Insomnia = brilliance?

[erker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Greg Erker)]

  I had some trouble sleeping one night
in the middle of last week so I started
thinking about the perennial problem of
how to get a better MF stereo camera than
the Sputnik (more shutter speeds, better
viewfinder, better lenses, f32 in order of my
priorities).

  So I decided I had the skills to siamese
two Diacords and maybe Sam could link the
shutters up for me. So I've been talking to
Sam and also to Bob Clark who's been thinking
about fusing some Diacords also.

  Sam doesn't have experience with the
Seikosha shutters but is willing to look
at one for me.

  I can live with the 78mm stereo base and
the two rolls of film in order to have
1-1/400 or 1/500 shutter speeds, and some
very fine 4 element Tessar style lenses
and a good viewfinder.

---
  Cut to the weekend. More insomnia (I
think from a medication I'm on). So Friday
night I only had 3 hours sleep but it gave
me 4 uninterupted hours to myself.

  I decided to fix an intermittent shutter
problem on my Ricohmatic 225. Sometimes
the shutter doesn't cock properly and when
you press the shutter release it makes a
little click and the blades move a bit
but don't open up.

  So I disassembled it for repair and
fixed the problem. In the process I figured
out how I can twin a pair of 225's (won't
Bob be jealous).

  Coincidentally, on Friday before leaving
work I had placed a $30-some bid on a
225 with dead shutter to have more lens
for swapping to get a matched set.

  But now: if the ebay 225's shutter blades
are okay, Sam may be able to use it as the
slave shutter even thought the shutter is
broken for other uses.

  So later Saturday morning I stopped in
at work and upped my bid since the camera
was now worth more to me. Lo and behold
I won the auction as $41.27 or so.

---
  Nap time Saturday: I couldn't sleep again
so I took my 225 apart again. This time
to investigate the twinning issues.

  I figured out how to couple the focus,
modify it so that I can get f32, and roughly
how I'm going to couple the two film spools
together.

  Later Beth and I went to the hobby shop to
look at model airplane linkages to couple
the focus (brass tubing force fit over the
distance point to extend its length for
the ball part of the ball and socket -
for Bob's info).

  We also found some 10mm OD, 5mm ID ball
bearings that fit almost perfectly into
the holes you get when you remove the
film spool holder release knobs. (for
coupling the two film spools advance
together)

---
  Anyway, I'm 99% certain I can twin the
cameras. I'm less certain about linking
the apertures (but I could live without).

  Also unknown is whether my Seikosha
shutters can be linked by Sam and whether
my dead shutter is usable as the slave.
I'll be sending it or them off to Sam
to get his opinion when he gets back
from Toronto.

  This is good news for Bob also since
most everything about the 225 applies
to the Diacords. He won't have crank
wind and autoshutter cocking but the
other features will be the same.

  The diacords have a different model
of Seikosha shutter (L) or a Citizen
shutter (G) so Bob will have to send
a shutter or two up to Sam for inspection.

---
  Now we just need a way to check lens
FL's without blowing lots of film. More
on this in another email. (Since it took
Don Lopp 7 or 8 Diacords to get a matched
set.)

I just had to share this - Greg