P3D Nimslo Kodachrome success

[SHIELDS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Hi!

Thanks to all who responded to my Nimslo Kodachrome film advance problem! 
It was probably due to my not following the rigorous loading procedure to
the letter, with contributing factors perhaps being (1) it was a 36-exposure
roll (I decided not to try again, since I really only want to use 24-exposure
rolls anyhow) and (2) it was the professional version of Kodachrome 64,
which may not be as "slick" as the amateur version. The latter is pure
speculation on my part--I only know that one respondent identified a
"slickness" difference in certain Kodak films, Kodachrome Pro not included.

At any rate, a 24-exposure roll of amateur Kodachrome 64 flowed through
like cream from start to finish, and the roll of Kodachrome 200 I put
in afterwards started up nicely.

My Nimslo now has a B (time exposure) button, fabricated from a piece of
audio cassette case, a short piece of wire, and solder, and a strap-on
49mm filter holder covering the first two lenses, which I use for closeups--
a #1 gives a focusing distance of 28", just the length of my arm.

When cut off carefully with a razor saw, the squared-off tab on the "outer"
half of a cassette case just fits into the hot shoe. It is thinner than
an actual flash bottom, so it "floats" above the contacts on the hot shoe
spring. Using a small jeweler's screwdriver, I sighted down through the
transparent plastic and bored holes above the two contacts. I put a tiny
drop of solder on the end of a piece of #22 solid tinned wire and threaded it
through the center hole. Then I cut the wire short and threaded the other
end through the other hole, bending it over in a backwards direction.
The little rectangle of plastic from the cassette case must be filed 
carefully to fit the hot shoe, and the little piece of wire must be very
carefully adjusted and filed, or you will have B all the time, or no B
at all! Although shorting these two contacts has not been known to cause
any problems with the camera electronics, your mileage may vary--try it
at your own risk! I put a small piece of transparent tape from the top
of the plastic down the camera back, just to make sure it doesn't slide
out when I don't want it to!

When I want B, I just press this button before depressing the shutter
release, and the shutter stays open as long as I want. If I want to use
a cable release, I wedge a sliver of slide mount in atop the piece of
plastic to keep the button down. I don't leave this in place any longer
than I have to--no point risking the internals for a longer period of
time. At first I was going to buy some sort of hot shoe adapter and then
wire in a separate switch, but that would have been much bulkier and of
course cost more!

For the 49mm adapter, I bought a used UV filter and took out the glass
to use in my fluorescent viewer illuminator (to eliminate any chance
UV from the tube might damage my slides). You can buy a commercial
spanner wrench--I made do with carefully spread and held needle-nose
pliers jaws. Laying aside the retainer ring for some future project,
I used a 1/8" cobalt drill bit (I highly recommend these--the brand I
got has a "self-starting" tip which is nothing short of miraculous--
with a variable-speed drill and one of these you could almost start 
drilling a hole in the side of a glass bottle!) to make four small
holes from the back of the filter ring, going in at an angle to
stay in solid metal. I enlarged these with an ordinary 5/32" bit,
and then further enlarged and elongated them top to bottom with small
round pattern files. It is necessary to be very careful at the bottom
to avoid going completely through the back of the filter ring. I threaded
thin rubber bands through the four holes, looped them over, and threaded
the loose ends through a standard split keyring. The whole assembly goes
over the end of the camera and is moved down until the filter ring is
over the two end lenses (below the viewfinder) and the keyring is in
back of the camera. The rubber bands can be adjusted as necessary to
stay clear of the viewfinder and exposure sensor. I can now use any
49mm accessories that I want, but of course the +1 closeup lens is
my favorite--reach out and touch your subject's nose to measure, then
shoot (average length of an adult's arm out to fingertips is 28",
the focusing distance of this setup--and they always smile when you
touch their nose--it has worked with 3 out of 3 for me so far!).
And of course these accessories are just for closeups where a stereobase
of about 18mm is correct, although you could do the same thing with,
say, a 67mm or 72mm filter if you wanted to cover all four lenses
(I haven't measured to see).

The beauty of these modifications is that they work on any Nimslo
whatsoever, and can be instantly transferred to another one should
this one die!

My 0.3 Kodak Wratten gelatin filter did arrive, but I about croaked
when I was told it would be $37.50--I had been told "about $14."
When I protested, the salesman reduced the price to $25. I growled
but bought it--it was hard enough to find at all. So now there is
a tiny square of 0.3 ND filter over my exposure sensor, which gives me
film speeds of 200 and 50--for Kodachrome 200 and (with 81B gels over
the lenses) 64 (I always shoot 64 with an 81 filter--A or B--but mostly
won't bother with this camera--it needs the greater depth of field
the 200 provides, with the prime focus at only 9 feet!). Another square
of the filter will go over the third lens for an automatically-bracketed
( 1 stop under) flat frame each time I shoot a stereo pair--plus I will have 
another flat frame at the regular exposure. I could put a 0.6 ND filter over
the sensor, 0.3 over the outer ones, 0.6 over #3, and none over #2 to 
bracket one stop over and under the main exposure, but feel I would lose 
too much in depth of field and shutter speed.

Thanks again, and my thanks to David Starkman, Susan Pinsky, John Dennis,
and David Burder for the ideas I picked up from the Reel-3D book on the
Nimslo, from which I got facts and figures, and more, for the closeup
attachment and the exposure control, plus all the braves souls who did
the B thing by shorting out the flash contacts!

Mark Shields

   |\      _,,,---,,_
   /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_
  |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-'
 '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)
shields@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.netcom.com/~northws1/stmatt.htm
"Let the little children come to Me," Jesus said, "and don't keep
 them away. The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
  -Matthew 19:14



------------------------------

End of PHOTO-3D Digest 2853
***************************