Verticals

I took a cool early morning stroll through Albuquerque's Old Town with my restored Rokkor-QD 3.5/135mm lens mounted on a Minolta XG-1.  The perspective provided by the long lens forced most of my compositions into a vertical mode.  I was happy with the performance of the lens; less so with the camera.

I bought two Minolta XG-1 cameras with no intention of using either one.  The first donated its prism to the restoration of my Retina Reflex, and I just hacked the prism out of the camera with no regard for what was left behind.  The second XG-1 came along with the Rokkor-QD telephoto for a total price of twelve bucks.  That one worked ok, but the plastic top deck had a number of cracks.  I replaced the top with the one from the first XG-1 to see how the camera would perform.
    The electronic shutter has some issues.  I like the small size and light weight of the XG-1, but I likely won't devote more time to its restoration as my garage-sale Minolta X-700 seems to be in good working order and it is a fundamentally superior camera to the XG-1.  I have ordered a Celtic 2.8/28mm lens for the X-700 to accompany the normal lens and the telephoto, and I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with the kit.

It ain't pretty, but it works

I was thinking it would be nice to find a telephoto lens for my yard-sale Minolta X-700 when I came across an about-to-expire listing on eBay for an XG 1 and a 135 Rokkor for $12.  The "as is" labeling did not inspire great confidence as evidenced by the lack of bids, but it seemed worth a gamble at that price.

The camera turned out to be in pretty good shape.  A couple hearing aid batteries and a few drops of Ronsonal in the motor wind port got everything working properly, including the aperture-priority auto-exposure.  The lens is an MC Tele Rokkor-QD f:3.5/135.  Turning the focus or aperture rings produced no adjustment of those functions.

It seemed there was little to lose by opening up the lens to see what might be fixed.  However, I was brought up short when applying my lens spanner to the faceplate ring as the forward tube had a dent in it.  The thing just wouldn't budge.  Given that, I decided to fall back on the Red Green protocol:  Get a Bigger Hammer.  I got out my electric Skil drill and a small bit and bored a couple holes in the stuck ring.  I then applied a heavy steel pair of dividers and a vice-grip plier to the task.  With considerable grunting and straining and not a few scratches to the ring, I finally got it screwed out.

Yes, yes;  I am aware of the grimaces and eye rolling going on there in the back rows.

Any way, there is a pretty good YouTube video on the disassembly of the lens.  It is fast-paced and I needed to replay parts of it several times in the process to get the lens fully disassembled and then put back together.  I did get the focus ring turning, and the aperture settings and dof preview button work as they should.  Unfortunately, the video left out the details of how to properly set infinity focus and I haven't yet figured that out for myself, so the distance and dof scales on the lens do not match up with the actual focus.  On a rangefinder system that would be a fatal flaw, but with an slr you see what is registered at the focal plane regardless of what the focal index indicates.  So, I decided to take the lens and the camera for a test drive, sans faceplate ring.

I'll likely take the lens apart again and see if I can sort out the focus adjustment, in which case I would also jam the filter ring back in place.  Without the ring installed the camera under-exposes a couple stops.  I'm not sure then how much I would use the lens, but I am impressed by its performance so far.  The lens is very compact compared to more modern telephotos and nicely fits the light-weight XG 1 and the X-700 as well.  I'll keep a lookout for one with a slightly bigger aperture which would improve viewfinder visibilty.  Meanwhile, I think I've gotten my twelve bucks worth.

Brightening the View

I pulled the prism out of a junker Minolta XG 1 and installed it in my Retina Reflex.  Chris Sherlock's web site and his YouTube videos on servicing the Retina Reflex cameras are good guides.  It looks like he can get the top off and install the prism in under twenty minutes.  It took me longer trying to figure out the proper positioning of the shutter release components, and I also spent quite a while crawling around on the floor looking for a little coil spring. Everything did fit back together eventually, and the result is a much more usable camera.  The view is not quite as bright as some of my other slr cameras, but it is a big improvement over the cloudy image through the old desilvered prism.

I loaded some Kentmere 100 into the camera and took it down to the river to test the results of my efforts.

The Retina Reflex, Type 025 was the first slr produced by Kodak in 1957.  The design is very similar to that of the IIIc rangefinder with which it has many parts in common, including the bayonet mount for the front lens group.  I probably won't bother to get the accessory wide-angle and telephoto lenses, but I do have a Series VI adapter and a 2X close-up lens (which I used to shoot the gutted X-1).