Hi Folks,
I thought I had joined this group long ago, but if I did I couldn't find my sign up/login info, so I'll appear as a new member. Lots of you may know me as the light seal guy and before I go a step further, I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported the project and all those folks who contact me. A week or more ago I received an email message which made me think I needed to show up and say something. A couple of things, actually. 1...I did retire, but that was about 7 years ago. Retirement only means I no longer take in camera repair work and I spend my days working on many other more mundane things now. 2...the "Light Seal Project" is still alive. 3...I'm still happy to try to help with any light seal question or problem.
The message I received seemed to imply the sender thought I might be dead or something. Ha, ha. Well, no. I'm still alive and hope to be for many more years. You know, some scientists believe the first person to live for 200 years has already been born. I don't think it will be me, however. Even at this point, I consider it an accomplishment if I can put my blue jeans on without snagging a foot, falling over and knocking myself unconscious.
After the tsunami wrecked some of the custom foam factories in Japan, it took a couple of years of work and negotiations to have all foam, velvet, etc made for me here in the USA. It is better quality than you'll find anywhere, is guaranteed to last longer and made to my specifications. I will tell you it is more expensive but you truly do get what you pay for. The seal kits are all "pre-cut" now (meaning one kit re-seals one specific camera make and model) and I should mention some have been discontinued. Those discontinued kits are for cameras which enjoy only a tiny bit of consumer interest. Partial list: all Bronica cameras, Fujica, Chinon, Ricoh (aside from the 500g), many Yashicas, Autocord, all of the plastic fantastic auto everything models (including SLRs). Not to say these are bad cameras, but the buying public seems to have become much more discriminating today.
What is new with the project? Improvements of several types. For example, the kit for the Pentax MX contains 5 mirror damper pads which by definition are fiddly. I'm experimenting with new ways of cutting these tiny pads which will hopefully make them more easy to remove from the backing paper for the user and more easy to use. And release tabs are on most other foam pieces and have been for a while now. I'll include an image of the MX mirror damper pads so you can see.
The "tri-dot" battery converter (which turns a #675 hearing aid battery into a clone of the old PX-13 type mercury cell) is still being made although as demand for this type of battery plummets, it is becoming hard to find expired batteries to recycle. They're all made in China and the Chinese have finally realized they were making too many. I expect to see this shape/size of battery to disappear soon.
So again a big thanks for everyone who's been supporting the project. Please tell me if you have any questions, concerns or if you just want to talk bad about the many parasites who continue to copy my kits and plagiarize my instructions.
Best regards,
Jon
Last edited by Adam; 06-24-2019 at 11:06 AM.
Reason: PII