new camera! Balda Super Baldax

a total noob at (film) photography has gotten her hands on a vintage 1950's German folding camera, a Super Baldax by Balda! ohnoes!

sorry for the blehness of the video. a close-up video of the Super Baldax can be found here: http://youtu.be/MHPabQkoDtI

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• vintage
• camera
• folding
• cameras
• balda
• super
• baldax
• super:baldax
• vlog
• medium
• format
• medium:format
• film
• 120
• 1950's
• classic
• noob
• newbie
• 50's
• photography
• film:photography

[Leucoplasts]

Hmm.. The indicator always stays red, no matter what I try doing. "The advance wheel" is the thing you turn to advance the film right? Sorry I'm a complete noob in this category.

And I can't get the YashicaGuy's adapter kit where I live, so I'll probably try finding some batteries that sum up to 5V because that seems to be enough for the lights to work. Thanks a lot for the help, btw.

[nighstar]

@Leucoplasts yeah, i call the knob-thing that advances the film an "advance wheel". i don't know its real name... your advance wheel turns all the way clockwise until the arrow on it lines up with the cold shoe and still shows red...?? something must be wrong then, but i don't know what.... sorry. :/

that sucks about the adapter. :/ i wish you luck finding an alternative. also, no problem re:help. :)

[Leucoplasts]

@nighstar Well, I've managed to make that red indicator turn silvery white. But I don't know what to do next? What's a cold shoe? When I press down the shutter nothing happens, the the piece of lever that moves downwards when i press the shutter button doesn't have anything to push down to. I hope you get what I mean..

[nighstar]

@Leucoplasts i've sent you a private message. :)

[nighstar]

@Leucoplasts then it must be the advance wheel. the advance wheel has to be in the ready position (ie. pointing towards the cold shoe) before the shutter can be cocked. you'll know that the shutter is ready to be cocked if the small circular window behind the shutter button shows silver/white. if it shows red, the advance wheel hasn't been turned enough.

yeah, my GT uses a banned mercury battery, but an adapter has been put into it so it can take standard alkaline batteries.

[Leucoplasts]

@nighstar Yes, I did all that. Thing is, when I press down on the shutter button the shutter doesn't even move a little bit. But I can open the shutter manually, after cocking it and then pressing the lever that's supposed to open when the shutter button is pressed, but that's not useful at all..

Btw. Does your Electro uses the same banned batteries my GSN uses?

[nighstar]

@Leucoplasts did you cock the shutter? unlike with the Electro (i have an Electro 35GT! :D), you have to manually cock the shutter before each shot or else the shutter button won't even go down. to cock the shutter on a Prontor SVS you slide the small protruding lever (has a round piece on the end) from the side of the lens to the top of it.

[Leucoplasts]

@nighstar I just checked, it was already set at 'X'. I don't think the shutter even opens when I press the button. Is this some kind of 'pad of death' problem that my Yashica Electro GSN also has?

[nighstar]

@Leucoplasts if your shutter clicks/opens & shuts quickly even when set to 1sec, something might be wrong with your camera.... oh, and look on the side of your lens, there should be "V X M".... make sure this is set to "X".

and correction: my camera hs a Prontor SVS shutter.*

[nighstar]

@Leucoplasts the length of time that the shutter stays open depends on the shutter speed, not the aperture. how you change the shutter speed depends on the shutter that your camera has (there are 2 different kinds; see page 11 of the PDF manual). mine has a Compur Shutter, so i just turn the ring that's around the lens until the red mark is at the # i want. if i set it to 1sec the shutter stays open for a full second while making a RRRrrrrrrrr sound. try setting yours to 1sec. what does it do?