Even More Tips on Focusing a Sputnik (from my archives)

[Stephen Puckett <spuckett@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

  From: Eric Goldstein <egoldste@xxxxxx>
  Subject: Re: Focusing a SaturnSlide viewer 
  Date: Sun, 08 Nov 1998 17:48:30 -0500 


Ernie Rairdin wrote:

> I'll be trying the Sputnik (don't know if exposure is accurate 
enough for
> slides) or the Bronica ETR Si on a slide bar.  I look forward to 
giving it
> a try.

Hi Ernie and welcome to the list! If I'me covering ground you 
already know, please forgive me.

Before you shoot your Sputnik, I'd strongly suggest you check focus 
via ground glass... one of the two lenses is more often than not 
off. You probably also are already clued in to operating this querky 
camera...  because of slop in the focusing mechanism and because of 
the inherently tight tolerances of front cell focusers, it's 
important to always focus in one direction only and set your 
camera's focus up for however you choose to do it (ie always 
focusing from far to near).

Also, you will only want to shoot af f/22; the lenses on these guys 
just don't hold up at larger apertures. Because of this and the lack 
of slow shutter speeds, I'd recommend steering clear of Velvia 
(which is really an asa 40 film by my tests) and go with something 
such as Kodak's W100S which in addition to the higher shutter speeds 
also seems to have a longer contrast range than the velvia and holds 
up better in the shadows.

Finally, from the cross sample of Sputnik chromes I've seen, I'd
recommend against trying to hand hold this most unergonomic beast, 
no matter what speed you shoot.

<snip>