The Bastid (TM)

[orionid]

Nishika N8000 – Ebay, $10, free shipping.

Remove the bottom, throw away the useless lead weight that makes it “feel expensive.”

Remove the film advance and rewind reels. Save these.

Remove the top. Throw away the useless electronics (or save them for another project). If your donor lens has a flash contact, or you feel up to the challenge of making one, save the wires to the hotshoe (orange and white in this case).

Remove the film tray to access two of the front face screws. It’s glued in. Pop it out with a screwdriver.

Remove the front face. Remove and toss (or save for other projects) the lens/shutter/aperture complex.

Dremel out the exposure separators and any plastic that might block light between the lens and the film surface. DO NOT remove the plastic holding in the film advance sprocket or the film carrier.

Acquire a donor lens. Initially, I was planning to use a 100mm anastigmatic lens from an Agfa/Ansco, but couldn’t bring myself to cut up a working folder, even if it was a $10 yardsale find (and I was having trouble finding scrap material to work as a solid mount for a long backfocal length). So I grabbed my holga, figuring if I wanted 6×6 lomo effects, I’d just have to take my brownies out more.

I found mounting easier by removing the front plate of the holga and installing it in The Bastid as well.

Measure the appropriate BFL and install the donor lens to either the front plate or the Nishika body as desired. Initially I used the front plate. On the reworked version, I moved it to the body. Affix with CA, epoxy or mechanical means (rivets, etc. if you are using a metal frame with a longer lens). If you use CA or epoxy, ensure you have adequate ventilation and you let it dry over night before closing the camera to prevent the fumes from fogging your lens.

Seal out your light leaks with Aluminum (stops light) and duct (adds strength to aluminum, prevents punctures) tape. In the reworked version I used a three-layer aluminum-duct-aluminum composite. I also used Nashua nuclear-grade duct tape. It’s about $15 per roll (in bulk), but it’s chloride/oxidizer-free, strong as crap, and sticks to hell itself.

Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly.

Learn from your mistakes, and rework any thing that needs improvement.

The final version of The Bastid(TM) after a long 28 hours in NYC.

And now, the part you’ve been waiting for:

As scanned, no post processing…. yet. It also seems I’ve got a flare-like, sometimes-there-sometimes-not light leak. That should be fun to troubleshoot.

ETA: Pos-processed versions have been swapped into flickr. Whenever the tubes catch up, they may be reflected here.

img272 by Orionid, on Flickr

img273 by Orionid, on Flickr

img276 by Orionid, on Flickr

img279 by Orionid, on Flickr

img281 by Orionid, on Flickr

img282 by Orionid, on Flickr

img283 by Orionid, on Flickr

img284 by Orionid, on Flickr

img285 by Orionid, on Flickr

img287 by Orionid, on Flickr

[ravnostic]

…thus answering the question, “Where does he get such fabulous toys?”

You’re Batman.

+10^10

[lokisbong]

very cool

[chupathingie]

I wanna hang with you some boring saturday…

[Curious]

so were you wearing your safety goggles? i just simple hate it that everything, and i mean everything, now has that stupid safety goggles warning.

cool build. and i guess i don’t need to point out that your light leaks seem consistent in location. last time i had a leak like that it was a missing screw but here — not so much.

I also used Nashua nuclear-grade duct tape. the brand name i’ve heard of and used. is “nuclear grade” a real grade or just your opinion of it’s toughness.

[orionid]

I wore goggles while dremeling, but that was about it. As far as the leak, I think it’s along the holga’s shutter trigger mechanism, and I’m not sure quite how to tackle that, so I may leave it be for a while.

http://www.drillspot.com/products/560831/nashua_357975_nuclear-grade_duct_tape

[ravnostic]

The final version of The Bastid(TM) after a long 28 hours in NYC

Don’t you mean 28 long dollars? I read the rail ticket. {I actually picked it up as a souvenir after you left it behind.}

/turns. Stalks away.

Kidding.

/not kidding.

All kidding {or not. kidding.} aside, do you process your own film or take it somewhere? How did you determine, and then set, an exposure time suitable for each image with something like this? Where was Kestrana during these moments? (I didn’t see her through my binoculars at all…) Or were these the dog-house hours spent after stinking up the geek-room with forktography odors?

[Curious]

http://www.drillspot.com/products/560831/nashua_357975_nuclear-grade_duct_tape

holy crap it is real. as much as i like and use duct tape that is serious overkill.

[chupathingie]

http://www.drillspot.com/products/560831/nashua_357975_nuclear-grade_duct_tape

I wondered for the longest time over the coincidence that many of your shoots were very near to places I’ve been. I was stationed at Knolls way back in the 80’s, and spent a while on Planet Groton as well.

/apparently you now have 2 stalkers 😉

[nobigdeal]

/scratches head and wonders … why? LOL!

[orionid]

holy crap it is real. as much as i like and use duct tape that is serious overkill.

I may have acquired it through less expensive channels 😉

I wondered for the longest time over the coincidence that many of your shoots were very near to places I’ve been. I was stationed at Knolls way back in the 80’s, and spent a while on Planet Groton as well.

My condolences. Bubblehead or civilian attached to the industry?

/scratches head and wonders … why? LOL!

Because I can?

Don’t you mean 28 long dollars? I read the rail ticket. {I actually picked it up as a souvenir after you left it behind.}

/turns. Stalks away.

Kidding.

/not kidding.

All kidding {or not. kidding.} aside, do you process your own film or take it somewhere? How did you determine, and then set, an exposure time suitable for each image with something like this? Where was Kestrana during these moments? (I didn’t see her through my binoculars at all…) Or were these the dog-house hours spent after stinking up the geek-room with forktography odors?

Weird, I thought I remembered the train conductor taking the ticket. B+W I do myself (soon to be color, too!), color I take to the local mini-lab if it’s 35mm. When I lived in NY, I’d take the medium format to a local pro-lab, but since there’s nothing like that around here, I’m going to mail to Dwayne’s until I get color chemistry.

The holga lens is roughly 1/60th of a second with selectable aperture of f/8 or f/11. If you think of it as basically a point-and-shoot, you get 400 for indoor/outdoor and 200 for outdoor only. So I used ISO 200 and 160 on this trip. The 160 was too slow for overcast days, so lesson learned, but the 200 worked great in sun. 200 or 400 would probably be fine for “general purpose.”

[chupathingie]

My condolences. Bubblehead or civilian attached to the industry?

Neither, actually. I was one of those that blew thru the coursework just to have MARF kick my ass. Prototype’s a biatch, residency for nukes if you will. It broke me. I’m glad it did; you only take the best for a job like that and I really don’t think I was ready for it. It ain’t easy, and most folks just have no idea. Hat’s off, and glad you made it (I assume).

[chupathingie]

Weird, I thought I remembered the train conductor taking the ticket. B+W I do myself (soon to be color, too!), color I take to the local mini-lab if it’s 35mm. When I lived in NY, I’d take the medium format to a local pro-lab, but since there’s nothing like that around here, I’m going to mail to Dwayne’s until I get color chemistry.

I will always miss film partly because I never took the opportunity to play with it. It’s an art and a science, with no immediate feedback like one gets with digital. I’ll prolly never do film, but rather likely will appreciate seeing the work of those who know what they’re doing. It’s fun sh!t, and I’ve missed out. I find it hard to apply the term “Art” to digital photography, at least in my case.

[Curious]

chupathingie wrote:

I will always miss film partly because I never took the opportunity to play with it. It’s an art and a science, with no immediate feedback like one gets with digital. I’ll prolly never do film, but rather likely will appreciate seeing the work of those who know what they’re doing. It’s fun sh!t, and I’ve missed out. I find it hard to apply the term “Art” to digital photography, at least in my case.

the lack of immediate feedback does make you think about your shot more and it’s true that there is some science involved, especially if you are pushing or pulling the film. OTOH the preview screen doesn’t really do it in so far as seeing what the finished photo will be. and then there is post processing which for either media can add a lot of control to the finished image. besides there are lots of controls on even the lower end DSLRs for exposure compensation and other “tricks”. and if you want to concentrate on the image turn the auto stuff off and go full manual. it will focus you.

and, like porn, art is in the eye of the beholder.

[orionid]

My condolences. Bubblehead or civilian attached to the industry?

Neither, actually. I was one of those that blew thru the coursework just to have MARF kick my ass. Prototype’s a biatch, residency for nukes if you will. It broke me. I’m glad it did; you only take the best for a job like that and I really don’t think I was ready for it. It ain’t easy, and most folks just have no idea. Hat’s off, and glad you made it (I assume).

Gotcha. I went through S8G back in 2003, then came back for a dose of MARF as a staff instructor in late 2008. Real life caught up with me in 09, and I started some meds that were nuke DQing. Now I’m pretending to be a yeoman in Groton until my DQ and crossrate packages go through.

I will always miss film partly because I never took the opportunity to play with it. It’s an art and a science, with no immediate feedback like one gets with digital. I’ll prolly never do film, but rather likely will appreciate seeing the work of those who know what they’re doing. It’s fun sh!t, and I’ve missed out. I find it hard to apply the term “Art” to digital photography, at least in my case.

the lack of immediate feedback does make you think about your shot more and it’s true that there is some science involved, especially if you are pushing or pulling the film. OTOH the preview screen doesn’t really do it in so far as seeing what the finished photo will be. and then there is post processing which for either media can add a lot of control to the finished image. besides there are lots of controls on even the lower end DSLRs for exposure compensation and other “tricks”. and if you want to concentrate on the image turn the auto stuff off and go full manual. it will focus you.

and, like porn, art is in the eye of the beholder.

These are part of why I find film to be fun. It’s also kind of a dual nostalgia. When I shoot film, I feel connected with my childhood learning to shoot on a 110 point and shhot, then graduating to my dad’s pentax MG 35mm. It also has a fun sort of cross-generational appeal when I take out one or several antiques. Knowing that 40, 50, or even 75 years ago, someone else was taking photos with the exact same camera that I am now is kind of neat.

[Author]

Posts