Electro 35 Restoration and PERMANENT Light Seal Install
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ธ.ค. 2024
- Find your own Electro 35 GSN on eBay here ebay.us/toea2Y
I've been using the Exell A32PX battery in my Electro 35 for nearly nine months now and it's still going strong. This is the exact battery I'm now using in my Electro 35
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Zeiss Wipes from the video amzn.to/3BcTIDX
100% Cotton Yarn
(thicker than I used but should be fine) amzn.to/3lLYUtk
Self-adhering Felt Sheets amzn.to/3fR4KWo
99.9% Isopropyl Alcohol for cleaning amzn.to/3ksZ1cq
Detailing putty/gel for removing dust amzn.to/36M4WS8
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Thanks Adam. I found a GSN when we were packing up the inlaws house. I am in the process of fixing and cleaning it up and surprising the family at Christmas..
That's great! Best of luck and I hope it goes well.
The Yashica was my first camera in ‘71, and still have a 16 x 20 print on my wall from that camera. I too bought a replacement on E-bay and went thru the battery issue as well. Great camera, mine is now a “museum” piece with fond memories.
I love hearing things like this! The fact that you have a 16x20 print cements what I've heard and seen about the sharpness of this Yashinon lens.
Adam Welch It was incredible, and as a learning “tool”, it encouraged me to carry on to this day with my passion. I progressed to Nikkormat, large format, (4x5), and now digital. I owe it all to the Yashica.
I should give a shout out to Fuji’s B&W film I shot that 16x20 with in 1971 as well. 👏👏
@@genegustafson715 That's interesting how you mentioned it as a learning tool. I've essentially moved retrograde since I came back to film; going straight into large format, then medium format (a whole story there about box cameras, too) and now I'm shooting more and more 135. This is actually my first "non-manual" camera, at least of this type. Anyway, I'm rambling again haha
@@genegustafson715 Neopan I presume? I'm actually about to order some Acros II for the Yashica :)
i love my electro 35! Thanks for sharing and keep taking photos.
Very useful video, thank you. Just got an Electro 35 from the original owner who bought it in Saigon during his tour of duty. Looking forward to getting it working.
Very nice! Always better somehow when you know a little bit of the backstory with a camera. If I can lend any help during your restore let me know.
@@AdamWelch Finished it up, just have to test a roll of film to check the seals. I had to fix the "pad of death" on mine as well but it seems to working fine now. Thanks again. Have you ever messed with the telephoto or wide auxiliary lens that often came with these?
@@forindooruseonly646 Awesome! As for the lenses, I actually have not. I had considered grabbing them up but then realized that I would likely never actually use them ha I've heard great things about their performance however.
Hi Adam, Thanks for the tutorial, I like your technique of covering the film gate (protecting the lens-shutter assembly) with masking tape. If you use the type of q-tip with a hollow stem it is possible to scrunch the tip ends flat with pliers. This is better than puling out the flimsy woolly stuff when attempting to get into tight corners & clean out decades of gunk. Ciao mate, fm. 😉
Thank you so much for the video, lots of tips. 27:19 I'm just going to write about these other two little pads in the corners that also need to be repaired. Repairers pay attention as there are repair kits that are sold without these pads. Greetings from Seoul.
Very interesting. Hopefully yours won't need replacing as mine did not need to be.
What a great video! I just ordered a Yashica MG-1 (I wish I could have gotten the 35 but man have they gotten expensive!) and looking at the photos it definitely needs light seals. I wasn't looking forward to messing with tiny foam strips and this yarn trick will work great. Off to Hobby Lobby!
Thanks a awesome, Mike! Hope it works/worked out for you. I'm about to overhaul my Holga 120Pan and add some seals to that as well. I'll have an episode coming up on that. Because of course I would :)
@@AdamWelch It went great! put my first roll through today and its off to the lab tomorrow. I will say the rangefinder patch on this is TINY! Hoping for 1 or 2 in focus shots haha. Looking forward to the Holga episode as I have on the shelf as well.
@@mikep4199 Awesome! I hope it turns out well. And yeah hopefully within the next couple weeks I'll tear into my Holga. I'll definitely document it ha
Great Video, i love my GSM and your Video was very Helpful.
Greatings, Tom from Germany
Glad you enjoyed it, Tom! I'm looking to get out and about more with my 135 cameras so my Electro may be getting some exercise again soon.
@@AdamWelch thank's
Hey thanks to this video I was able to change my light seals. Thanks a lot
That's great. I hope they work well for you.
Hello! Tell me, do the shutters (diaphragm) open if there is no battery inside? for a 4:28 second you clicked. that is, can I check the camera's performance without a battery when buying? Have a nice day!
Yes the shutter will function without a battery. However, it will only fire at 1/500 sec and of course there will be no in-camera metering.
@@AdamWelch Thank you very much for your answer! but how to understand when the shutter speed is 1/500 - you can’t set it manually in the same place. that is, the shutter will only work in a very bright place? for example, in an apartment, in low light, the shutter will not work without a battery, but on the street during the day - will it work?
@@olgaolgvn Without the electronic metering the camera isn't able to adjust the shutter speed so by default it will fire at it's maximum speed regardless of the lighting conditions. I've actually used it this way before when my batteries died by adjusting the aperture around the 1/500th shutter speed. Of course this is very limiting.
@@AdamWelch sorry if my questions seem stupid. there is an opportunity to buy this camera, but the seller writes that "When the shutter is released, its shutters do not open." but it has no battery. What could be the problem and can I fix it if I buy it in this form?
Oh no worries at all. No stupid questions here. It's difficult to say. They are quite a few things that can go wrong with this camera but present with similar symptoms. Generally, if the film advance lever is advanced to cock the shutter there should be a 'clunk' sound. If that can be heard the shutter is caught and should fire if the blades aren't jammed. There's also a common issue 'called the pad of death' that can go bad as well. I say all that to say that yes, likely any issues with the camera could be fixed depending on how much time and effort you would like to put into it. Unfortunately, it's just very difficult to diagnose any real problem with a camera without having it in hand. I'll just add that to simply answer your question yes if the camera doesn't have batteries it should still fire if everything else is working properly.
Great explanation, my last issue with my project camera is the battery cover still provides no juice. I have an electro that works fine and I tried the cover from that and battery check comes on as do the warning lights., shutter speeds all seem fine as well. But despite cleaning the heck out of a not very badly corroded cover, no joy...
Hmmmm. Is the camera in question (that's still not working) another Electro 35? Might be the connector magnet located in the bottom of the camera known as the "pad of death." I've got an article saved someplace on replacing it. Let me know and I'll send it along.
@@AdamWelch Thanks for your reply, I removed the snap on piece that indicates battery direction, (the + sign had worn away) and replaced with a small piece of AL foil, and my one working battery. This actually worked my to my surprise. Fires at all shutter speeds and the slow shutter/overexposed warning lights all work. I replaced the light seals with new foam and cotton yarn and now the back feels solid, I have some inexpensive film and will test fire it. But I think it's good to go.
@@markschneider1396 Oh that's great to hear! Hopefully it goes well.
I like your video, I love old camera thanks for making wonderful video. From Washington DC.
Thank you for this informative video. You have explained it well. I agree the Yashica Electro 35 is a beautiful camera both in appearance and operation. It seems to be a good seller in the second hand market for the Excel company to create a clone battery for it. It seems that using the air blower over the open body creates a slight risk of blowing debris from the top back into tho body.
Glad you enjoyed the video. Kodak released a study back in 1998 finding that a small amount of dust of a certain size (no larger than .2 micron) does help the overall function of the camera. Have you read that study by chance?
@@AdamWelch No I haven't read the Kodak study.
Hello, I am very confused about the yarn thickness, in milimeter. In Europe we use completely different mesure standards :-) Thank you !
Hi Marc, of all the strange and esoteric measurement standards I've ever encountered, yarn seems to be the most confusing. The short answer is that even now I STILL am not certain how to measure the thickness of yarn for these applications outside of visual assessment. The "hook" and "needle" sizes have been the only things I've found measured in millimeters. Then there's the "weight" and the "gauge" which both seem to be measured in ounces...but then there are terms for weight that seemingly some people use and some don't, such as "worsted" , "lace", "bulky", "jumbo", ect. There are some inferences to "stitch count" but then that's broken down into both knitting and crocheting sizes. Fortunately enough, while I still really have no real understand of yarn thickness, it does seem that this 4 ounce or what might be called "medium" size does work for virtually every camera I've tried it with in terms of crafting a seal. I've used it in the Electro 35 (shown here plus another) along with the following cameras: Nikon F3 HP, Olympus OM-1n, Canonet QL-17 G3, Canon AE-1 Program, and most recently in my super-mod Holga 120Pan.
There are a lot of charts/guides on yarn sizes out there but in my opinion most offer at times conflicting and still subjective sizing; meaning there's nothing that says "this X weight yarn equals this Y diameter." At least not that I've found so far. I've got a feeling that somehow there has to be a simple explanation but maybe I'm just too common to understand it haha
Sorry I couldn't give a more definitive answer on this.
@@AdamWelch thank you so much for your answer ! Thing is , it's the least expensive thing to buy in the photography hobby, it won't harm my wallet trying several types of yarn :-)
@@marcdebroey2276 Haha indeed. Not to go off down the rabbit hole but I've been considering doing another update on this process as I've refined it a bit. I might be switching from the self-adhering felt to a velvet but we'll see. All that to say if I do make another episode on this I'll be including a more in-depth portion to make it clear yarn sizing isn't something that is meant to be understood by humans :D
Best of luck and let me know how it goes with your seals.
@@AdamWelch nice, but make the update over the weekend (joke) I am about to replace the sealings of my Electro 35 somewhere next week. These things are always very adventurous for me since I am not the most handy guy :-)
Oh no I'm sure you'll do fine. The updates really won't change the process, just really a few observations over doing it quite a bit.
Hi Adam,first or all thanks for such good instructional video, question... how many LR44 batteries you put inside the battery compartment and out of what you make the adapter for it? Thanks
You can stack four (4) of the LR44 batteries. Most people use aluminum foil to complete the connection and there are many instructional videos showing the process; search "Yashica Electro battery hack" usually brings up quite a few good results. I however fashioned a spring out of a paper clip which worked great but I feel there was a parasitic drain that was killing the batteries. Since then I found an actual replacement battery made for the Electro which I HIGHLY recommend instead of the stacking. You can find it here on Amazon if you want to look. It's the exact one I use in mine since 2021 and it's still going. I get a commission as well if you use my link just FYI.
amzn.to/46JEx4I
Thank you very much for your reply and all your help, have a great day.
any idea how to fix the battery check it wont light but the slow and over is lighting up.
It could be a number of issues but generally it is caused by the wiring leading from the battery compartment to the light either being corded or disconnected. Here's a thread from the ishika form that might give you some ideas.
yashica.boards.net/thread/1207/yashica-electro-battery-check-working
Of course if you think the meter is working and accurate then the camera is of course usable without the battery check. So I suppose that's good news. I'll add that while Philips head screwdrivers technically work it is very easy to damage the screws on the electro without using the JIS head screwdriver.
@@AdamWelch ok thanks my friend
@@AdamWelch I found a GSN at a thrift store, and with only the battery hack was up and running. Despite my learning curve I still was super excited with the results. Third time out I thought I'd run the battery down, tried all the other battery hacks but still no lights. I'd never taken a camera apart before but what the heck? There was a white wire from the top of the battery compartment that had broken off.No way were my soldering skills up to the task of accessing and reconnecting the wire-but I can crimp with the best of them. Stole a wire from a phono cartridge head shell, one end of which I could fit over the little nub of solder/wire left attached to the battery compartment and crimped the other end to the stripped end of the white wire. So far it works, the lights are brighter than before. As long as I had such good instructions I'm replacing the rotted light seals. Thanks, and yes, I'm always this long winded. Editing encouraged.
Can you change the shutter speed on these?
Not directly. The camera sets the shutter speed based upon the metered exposure from the in-camera meter. The user then adjusts the aperture until it reaches the metered exposure. This is all done based on the under or over exposure lights present in the viewfinder and on top of the camera.
I just recently bought one at my local vintage swap meet, was wondering if there is a way to modify the battery cover? It’s missing the top circular piece.
I THINK It might be possible to put a ball of aluminum foil over the opening and then tape it shut. I think that should complete the circuit but I'm not completely sure how long or how well it would work. I would suggest keeping an eye on eBay for a completely ruined/non-functioning copy of the camera that still has the battery over. It could probably be had for a few dollars. You can of course by the battery covers separately but they often cost more than a fair example of the functioning camera itself.
Hola, una consulta, cómo haces o si tienes un video de cómo le haces mantenimiento a los lentes de la cámara
¿Servicio para la lente electro?
@@AdamWelch si exacto, el lente fijo y los que son intercambiables
@@Bender88Industrial Todos los objetivos de las cámaras son bastante diferentes en términos de mantenimiento. Recomendaría buscar en Google su lente en particular y agregar la palabra reparación o mantenimiento. Lo siento, no puedo ser de más ayuda
@@Bender88Industrial Yashica Electro 35 - Remove and Clean the Front Lens - TH-cam m.th-cam.com/video/SitDvzBjWVw/w-d-xo.html
@@AdamWelch de todas maneras agradezco tu ayuda y excelente video por cierto. Saludos desde 🇨🇱
You mentioned an Amazon link for the replacement battery but I couldn't find or see it. I it the Exell Battery A165? Thanks for a great video. I really want one of these camera and your video was a wonderful tutorial.
Wow, I can't believe I left out what may be one the most important parts! The battery I use is the Excell A32PX 6V. It's worked beautifully since last October. I've edited the description to include the link but here it is for you as well. amzn.to/3OqpVxR Thanks again and I'm glad you enjoyed the episode.
Such a pretty camera. Always on the look out for one that fits my selective frugalness too.
Haha hopefully one will come along. I still haven't gotten it out and about yet. I only have black and white film on hand and I wanted to try it with color. Then again...I'm not sure I'm going to be able to wait.
@@AdamWelch Haha, yes I understand. Just do it!
@@sccjono I gave in today :D
I’m not sure if this is a dumb question but I just found this at my moms and it was my grandads. The battery light doesn’t work when i put the battery and adapter in it idk if I can fix this! Also my main question is the front shutter doesn’t open, I’m not even sure how it’s supposed to open either. I hope this makes sense
Not a dumb question at all! It's likely that from what you're saying the electronics are unfortunately likely inoperable within the camera. Do any of the lights work aside from the battery checker? Meaning the over/slow lights? Also, when you rack the film advance is there a "clunk" at the beginning of the throw? The clunk is actually a good thing as it means the shutter cocking mechanism is likely still good. It's not impossible for the shutter blades to become stuck with these. I say all this to say that if the electronics are indeed dead, but the actual shutter mechanism is working but dirty, the camera could be cleaned and technically still used at it's manual setting of 1/500th of a second.
@@AdamWelch hey! I actually got it to work but wanted to thank you for your reply. I put a piece of foil on the battery cap and it started working
When I click photos from my Yashica white light leak can be seen on the photos.. When I checked the light seal after opening the back of the camera...they all are deteriorated.
So light is leaking from behind right? Or it is leaking from front of the camera also?
I would begin with the most simple explanation and work from there. Since you the seals are deteriorated then that is likely causing the light leaks. Of course, there could be other reasons but I would start there. I assume this happens consistently with multiple rolls of film?
I have been using cotton yarn as light seals since I saw David Hancock's video a few years ago on using yarn as seals (th-cam.com/video/Tfk0Si1Bvq8/w-d-xo.html). So far it has worked great on several different brands of SLRs. I have removed one thread from the yarn to make it a thinner seal for some cameras. I hope to find a Yashica Electro 35 on the cheap then use thi video to do my own restoration. Thanks for the video!