I havent updated my "journal" in half a year, so here goes.

I sent my Pentax ME Super off for a CLA (clean, lube, adjust). I bought it last august, but it revealed some shutter troubles soon after. I think it just needs a relube, but we'll see. I sent it to Harrow Technical in the UK. it arrived there yesterday, so stage 1 is completed (stage 2 is the repair and stage 3 is me waiting for the camera to arrive back in Estonia after repair). Should be back here in 2 or 3 weeks.

In august im off to Serbia again. Most likely I will spend some time in Montenegro aswell. Im very much looking forward to it all. Fascinating country.

If you've read this far, you should check out still-dancing.com [link]
Its a wonderful website with many excellent photographs.

TLR's are beautiful cameras. I've been wanting one since june. So few weeks ago I bought a YashicaMat off ebay. The waist level finder and 6x6 format are both very nice. I took some negatives from this camera to a lab to get scanned earlier today, so I might upload an image or two next week.

Few weeks ago I bought a Agfa Billy Compur, which is an old medium format folding camera. The grease in the focusing helical had turned very solid and it was impossible to turn the focusing ring. I unscrewed the first two elements (which were stuck together) and heated them in the oven at 200C (after spending a week thinking of a good way to get them loose). The grease softened a bit, and with some force I managed to unscrew the two elements from each other. I cleaned up all the old grease and replaced it with lithium grease (another week later).

Now it was time for test shots. I shot a roll of Ilford HP5. Developing it was a bit of a disaster. I thought I would have problems getting the film on the reel (new reel, different system), but that went smoothly. After I was about to pour out the fixer, I figured it would go faster if I'd take the lid off. Once that was done, I took the film off the reel and had a look. The 6x9cm negs looked huge. I was going to hang them to dry, when I suddenly remembered that I didnt wash the film. 20 minutes later I was, once again, ready to hang them to dry.

There are 8 images on the roll. 2 of them appear to be in focus and with reasonably okay exposure. 3 were out of focus and underexposed (scale focus camera with no lightmeter, so everything is guesswork). There is also one double exposure, since I forgot to advance the film. This one's overexposed. Last two shots are in focus, but overexposed, since I used my Pentax as a lightmeter, but forgot to set the correct ISO.

Everything ended well, since it was only a test roll. I'm looking forward to shooting more with this camera.

I uploaded some of the pictures from my Serbian trip to my website [link]

I may put up more later, but the ones there are my favourites from the trip.


About a year ago I saw a Pentax ME for sale in a local photostore. The price was a bit high for me, but I instantly fell in love with it.
Few days ago I saw an ad for a Pentax ME Super with a Takumar-A 28-80mm lens for 750 kroons (about 65 dollars). 2 hours later it was mine. Viewfinder is much bigger and brighter than my Canon 300v's. The camera is about the same lenth as my Canon, but thinner. Aperture priority metering is wonderful. Now I only need a fast 50mm for it.

Täna jõudsin Eestisse, aga tahaks tagasi Serbiasse. Paari päeva pärast tuleb ehk pilte kah.