Kodak Pocket Camera restoration update

Well, its been a while but I have been busy, here are some photo's and its almost complete.

KODAK DISC CAMERAS

What has this got to be worth? For sale is everything you can see, I could spend lots of time telling you all about this camera but unless you are interested then I don't see the point. I would rather answer questions to 'interested' buyers. That may seem a bit 'blunt' but we all know what this is, if you collect these camera's then good on you (not to sound too camera 'snobbish'!). These are great 'future' collectables and more long term investments. At least one day they will become more valuable even though they may of been 'mass' produced.

So, make me an offer I just can't refuse! Email me at contact@charliequins.com

A really old camera I found!

I discovered this one not too long ago, it had been living on my shelf for a very long time, I just could not open it. I think I may have wrote about this on a previous post. Anyway, I decided to 'let it go' as I will never get to restore it! It would be a great thing to do but I am already working on one old camera and this will probably take a while. If I could afford to keep it then I certainly would and one day, when I am really old and doddery i may get time to restore it!

So this one's over to you, take a look at the photo's, we all know what it is, if you do not then its a nice old Kodak. Its a great vintage, a Kodak No.3 Folding Pocket Camera Model E-3, the last USA patent date is 1906. So, whats a 'good' price for this one????? Take a look at the photo's and you tell me, I would be interested to know.

Looking at it, its been through the wars, actual it is older than both World wars so to see one 'bashed' about aint a rare thing! This would make a great restoration project, I even have the missing piece of leatherette if its re-usable?

As for the lens, its in great shape the shutter action works well and there are no visible scratches. Internally is very good for the age and the bellows are 'sound', they don't leak any light!

I could spend all night writing about this camera and putting more photo's online its such a great camera. I envy the one who owns this especially if they are intending to restore it. Maybe you would like to send me photo's if you do buy it and restore the camera to its former glory.

More information,photo's or to make me an please get in touch - contact@charliequins.com.

ZEISS IKON COCARETTE FOR SALE

I have just had a look and there's a couple on Ebay, one sold for £15.00 plus a fiver for P&P, 'damn Ebay, damn you for ever'! Actually, I don't mind selling on Ebay and using Paypal, they are safe or should I say, 'as secure as they could possibly be'. Thats not putting their services down and if you are not using Ebay to build your collection then you are missing out.
Anyways, I digress and so back to the camera and some nice photo's - firstly.....

What a great camera and with the original case, I will even throw in a very old 'Manual of Photography', its a great little book published by Bernards. It fits nicely in the leather camera case and these sell for a couple of quid, if not more. I have some photo's of it somewhere if you want to take a look, just get in touch.
Here are some more photo's, I have sugested a price below but you can make me an offer, you just never know. With christmas round the corner, I may except the first offer I get, saying that anything under a fiver will be ignored. I like to barter so, NAME YOUR PRICE and we can go from there. Take a look at the photo's and if you want this camera then name your price!

This is a great camera with very little wear, there's some rust on the frame and some of the leatherette has 'lifted' but apart from that, this camera is good to go!

Internally, the camera is sound and looks as good as new, the hinges are in great shape. This is a great camera and would be ideal to add to your collection or to even use.


For more photo's or information just get in touch or if you seriously want to own this camera then make me the winning offer. Its as simple as that, this camera has to sell and ideally before the christmas holiday. I'm not desperate but a 'reasonable' offer may suffice!


To get the ball rolling I am going to suggest a BUY IT NOW PRICE starting at £100.00 only because mines NOW  the cheapest online at this moment. I have seen one for sale on Ebay with a BUY IT NOW price of well over £100.00 plus P&P.

So what are you waiting for, all you got to do is make a winning offer aand its yours.



To give you a clue on how much, I would need to cover my costs of owning this camera in the first place (purchase cost), how much its going to cost to package it and post it to your chosen destination and so on.


I look forward to your offers, dont worry as you cannot offend me by offering too little a price, I may even make you an offer just above your offer so that we both have a merry christmas.


To get in touch, you can post a message here on the blog or send me an email at contact@charliequins.com you can even call me, my mobile numbers here on the blog somewhere.

VINTAGE KODAK VIGILANT SIX-20

The first old vintage camera I have for sale is a very nice KODAK VIGILANT Six-20 and this is in a very nice condition. The old camera is clean for its age and only has a little rust here and there, this does add to its character in my opinion. I am one of those who feels that restoration can be a good thing but sometimes its nice to see some wear.

I like this camera and its one that I would of like to keep for myself but I have to stick to my 'ethos', I am a dealer not a collector! It gets more difficult to part with these pieces of functional 'art', that is to say, you could easily put a film in this camera and take a photo'. It would probably be much better than any digital, in my humble opinion, because the photo would have 'soul'.

Even closed it oozes style unlike most modern camera's and even with some minor defects, its a stunner! Obviously, you cannot compare a digital or film camera on performance or can you? Ok, its going to take time loading the film, developing and so on compared to a digital but once you have taken the photo and had it developed, it can be scanned.

Once scanned, you should notice the difference between digital and film, I am not saying every photo will be better or worse. What I am saying is, if you are after a superior image to work with then use film, if you are 'snapping' away then use digital. This is from someone who 'always' uses a digital and the last time I used film was back in the seventies.

Look how clean this camera is inside, looks as good as the day it was made even the label looks as new. You usually find this on most 'folders', the exterior may look the worse for wear but internally, its like new! If it does not, then this is a good indicator that you are either looking at a camera that require restoring or you don't mind just displaying it.

Imagine how 'cool' this would look on display, either as part of a collection or just on its own. I did consider making some oak bases for these to 'sit' on but they look just as good on there own. I could imagine one of these sat on a glass shelf in a minimalist dwelling.

The technology behind this camera is outstanding for the year it was made and works as well today as the day it was first used. I bet you won't be able to write that in 80 or so odd year about digital! This KODAK has a Diomatic shutter with a Kodak Anastigmat 100mm lens.

The one minor problem with this Kodak camera is the door catch does not work. looking at it, I don't think its a major job to repair and I have considered this when coming up with a starting figure for the asking price. I have seen similar camera's sell on Ebay for around the £15 - 40.00 but with the usual Dakon shutter. Theres also the P&P costs and these range anything from £5 - 15.00, I did see some lucky so and so bought one for £4.00 plus £5.00 P&P!

That makes it so hard to put a decent price on such a great camera, four quid? I would rather keep this great example of a vintage Kodak camera than sell it for that. So, what would be a good price for me and a good price for whoever buys this.
Well, the P&P is a 'given', if you live at the furthest point from me then its going to cost YOU more and its as simple as that. I don't charge for packaging and use recycable packaging materials. That is, I popped down to the local supermarket gathering cardboard and anything else which would suffice.
I do have to purchase brown parcel tape but I can get this a 50 pence a 'pop' and it does go a long way for smaller packages. Thankfully, this camera is nice and simple to package plus its not going to weigh too much!
So, to set a fair price for this camera, considering the condition and that it has a Diomatic lens I think a fair starting price would be £30.00 plus P&P
ACTUALLY, that don't sound fair to me but if I sold this camera for this price then at least I can convince myself that its actually worth buying and selling camera's. I can even justify the price I paid for it in the first place as the final offer I except is not always a 'profitable' choice. Its more a matter of freeing up cash for buying more things, making Paypal & Ebay 'easy' money (paying my fees), paying other business bills and so on, I forgot, I also have to eat!

So its down to you, if you make me an offer and its on the right day then you may grab yourself a bargain. I can be contacted by email - contact@charliequins.com if you want to speak in person then send me your telephone number and I will call you.

I'm Back!

Wow, its already December and not long till christmas and the new year. I have been very busy with work, restoring the barn at monmouth. Ebaying, had a clear out and sold a load of camera's and cine movie cameras, been busy packing and posting.

UPDATE ON RESTORING KODAK CAMERA

Well I have made more progress but not as much as I liked as its been manic. I am just editing some photo's and writing up a more detailed 'post'.  So it should be here soon.

Anyway, the reason I have posted today is I have a few more camera's going on Ebay and its easier to blog about them first. I can then use the photo's for Ebay. This saves time and I am using a 'Dongle' to connect to the Internet, its a bit slow and watching files upload aint much fun.

So, I will start a new post for the camera's I am selling, hope you like the photo's.

KODAK SALE

Its been a while since posting, I have been busy photographing and listing for sale on EBAY loads of KODAK camera's plus a lot of old cine movie camera's. I did not realise how many old Kodak camera's I have collected over the past year!

I have some more to list and once this is complete i can continue with the restoration work on the vintage No1 Pocket Kodak.

Saying that, things will be busy next week as I am starting another 'restoration' project on Monday. This one will be to remove an old roof off a barn and replace. This includes salvaging the old oak beams and re-using the 100+ year old clay roof tiles.

There is also some stonework to be repaired and hopefully the weather will be kind but I guess its going to be cold! I did 'swear' that I would not do another building 'restoration' job for a while and concentrate on my 'buying & selling' venture but this was too good to turn down.

The main reason being, its at Rockfield Studio's, I may get to meet some famous 'rock star' but I doubt it. The last 'famous' person I met, or should I say. 'could of met' was David Byrne (X Talking Heads lead singer). Thing was I had gone to see him play in Nottingham at the theatre there years ago, great gig/show and was stood next to him in the foyer. Daft thing was, I never even realised it was him at the time as I was too busy making a 'feeble' attempt to 'chat up' some girl.

Anyway, it was a great night!

Restoring Kodak PART 4

I have just uploaded a video to Youtube, its the Kodak Pocket No.1 in action after finally getting the thing to open and close. Its now ready for the final cleaning down and preparing for the paint work. You can view the video here, its not much, in fact its my first every. You could say its not even a movie by definition, all I did was to string some photo's together so more like 'animation'?

How ironic, I have plenty of movie camera's that I could use, I even have a Sony Movie camera and what do I do? I use photo's and a very basic animation technic, stop motion? All it took was 6 photo's, I could have least used more to make the animation run more smoothly. Never mind, its a start and its also the very first thing I have published as a 'video'? I had better not give up the 'day' job and I guess 'Hollywood' wont come knocking but its a start.

Vintage Cine Cameras

Today I have been sorting through old cine cameras and finding out all about the ones I currently have to sell. I have taken some photo's ready for Ebay and just started some research about each model, I currently own around 15 or so!

Most are in a 'working' condition and the ones that are not may be, thats if I can figure out how to work them. I guess I could look this up on the internet, there are plenty of cine camera manuals and dedicated cine camera websites out there, but I much prefer figure them out for myself.

Most cine camera's appear fairly simple to figure out how to use but some can be very 'baffling'! Especially to someone new to this but I am learning something new with each camera.

I am amazed at some of the 'interiors' of these cine cameras, apart from being in excellent condition some look simply wonderful. You don't see anything like this in modern cameras, I guess its more about 'cost' and probably the fact that not many people would care as long as it worked.

It makes me wonder if there is a 'point' to what I have just said well I guess you could say yes. Take camera's for instance, the modern digital camera? I would not be without mine especially for the work I do but in the past couple of years, I have had to replace them at least every 18 months.

They do exactlly what they are meant to do but they just don't make them as 'robust' as they should do. Maybe there are one's out there but I am guessing these are not going to be cheap?  I could understand why if I were a 'wildlife' photographer or had to use the camera in 'extreme' places but this is not the case.

Maybe I should 'splash' out and buy a more expensive camera? I have never paid more than £200.00 for one and would worry if I did. The digital camera's I have owned in the past have all been your average, half decent and fine for the work that I do but they have all stopped working after a period of time.

Ironically, there is an exception and this still works today even though it must be over 10 years old and for the last 8 or so years has just been left in a desk drawer. Guess what it is? A Kodak! yes a Kodak DC215 Zoom that cost me a fortune when I purchased it.

The only reason I stopped using it was because I had upgraded to a camera with more 'megapixels, plus it would 'burn' through AA batteries no problem until someone advised me to use re-chargeble one's. Talking of Kodaks, I have managed to sort out the problem with the No.1 Pocket Kodak and its working fine now, will update later.

Just realised the time so its 'off to bed' for me, early morning start tomorrow. I am off to take some photo's, something I have been meaning to do for a while now. Its all very good 'dealing' in cameras but I want to go out and see what I can do. I will be using a digital camera, hopefully a 'film' one soon, its more of a practise run. Plus I am very good at editing photo's with Photoshop, I know its cheating but I have salvaged some great photo's. I guess when it comes to using 'film' theres going to be less chance of that.

One last thing, I have found out that the local college allows anyone to use there 'darkroom' and will also give advise. This is great news as I intend to have a go at developing the photo's I shoot, hopefully will be able to arrange something for next week.

Restoring Kodak PART 3

Well, I learnt something new today about restoring 'Vintage Kodak Camera's, to make the leatherette 'shine' use a good shoe polish. I hope I did the right thing but I do remember reading this somewhere.

So, today I glued most of the pieces of 'leatherette' back down to the camera except for the front panel that cannot be put back on until re-painting is complete. I then gave the camera a bit of a clean and polish, I was going to continue with trying to sort out the sliding action.

The camera's 'bellow' unit slides now or should I say 'glides' nicely until it reaches the case. This is where there hinge underneath the lens should rise up and the whole lot should fit back in the case. It then jams and will slide over back into the camera case but requires some 'jiggling'. I cannot see any obvious signs of why this is happening and its causing me concern, if I cannot sort this out then the camera will only be a 'display' piece.

I would be happy to have this on display, even in its current condition, but then I am biased. The challenge was to restore the camera in order to take some photo's. so I guess its back to the 'grind' stone.

I did manage to date the vintage 'Pocket No.1 Kodak Camera' but unsure how accurate this is, it would be great to find out if the dates correct and how many were produced. Anyway, here's some more photo's of progress so far. i am 'chuffed to pieces', which reminds me of a joke -

My friend suffers with manic depression so I pushed him in front of an old  'steam' train. He was 'chuffed to bits'! Oh well, it made me laugh.

"Restoring Kodak" PART 2

I managed to do a bit more work on the "Kodak Pocket Camera" today even though its been 'one of those days', busy! busy! busy! Today I stood not 25 feet away from where some of the defining moments in 'rock' history were made! Or should I say 'created'? I was at the studio where Queen recorded the 'Bohemian Rhapsody' album, 'Oasis' first album 'Definitely Maybe' was recorded (or should I say the first attempt?). I could go on as this was just a few 'groups' who have recorded there such as 'Led Zeppelin' but back to the camera.

I said it was 'one of those days', for some reason my 'blog' won't let me upload any photo's. I have managed to remove a lot of the paint and rust but still have a lot to do. I was un-decided about doing this as its a question of re-painting so that it don't spoil the look. Thanks to some advice from a helpful chap, Michael over at the vintage-camera-online forum , I have decided to go with the re-paint option.

I know that this is not the easiest especially getting good result and the only way I can think of doing this is using some sort of 'spray' method. I do not think painting by hand will produce the best results, thankfully I have a friend who renovates old 'Harley's'. He's a 'dab' hand at spray painting and I guess I could get some advice on the 'mechanics' of the camera. I know there's a big difference between motorbikes and camera's but he's great at fixing anything. I  could cheat and ask him to do it for me but I guess I will have to learn some new skills.

So, until I sort out this 'blog', I'm sorry but no pictures. I will retry later on. I am off 'wrapping", no its not a spelling mistake, the only 'rapping' I do is packaging my Ebay sold items!

Update, if you are seeing pictures then great the blog is working!

RESTORING A KODAK No.1 POCKET FOLDING CAMERA

Having thought about it, I decided to try restoring this "Kodak Pocket No1 Camera" which as you can see is, in a very poor condition. I thought that as I buy and sell camera's I should learn more about them. This is something I have never attempted before, I still get baffled by some and how they open, so you could say that I am not even a 'novice'!

I had thought about restoring a different camera which was in a lot better condition, see previous post, but it looked too easy. As this was going to be my first attempt at "restoring a vintage camera", I thought I would choose something more challenging. Jump in at the 'deep' end so to speak.

This old "Kodak Pocket Camera" has been sitting on my desk for some time now; I had considered at one time or another to Ebay it. I even considered throwing it away; thankfully this is something I never do! I hate to see anything 'thrown' away. I guess that’s why I am surrounded by all sorts of 'junk'; my wife’s words not mine.

I should tell you about the camera first and its current condition, there's plenty of photo's, as you can see, showing the obvious signs of damage but there are some that you would not be able to see. The lens and shutter were in a good condition and look like they will not require much work. The door is seized in the 'open' position and the bellows unit is seized tight in the 'closed' position. I have forgotten the technical term for the view finder attached near the lens but as you can see, there isn't one! There's plenty of rust and missing paint plus the leatherette is not in the best of condition, forever the optimist. So, I guess its time to get started......... 

Firstly, I removed the lens case which came out nice and easy. In fact the lens is in a very good condition and the shutter action fires at all speeds. The lens just requires some cleaning and it should be as good as new.

The second job was to dismantle the rest of the camera and this proved difficult as the door and bellows were seized, as shown in the picture. Also, it did take a while to work out what parts came loose or were meant to. I did not want to force anything but everything seemed stuck, got there in the end though.

There was no way the bellows and lens was going to come out without a fight, it was difficult. I tried gently easing the sliding piece (what is the correct term for this?) along the track but it would not budge. A little bit of oil helped but I was unsure in case the oil would damage the bellows, I was hoping the bellows were going to be in a good condition.

The one job I did not fancy doing was replacing the bellows as this looks like a very difficult. I may be wrong and I was not convinced 'patching' the bellows, although would work, was a choice. I was hoping to retain the original bellows, in fact I hope to keep as much of the original camera.

Well, it was a fight but I won, the bellows and lens unit slides up and down the track, not brilliantly but it’s a start. Also, the bellows look in very good condition, bonus! I have given them a bit of a clean and checked if they leaked any light. Not one bit, not even a 'pinhole' and all looks really good. I still may have to remove the bellows though so that I can work on the rest of the camera.

I am dreading this part as everything looks fixed with some kind of rivet? I am sure there's an easy way or even a specialist tool for doing this, I guess I will have to do some research.

So, door opens smoothly now, the lens and bellows unit slides back and forth (not smoothly yet!), I will have to go and figure out what to do next. I did have a little 'play' around with the lens to see how all this 'fit' together. The one thing I guess I have learnt is that the lens, so far, is the easiest bit to remove. This is good to know especially when I see 'old cameras' for sale where the lens is broke.

That does remind me to start looking around for spare parts, I wonder if there is a somewhere out there a 'Kodak' spare parts dealer? Or do I have to buy another Kodak Pocket camera for spares? Defeats the object really as I don't think I will find another camera in a worse condition or if I did I may be tempted to restore it!
Since starting this blog, I have been recommended some very good reference books. I have put them on my 'christmas' wishlist,  I might be lucky. They are costly but a 'must' for anyone interested in buying/selling and restoring camera's, or so I am told.

If you wish to assist me with advice then please do as it will be appreciated.