very pretty little camera.

[Nesster]

I just looked into re-spooling 120 to 620, I hadn't realised how easy it is. The difficulty seems to be in getting hold of 620 spools. Is it possible to modify 120 ones?

I recently passed up a 620 camera simply because of the unavailability of film.

---------- Post added 05-15-14 at 11:26 PM ----------



That's a very pretty little camera.

+1 on the pretty little camera!

620 spools - used to be, buy $1 or $5 cameras for their spools, though these days people are smart to that -- junk shops, yard sales etc may be your best bet there. You can modify the 120 spool by shaving off the spindle ends.... google for it... usually this is described with film in the spool, but now that I think of it perhaps modifying an empty spool would work better... then again, you'd have to re spool.

Some cameras have more room for a modified spool; others are tight. My one experience was with a Kodak Duaflex, the film transport was so tight I had to use pliers.

[Jean Poitiers]

Wow ... already at £1,750.00 ... British Heart Foundation got one heck of a donation ... 4 days still left ... J

Taylor Hobson Cooke Telepanchro 152mm F 2 8 T 3 2 BNCR Mount Lens LI Y06 | eBay

[Jonathan Mac]

Wow ... already at £1,750.00 ... British Heart Foundation got one heck of a donation ... 4 days still left ... J

Taylor Hobson Cooke Telepanchro 152mm F 2 8 T 3 2 BNCR Mount Lens LI Y06 | eBay

That's a lot of money for what looks like a wrecked lens.

[stevebrot]

Thanks for the interesting information. I wonder how this Ektar lens compares with a Pentax 645 with its big format?

The more apt comparison would be with a Pentax 6x7 or the Fuji that Jussi posed it with. All three share close to the same negative size with the Medalist being the larger.

In regards to photo quality, here is a link to Jussi's Medalist-associated photos:

https://www.flickr.com/search/?w=80682954@N00&q=medalist


Steve

[Jonathan Mac]

Here's my K2 with it's pants off. I was trying to fix it, jammed it completely. Later on I managed to get it back to it's original broken state and it's now awaiting my next trip to Edinburgh so I can send it off for a very expensive repair. I could get another one cheaper (if I could find one) but that might have the same problem, and from dry-firing and handling the camera I have the feeling that it could be my dream 35mm SLR.

These were taken with my KX, on Fomapan 100 and are some of the first photos to be "scanned" with my K200D, a process I get the impression will finally allow me to get good, sharp images from small format film.


IMGP1393 -1a by Jonathan_in_Madrid, on Flickr


IMGP1399 -1a by Jonathan_in_Madrid, on Flickr


IMGP1395 -1a by Jonathan_in_Madrid, on Flickr

[Nesster]

My haul from Sunday's camera show. I'm sort of kicking myself because instead of the Komura Telemore coupled RF 2x extender I could have had one of those Fuji 645 folding cameras. But I just thought it was cool to have RF coupling... The other bits are a couple of filters in 43mm for the range finder lenses, a 6x9 back for Graflex, and a 135mm Fujinon that mounts into my Speed Graphic.

[Jean Poitiers]

Latest "Franken-lens" experiment ... I found Werra mount Jena Cardinar 100/4 in the junk bin of my thrift store (only 2€ ) ... tubed it with about 22mm of Chinese K-mount extension tubes and held in by hard felt, for the moment ... still trying to figure out an Ap ring; maybe a dead Werra body, if I can find one ... looks like this; test shoots like this near wide open (second one with about 10mm plus of tube) ... (x-post)