Black & White Slides

I finally used the TMAX Direct positive kit to make slides from TMAX 100 film. It worked great! I developed for high contrast, exposing the film at 100 and adding 17g of sodium sulfate.

Another Colorist II

Well, with spring break approaching, I need to pull the motor ut of our '78 VW Bus and overhaul it. I can only really handle one project at a time so I decided to call Jess Powell (well-known stereo camera repair person) and ask him if he had any spare shutter units lying around. He didn't, but he had a Colorist II he had overhauled and fixed the take-up spool on. Well, I couldn't resist so I bought it. In the meantime...

I discovered that the slow speed mechanism on the second Colorist II I purchased was not functioning properly (probably why the guy dumped a bunch of oil in it and mucked up the shutter blades and then sold the camera as fully functional except for the oil on the blades- dishonest) I am in the process of swapping out the slow speed mechanisms and getting one functional shutter unit, but then again, this will be on hold for a while while I work on the bus.

Rangefinder

Last night I adjusted the vertical alignment of the rangefinder. This is rather easy to do. Once you remove the top plate, find the viewfinder. On the top of the viewfinder window there is a pair of screws, one on either side of the viewfinder window. There is a corresponding pair of screws on the front of the viewfinder window, one to the right and one to the left of the window. Loosen the front ones a 1/4 of a turn and loosen/tighten the top ones to raise or the rangefinder. Retighten the front pair of screws to hold the alignment.

Precision Screwdrivers

These are the best precision scewdrivers I know of...

Craig Camera Manual

I purchased a TDC repair manual for the Colorist I,II, Vivid and Projector from Craig Camera. There doesn't appear to be any information on adjusting the rangefinder in it and there is not a schematic of the Colorist II, only the Colorsit I. Other than that, it is a very high quality reprint.

Another Colorist

Well, I lucked out. Someone on Ebay decided to remove the front plate on their Colorist II and lubricate the shutter mechanism. The Velio shutter is designed to run dry. Anyway, they mucked up the shutter blades with oil so I got their camera for $45! Now I have a replacement shutter mechanism for my Colorist, or I might just fix the new one if it looks better.

Rings

The aperture and shutter speed rings on the face plate have been rather stubborn. It took quite a while to get them properly lubricated. I used Sil-glyde, a silicon grease, part part # 765-1351 from NAPA. This grease is unaffected by temperature and will never solidify.