Lada 8mm film camera

[Jan Bujnowski]

Hello,

I've got an old, Russian 8mm camera manufactured by Lada, with Lomo 9-37 lens and I don't know how to change the aperture manually. There is no aperture ring, but in the package I found something like this:

I thought it should be attached to the back of the lens, but it seems difficult to remove the lens from the camera body, because it's connected with some parts inside the body (I marked it in red on the photo). Is unscrewing that whole part really the only way to attach diaphragm ring to the lens or is there any easier way to do it? 

Another question: does anyone know what that K-A-P switch is used for? 

Thanks!

 

 

[Kyryll Sobolev]

this camera has the option of manual or automatic exposure
the KA P switch is what allows you to change between manual/automatic

K - battery control (not quite sure what that means)
A - automatic exposure (needs RC-53 battery)
P - manual

[Jan Bujnowski]

Thank you for your answer! Do you know by any chance how to attach that diaphragm ring to the lens?

[Kyryll Sobolev]

i have not used this before, but i can read the manual

the scan of the manual is available here
https://eugigufo.net/files/photovideo/video/ladaorig.pdf
(it's not OCR, so you can't copy/paste)

that iris attachment seems to be, from what i can tell, a special effects attachment, so you can shoot vignetted frames.
it is attached by means of an adapter ring (pdf page 26, item 17)

manual says:
the iris attachment can only be used when the camera iris is set to T1.7, 2, 2.8, 11, and 16.
it is not recommended for use when the camera iris is set to T4, 5.6, 8 because the iris attachment is asymetrical and the image will look skewed

if you are looking to adjust the T stop, using the lever under the lens (pdf page 5, item 5). look through the viewfinder to see the T stop

[Jan Bujnowski]

Thank you for your help and for the scan. Fortunately I can read Cyrillic, so the manual will be really helpful to me.