Frank Wylie

Just purchase an inexpensive incident meter to get started. The in-camera meter is probably useless or fairly inaccurate and you'll need a hand held meter regardless. The 240 is a capable camera if you use it right and keep it maintained properly.

Well, it depends on what you mean by "free access". Unless the film is online (and so few are), you have to travel to Washington, D.C. to view the films in a reading room on a flatbed film editor after you request the viewing and you have to have a legitimate research project; all determined by the management. Getting actual copies of a film can be complicated by copyright issues and donor restrictions on materials, but if it is in the Public Domain (no copyright restrictions) and the donor has not placed any restrictions on the material, anyone can get a film or digital copy of the film, but it can be incredibly expensive due to film print or scanning costs. Nothing is cheap in this arena; the Library pays the same amount for film stock and film scanners as everyone else, so the cost must be passed on. We understand we are extremely lucky in this day and age to even have a budget and facilities/equipment for this work, but as is always the case with any collection, it is never enough to do what is needed.

Amazing work! Very nice! I'd love to travel to the archive and see this man's life work!

I decided to go ahead and purchase these lenses and clean them myself. In the past, I used Rodenstock enlarging lenses on a Nikon bellows with adapters with acceptable results for field flatness, but they are not really designed for 1:1 copying and light loss was somewhat of a problem. These belong to a Acme Optical Printer I purchased and will be restoring to operation, but since the weather has turned cold it will probably be next spring before I can move it to my house. I don't really plan on doing much optical printing, but restoring one of these printers to as near original condition as possible will be a good "old fart" passtime and save it from the scrap heap...

Can I assume you have tried a friction tool on the inner, stepped ring on the front element? Almost looks like there is a thread where the seam meets the outer, smooth ring... Of course, it could be like some of the later Olympus 35mm still camera primes that have a glued-in beauty ring which you have to pry out (very scary).

Saw it in a 4K theater last night and it was impressive work. However, the sound track was ultra over the top and the subwoofers were blowing everyone's hair around and threatening to deafen the audience; That was irritating. I would say it struck me as being neither primarily digital or film; neither fish nor fowl, but it looked very good. An interesting look that did not signal one medium over the other...

No, its a specialty lens. Here's a few details: http://www.savazzi.net/photography/printing_nikkor_105mm.html

Jacek, I have to suspect that you are correct in that by the time your lens was manufactured, they were probably not designed to be serviced easily; just replaced. Once you get a good replacement, you could perhaps then go at the old lens with a bit more "gusto" and maybe understand how it was assembled for future reference. I sometimes do this just to satisfy my own curiosity if the lens is otherwise useless and headed for the landfill... I hate to toss any lens, but sometimes it cannot be avoided. I've cleaned quite a few primes myself; most aren't bad, but I have run into some assemblies now and then that are either over engineered or just worn-out and irreparable due to non-existent spare parts. Good luck with your quest!

Primes are bad enough, but zooms... very tricky. I see spanner slots in the rear of the lens; you'll need a lens spanner and/or some friction tools at a minimum. Forgive if you know all this stuff, but a good general tutorial site is Richard Haw's site for repairing lenses; https://richardhaw.com/lens-camera-repair-fundamentals/ He covers still camera lenses, but the principals are the same. Wish I could be of more help!

Does anyone know any company or individual who is still servicing Nikon Printing Nikkor's (you know, like for an optical printer)? I have a 95 and 105 I am considering purchasing, but they were stored poorly and have some obvious issues; I need someone who can evaluate and possibly clean the internal elements if they turn out to be worth salvaging. I work on my own Nikkor's for still cameras, but these spook me a bit AND I haven't totally committed to purchasing them yet, so... I wish John Monseaux was still around; miss him. Thanks for any leads.

Improvise! Unless you are just swimming in money and have to throw it away to keep the giant stacks from falling and crushing you; It doesn't have to be an "official tool" (if there ever was such a thing). Any form of sheet rubber with some degree of tackiness and a PVC pipe or olive jar of the right diameter will work just as well. As for deleting; don't know. Sorry!

Up until the late 1990's, Chace Audio required a 3/4 inch U-matic transfer of picture elements with a LTC window burn over the pix for syncing image to audio restorations. We produced them on a special Steenbeck with a Sony 3 chip standard definition camera, a time code generator and a special transfer prism. Boy, if you want lousy images, this is the route to go, wretched indeed, but it got the job done. I even remember a Columbia Executive demanding a U-matic copy of a 3 Stooges short we were working on in 2001 or 2002, so he could screen it in his office. Seems he was unwilling to play it back on his computer as a file and had to have the tape. We still have that Steeenbeck... and it still makes horrible transfers, but luckily it rarely gets used anymore... Say what you will about the format, it was almost bullet proof, except for that darned one rubber belt that broke at the exact wrong moment; former users will know exactly what I am talking about and probably STILL have a box of them laying around somewhere...

(I now see this is a duplicate thread started by the OP. Only ONE is required; multiple only waste bandwidth!) A friction tool is the best bet. A solid rubber stopper, a gum rubber "puck" or or any rubber type item like a jar lid opener can be pressed firmly and evenly down on the face of the ring while turning. Its like opening a stubborn jar of pickles; press down and turn while gripping the lens barrel firmly. If you use sheet rubber, find a similar diameter object with a flat bottom, place the rubber sheet over the ring and align the bottom of the can or bottle or whatever to fit over the center of the ring, touching evenly on the rim of the adapter. Start with light pressure and work your way up; sometimes it comes of fairly easy, other times it can take an amazing amount of force to remove a stuck ring. This video deals with lens disassembly with a specific set of tools, but the same principal applies:

Wow! Thanks! Reminds me of my paper pile in boxes and filing cabinets. Maybe I should get them to scan them...

The first question would be; is it actually in the film gate or is it in the viewfinder? Depending on the camera viewfinder and how easy it is to disassemble, it might just be on the back side of the ground glass. Getting to that ground glass without causing problems might be the issue. If it's in the viewfinder only, well that's certainly an irritation but not a game stopper. Cleaning the viewfinder path could cost considerably and take a while, shipping it to and from a repair technician. The second question is; what camera are you using? If you don't have it, a good book to get and read carefully is "Professional Cameraman's Handbook" by Verne and Sylvia Carlson (revised edition). There are sections in the book on how to do a gate check during a shoot to avoid hairs in the image. If you already have or know of this publication, sorry but it's the best reference I know outside of personal experience with any one type of camera/viewfinder combo...

Pretty much LTO in a Petabyte server... ?

The slightest bit of decomposition will start the emulsion to lift and can strip it off the base. Sticky/decomposing nitrate is insoluble in perchloethylene or HFE, but even the smallest bit of water in alcohol can affect decomposition, smearing it onto buffers and ... well you can imagine. If you ever have a bit of nitrate where some decomp is bubbling up on a frame, and you are willing to sacrifice that frame to save the reel, then you can wipe the decomp off with a damp cloth, let the film base dry (its usually just the emulsion that has gone bad) and arrest the spread of decomposition in most cases. It is the out-gassing that is contagious to the prior and post wraps of the reel that spreads the decomp. Anyway, don't use water on Nitrate unless you want to destroy it. If you have a totally melted reel, put it in a pail with just enough water to cover it and then transport it to a hazardous waste facility. Don't burn it; that is just asking for trouble...

Look for a used Lipsner Smith 900 to 1100 or so series of alcohol based cleaning machines, as long as you don't feed it deteriorating Nitrate film. You don't want, probably can't afford, a nitrate-capable perc or HFE based cleaner; permits and/or fluid costs would be prohibitive and the fumes are toxic (at least for the Perc), so you'd have to install a vapor recovery system. You will need an outside vent for the LS machine quoted above or you'll stand a chance of fines or an explosion... Cleaning machines are more efficient; give you time to do something else while the film cleans and you can always send a reel back through multiple times

Sell it on Ebay without a warranty. People will buy ANY film stock, regardless of age or storage, for various reasons. Here's the description of the film: https://125px.com/docs/motionpicture/kodak/kodak-rar.html

We all deserve a minute or two of reflection when we exit this wildly imperfect, beautiful World. Geoff deserves even a few more... https://gboyle.nl/cinematography/?p=630

Rusty Scrims? Didn't he work for Russ Meyer? ?

I have found the secret to using a larger head for a smaller camera is to properly "warm up" the fluid before using it. Back the pan and tilt drags off to minimum and vigorously exercise the head, both pan and tilt, for several minutes prior to use each day to get the fluid uniform and warmed-up. Then tune the drag to suit your camera weight. You should be fine.

The camera needs a CLA - clean, lube and adjustment. The old lube has probably solidified and is gumming-up the works. With that being said, I wish you luck finding someone who can repair it for less than 10 times it's worth. You are probably better off trying to find another one in operating condition. A last ditch effort could be to set it in the sun in a window with the lens caps on for an hour or so. The gentle heat might loosen up the old lube and you can put new batteries in it and see if it will take-off and run at normal speed. If you do get it running, let it run for an extended period out of the sun; give the lube a chance to re-liquify and re-distribute itself around the working parts. Keep the camera upright at all times; don't lay it down on it's side or the softened lube could migrate into areas you don't want it to be. Don't point it down or back; normal, level operating position until you are sure it has cooled down to room temperature. Just be sure to run it no faster than 24 fps; don't run it empty above that speed. Good luck.

Yes, but it will be a very poor image with extremely low contrast (assuming b&w here). It will not be useful for exhibition.

Yes. Exactly.