class April 10 is graduated

Half of them are way to Europe, half to USA, first thing next week...

Dragged by finger wounded, by this batch brings me a lot of inspirations.

Quality is the most important thing...

I like to do things in quality.
There always people writes me about the conversion cost, that brings me an idea, why not I sell DIY kit to buyers, and then let them do all the conversion, saves my time, and their money!

But recently when I did my conversion batch, the idea vanished.
The reason, conversion steps need experiences, and skills accumulated by try and errors.
If DIY kit did not provide enough parts for new hands to do things right, what then? buy another spare parts? bear the not-so-good quality for the rest of camera life?
For example, paste the velvet on the back.

You can see that there are total 12 screw holes around frame opening, that is for fixing the bellows, we will paste three stripe of velvet, to cover the holes, and to as light trap. (fixing the bellows needs another skill)

As you can see that two of them have been pasted, the last one is going to paste on.

Finished.
But I say it is unqualified on Byron.
I will re-paste the middle velvet, as you can see there is one tiny gap at under side. To a new hand, pasting velvet is not easy at all. I reckon myself a handy man, but I practice this paste step for about 40 times, then I eventually know how to do it right, so how many should I prepare in DIY kit?
Or will you tolerate imperfection, try to ignore it every time you load/unload the film holder, since it did not affect the operation?
But what if some parts do affect the quality of operation, and you got only one chance to make it right? what about bellows?

What about the RF housing? It took me about 13 main steps to modify.

Such as shown here, from left to right are housing for 110A, 110B, and modified 110B for Byron, I added a eyecap attachment at the eye window,

And at the right lower part of housing, some putty is needed to fill, an opening left for clamps..., a lot of sanding and then putting again.....

Then at the end of housing, a dented corner, for accommodating PA-45 holder, then thanks to Walter, I add a bubble level hole.
All these finished, two to three layers of spray paint is needed, before that, maybe a base paint is needed, and even finer sanding......
Do these job suitable for DIY? maybe yes for skillful hand, but for new hands....
I am afraid that the quality of Byron is no way to maintain if DIY kit released......
And, to all my dearest clients, if you are waiting for your lovely Byron home, please forgive me if there is a little schedule behind, that always be some steps I feel not good enough, and take days re-made or re-adjust, I can't let them out in such an unqualified condition, maybe you are not aware, but I am.

Some useful information for camera DIY

DIY Custom Camera Bellows Kit
This is cool!
Though not my way of bellows making, but it is good for starter.

Camera Bellows Outer Cover Fabric
It is too thick to me, but should be very good material for size larger than 4x5.....
(11/04 add) there is going to provide a much thinner material, when Sorin solved the lightproof problem and cost problem. In my opinion, as long as you let buyers aware that 3 layers of bellows construction is 100% lightproof is enough, no need for additional treatments, that will increase thickness.

Fine Grain DIY Ground Glass Kit
and this one shows you how to grind your own ground glass, amazing!

Shit day!

I just been cut by a mini motor grinder, on my left hand index finger, really shit day!
now it hurts very much, but at least my finger did not leave me....

(28/03 add)

I did not mentioned that after my left hand been cut, the next day my right hand finger being cut by the same tool! how stupid I am! this time my wife did not comfort me, rather she shout at me, something like axxhole or things like that.
We Chinese had a saying :" bad luck never come alone", well, I do agree with that.
During these days all I can do is sitting before notebook, typing with two un-wounded fingers and grabing the mouse to hang around, waiting for wound be better.

That makes things worse, you know, sometimes when you are boring, you just can not stop wanting to buy something, to comforting yourself. I bought a Panasonic G1 camera body and a leica M to M43 adapter, now I got a full manual digital camera system! G1 body price drop so quick, it cost merely about the price of an adapter---US$220!

I always think that investing on digital camera is a totally money lose, since it becomes a trash within one or two years, and no one will take it even you give it away for free! So I do my best avoiding invest on digital things, best someone throw me an ex-expensive toy to me, treat me as a digital trash processor....

But I am happy with this body, even worth if you only use its spot metering function, as a spot meter.

And for my Leica M lenses, I found out that my 90mm lens is back to life again, thanks to this camera body, for I rarely use 90mm lens on my M6, in the reason of focus difficulty. But G1 makes it as a 180mm lens and is in SLR structure, focusing is a pleasure on it, that makes me feel an big extra bonus!

Today I am back to my worktable, this batch conversion is little schedule behind, sorry guys, I will do my best to catch up, at least not dragging too long...

Emily fans are many!

I am working on front plate design, for fixing the ininity position, and for focus adjustments. Many mails came, give me valuable suggestions, I would like to thank all of your concern,  that makes me a little bit nervous, I will push myself, and my mechanist to do the job well, to keep fans happy!!

(16/03 added)

Just brought back the top plate for Emily, I did some modification---drilled hole for bubble level. Contributed idea by Walter, drilled hole on Byron top housing, I found that Emily should have one too.

bubble level is rather thick, but thanks to the plate, it is implanted quite well

Ok, what else we need?
Kids has just re-watched Harry Potter movies, said this camera should be named "Mad Eye Moody".
Worth to think about it.

And this Xenotar just taken off from barrel last night, glass is not perfect, some dust, but overall is good, not US$39K, only 0.3k!
And I don't know how to deal with this barrel tube, "photo-sonics inc" is what engraved, anyone provides me some info on this company? thank you.

Is there anyone willing to sell me a #2 shutter?

New top plate for Emily

Besides tedious works on converting cameras, I took time mainly on developing Emily, WA 4x5 shooter, based on J66 body, almost the same as 110/B, except no Range finder on top, and no front door for rail, so it is a good candidate for wide angle.
All the same back system to Byron, Emily needs new bellows, new front lens plate, and a new top plate. The top plates just arrived, I installed it with two cold shoes, one for view finder, one for a tiny range finder, if uses want to.

 This is the position for about 47mm lens. Avoiding pig snout and helical focus ring which are popular seen on wide angle camera, I want to replace them by bellows and level, bellows is easy to me, but the level, that puzzeled me.

If I can successfully develop a mechanism, which can fix the lens on infinity position, and move the lens in 15mm range by adjusting level, then Emily will be a great WA camera for lenses wider than 90mm!

Then maybe I should sell the DIY kit, to convert your own J66 into WA camera, you can choose the color of cover you want, and I can get rid of those tedious works!!!

Byron will add bubble

Went to my mechanist today, with a cracked RF housing and a bubble, asked him to drill a 20mm dia. hole, he did, and we inserted the bubble, looked fine, but a little too near the edge, should move the hole backward little bit.
So from now on, unless client indicates he/she doesn't want the bubble, I will install one for each Byron, thanks to Walter's wonderful idea!