My Adventures with Mamiya Press Super 23 Ordered from Japan

This blog post records how got my Mamiya Press Super 23 from Japan and share my experience, good or bad.  So here goes.  I have always wanted a Mamiya Press Super 23 or Universal.  I want to shoot panoramic with 35mm film and use it like a budget XPan.  It also give me the option of shooting 6x7 or 6x9 images if I want to do that.  I was looking through EBay and started to watch a few cameras and settled on a Super 23 with 100mm F3.5 lens with two film backs.  The film backs are 6x7 and 6x9.  The camera was ordered and I started track it.  The camera was shipped by DHL and I had to pay 20% import tax.  It took 16 days from ordering to receiving the camera.  DHL was the shipper and they are pretty bad.  I am not going to go into too much details but I was the one ended up chasing the package and directing them to me.  I will not be using DHL for my international shipping for sure.

The camera itself was well packed and arrived in good shape. It is in good condition for it's age.  Everything worked as expected.  The lens was clean, all shutter speeds works and aperture blades clean.  The 100mm F3.5 lens is the older type with 40.5mm filter.  I think the later 100mm F3.5 lens have 55mm filter size. Testing both film backs with backing paper show them to be working.  The foam light seals on the film backs seem to be intact and does not need changing at the moment.

The viewfinder was reasonably clear but there were some dirt visible.  I did take the viewfinder/rangefinder assembly apart to clean it.  It came out very well.  I also took the time to adjust the rangefinder.  It was every slightly off.

Cleaning the various lenses and mirrors of the viewfinder/rangefinder

Basically, buying a camera from Japan does mean you will need to do some work on them.  I don't think you will get a 100% camera.  It may be an operational camera, but sending it to a camera technician may be required, unless you can do the work yourself.

The date code on the bottom of the viewfinder assembly

For information, when the rangefinder assembly was removed from the body, there was a date code of 47,11,24.  This mean the camera was made of the 47th year for Showa era, on 24th November.  47th Sowa year is 1972.

My Attempt at Adding a Diode to Nikon Nikomat/Nikkormat FTN

My Nikkormat FTNw as purchased in Japan where they are called Nikomat.  It was in poor shape, but after a clean up of the prism and replaced light seals, the camera is now working well.  This camera is very easy to work on.  Removing the prism was very easy.  Even the meter is working.  Of cause the 1.5V battery is not correct for this camera.  Then I saw a video on youtube on fitting a diode to correct the voltage.  Since I have done this before with my Fujica ST701, I have a few IN4007 diodes left over.  Removing the top cover is quite easy and only took me about 5 minutes.

This was what I found under the cover

I did not have any ECG109 diode but just used IN4007 diode left over from my modification of Fujica ST701.  This is after I soldered the diode in place.

Diode in place

I refitted the top cover and tried the camera.  However, the meter did not work as expected.  I don't think the IN4007 diode is suited to this camera.  The exposure dial never move into the over exposed section.  Maybe the voltage drop was too high?  In the end I had to remove the diode and revert back to original.  I will get some ECG109 and try again.  This has not been a success but I have ordered some ECG109 diodes.  I will update this post in the future.

Update: I ordered ECG109 diodes and fitted to my Nikomat.  I can say it is working as it should.  It is now working the same as my Nikon F2.  However, it does not mean it is correct.  I will report how the photos comes out in future.

ECG109 diode fitted to the camera

Removing a Stuck Lens Retaining Ring from Bronica Zenzanon 150mm F3.5 Lens

The lens is not the important in this blog post, it can apply to many lens with stuck retainer ring.  I bought this lens for my ETRS quite cheap from eBay because it had very bad fungus behind the front element.  I thought this should be a simple clean up.  However, when I received the lens and unscrewed the name plate, I found someone had tried to remove the front element and made a mess of the retaining ring.  When I tried to unscrew the ring, it was tight and could not unscrew the ring.  I can understand why it is like that.  In the end it did come off!  Here are the steps I took to remove the ring.  

The Bronica150mm

This is what I found after removing the name plate

1. The first step is to unscrew the whole front assembly from the lens. It makes it a lot easier to work on the lens.
2. Soak with lighter fluid overnight, no good.
3. Soak with WD40 overnight, no good.
4. Soak with WD40 and then heat the outside of the lens assembly with hair drier. When I was heating I can see the WD40 boiling in the thread. I was able to unscrew the retainer ring. It was still tight though.

In the end, the fungus was quite easy to remove.  I cleaned with soupy water and all the fungus came away.  There was no damage to the front element.  When I reassembled the lens, I added a small amount of lithium grease on all the thread.  Hopefully, in future it will not be stuck.

Kowa Super 66 Vs Kowa Six II

I came across this Kowa Six II (the original Six did not have interchangeable film back) while I was traveling in Japan.  It was in a used camera store at a very good price and I could not resist.  Even though I heard a lot of stories of reliability issues with this camera, I went ahead and bought it.  We are now shooting these cameras only occasionally and not shooting hundred of rolls of films  a week like the pros were doing in the past.  In the store I was able to run through a test roll of 120 film through the camera.  The lens was clean, all shutter speeds fired and seem to be correct.  It came with one film back.  I wish there is another as they are hard to come by and defeat the object of having a camera with interchangeable film back.

Kowa Six II

Note MLU, safety latch for film back and film door

Double exposure switch & film back latch

Film back removed from camera body

Once back home I gave it a clean up and went online to learn more about this camera.  I then replaced the mirror foam, took the panel off the mirror mechanism side.  There are a lot of foam the had disintegrated.  Replacing them was not difficult, but messy.  While the panel was off, I also lubricated all moving parts with a very small amount of oil.

winding side panel removed showing the
disintegrated foam light seals

I then went out to London and shot some street portraits.  The photos came out fine and I can confirm the camera worked as intended and film spacing was good.  Here are a few images all shot with the 85mm F2.8 lens.

That is not the end of the story.  A few months after, I saw a Facebook market place posting for a Kowa Super 66 with two film backs, 85mm F2.8, 55mm F3.5 and 90° prism finder and side grip.  The asking price was too high, but over time, the cost was reduced and eventually it was worth me buying it.  I went to test the camera and it all was working so I bought the complete outfit.

Kowa Super 66

No MLU, no safety latch for film back or film door

Double exposure switch, but not film back latch

These are the main differences I can see.  Anything not mentions means they are the same.

Six II body have a safety latch to prevent accidental release of film back.

The Six II film back have a safety lock to prevent the film door opening.

The Six II body have mirror lock up, Supper 66 does not.

The Six II body has an additional shutter release cable attachment point below the shutter button.  It allows a shutter release cable to screw in from under the camera.

Anyway, I cleaned up the Super 66 and went out to Greenwich in London on a sunny day and shot a roll of expired Konica Centuria Color 100 film.  Here are a few photos.  The first three photos were shot with 55mm lens, while the last photo was shot with 85mm lens.  I like the photos.  I will need to replace the mirror foams and light seals in the near future.  I didn't want to spend time doing all this without confirming the camera is working.

In the end, these two cameras are very similar.  In term of features, the Kowa Six II have MLU and safety latch for the film back release and film door.  It is very easy to open the film door by accident with the Super 66.  Personally, I would prefer to have an original Kowa Six.  They are cheaper, smaller and lighter. Lack of double exposure and mirror lock up not going bother me.  I have many cameras that have both features, and have never used them.

A final comment I want to make is people keep saying it is unreliable.  These cameras are fully mechanical and are over 50 year old.  They will need some some work on them.  To expect a 50 year old camera to work without any work is expecting too much.  If you buy one of these camera, I would at least recommend all the light seals be replaced.  Check the shutter is working at all speeds.  If you can, take the sides off and lubricate all the moving parts with small amount of oil.