OMG! A Russian Moment conversion!

OMG, of course, stands for "oh my GOMZ!" In 1952, the Russian camera company GOMZ (Gosularstvennyi Optiko-Mekhanicheskii Zavod) created a roll film instant camera known as Moment. Polaroid wasn't officially sold in Russia, so GOMZ made a copycat camera and produced a Type 40 equivalent. It wasn't a success. Too expensive and the film was very poor quality, so less than 9,000 were produced. According to Land List, Modern Photography did a review of the Russian instant film, but I don't know the month or year so I haven't been able to locate it. There are other Google-able sites on the Moment camera and GOMZ, so I won't go into any historical details, except to mention that GOMZ became LOMO, whose name was eventually pirated by whom many consider to be the evil overlord of analog photography, Lomography (I'm personally indifferent...any company that promotes film over digital can't be all bad).
So the Moment camera is somewhat rare, though not so rare that there isn't usually at least one available on eBay at any given...moment (haha). It's just a matter of waiting to grab one for a decent price. Which I did. Here it is...

Very similar in design to the Polaroid 110A/B, with some differences. The lens isn't quite as nice as the 110 lens. Easy to remove, though...just screws off.

Film speeds are from Bulb to 200, and the aperture is 6.8 to 22, though it continues to get smaller after 22, looks to be around 32 at it's smallest. On a side note, the aperture blades are behind the shutter.
The focus viewfinder is a bit odd. It's the same finder that I see on other Russian folding cameras of the time.

On the top is a sport finder for framing...

And the focus is controlled by a sliding bar on one side. It actually clicks into place at each number.

So, neat looking camera...but close to unusable, unless you want to find some Type 40 that still works. I'm not much into just having cameras to look at and not use, though I certainly appreciate cool-looking cameras. I bought this to convert to pack film, of course! I've done this previously, and the process is pretty much the same. I figure this is the first time someone has been able to use one of these in 50 years or so, unless someone else has converted a Moment in the past.
First up is removing all of the extra bits from the back.

And the back that will go on the camera...

I had to cut out the film end of the camera to fit the back on and allow for the film to be pulled.

And I had to cut the original back to fit.

And then put it all together!

And I had to tape up a spot on the bellows where the finder rubs against it while the camera is closed.

Let's put some 669 in, take it outside a see if it works!

And it does! Ugly shots, but it works...and it has a leak. After messing about with a flashlight in the dark, I found a couple pinholes along the bellow edges. Easy fix, I just taped up the bellows. Much easier than messing about trying to find a mystery leak where I attached the back.
A couple notes on using the thing. Not sure what's up with the finder. I assume it is supposed to assist with focusing, but it stays exactly the same regardless of the focus setting. Everything is always in focus in the finder. And the finder is square, so it's not very good at all for framing. Trying to use the finder on top is difficult, as well. What you see in it is entirely dependent on how far away your eye is from the thing. So framing with the camera is a mixed bag. The shutter is super quiet, though. Quiet enough that sometimes I wasn't sure if it fired. It is a bit awkward to fire, as the shutter button is on the lens. It's tough to reach depending on how I'm holding the camera. Has decent depth of field, and seems to provide a very pinpoint focus, which makes it all the more difficult to use when I have to guess my distance. I will take it out next weekend and shoot some real stuff with it, see how it handles. Some shots of the final product!

A fun project, done "just because". I know some people have an attitude that I'm ruining a camera (I've actually had comments that I shouldn't have used really old film, that I should be saving it...what's the point in that?). I've taken a camera that has no use other than to hold some books up and given it a second life! Not an easy camera to use, but I will still have some fun with it. It would be interesting to convert a Foton someday. Until I write again, seeya!

UPDATE: A few photos taken with the Moment. The lens is quite sharp and if you can get the distance correct, provides a very nice image. This was Type 669 with the camera at about 125 and 11.

The leak is their occasionally, but I can't locate it. It may be the back itself, which has actually come a bit loose, so I will probably take it off and redo at some point. A couple more shots using 100 Sepia, with the camera at 200 and whatever was beyond 22, the smallest aperture setting. One print and a couple goop scans.

The biggest issue is framing. I can use the glass finder to make sure that whatever I'm aiming at is actually in the frame, but the sport finder is close to useless, it is so far off from what actually appears on the print. At some point I will check the aim with ground glass to compare. More updates to come, I'm sure!

Great Wall + Polaroid = Sweet!

This is a project I've been meaning to do for awhile. I was just waiting for a cheap Great Wall and a cheap Polaroid back so I could combine the two! This was actually probably one of the less "fun" things I have done, but I will probably do it again sometime and correct some of the problems I had (and not trash so many useful parts).
We start with a Great Wall DF-2 camera...known for its "bokeh" heavy lens, and reviewed previously here.

Take off the back.

And take out some random bits I don't need. You can see that the film plane is actually quite a bit deep in the camera.

Putting the camera on the back, you see that I need to cut away a lot of metal.

My first worry was the 3-step shutter mechanism, as discussed in my Great Wall post. To put the back on, I would have to remove the first step, which is used to advance the film and release the shutter mechanism for cocking.

After taking it off, though, I realized that I could use the double-exposure switch, which does the same thing. It just releases the cocking mechanism (haha) so you can take another exposure. Cutting into the camera would not affect this part. So I measured and marked. It was I think 5/8" in + 3/16" to allow for the thickness of the Polaroid back. It has to be fairly precise as the Great Wall has pinpoint focusing.

And then I cut the rear part out using a hand saw and a hand-held jig saw. This is where I made my first mistake. I should have removed ALL the extra bits of metal. Sawing was not smooth at all, and the angles were awkward.

I should have taken off the outer cover plates, though they survived. And I should have removed the interior light-proofing parts, which I destroyed in the process. I didn't realize that they would be important until later. Here we see how the camera and back fit together...

I used a Hasselblad back because it was already precut for 120 film. I did make some adjustments to it, though, to try to make a larger image area.

I then had to take the old back and cut out the top and bottom to put back on the camera. I just used a hand saw for this part.

I had to deal with the holes left over from the film spool advance...

I retrospect (you will see why in a bit), I could have cut up another 1/4" inch. I also needed to seal up all the open areas. Old Spectra and Ace dark slides worked well.

At this point, all I really need to do is glue it together...

This is where it started to get ugly, and I have few pictures of the process. After letting it dry overnight, the shutter stopped working. I thought that maybe I got superglue on something and it was catching. It would fire, but stick halfway through. I did everything I could think of to avoid tearing the back off. I took the top off to see what I could do.

I messed around with this for far too long before I just gave up and tore the back off. It was a spring inside the wall that had come loose. It provides tension to make the shutter snap back. So I replaced it and put a bit of padding to keep it from popping out again. Then I glued the camera together again. Shutter was working great. Left it for a couple hours...shutter wasn't working again. After screwing around for another hour, I ended up tearing the back off again, and removing the double-exposure mechanism all together.

I have no idea why it was affecting the shutter, but taking it out fixed the camera. I can just turn the knob now to cock the shutter. On a side note, I opened up my other Great Wall to compare, and I did nothing to it except remove the knob, which involves one screw, and the cover plate...but now the double exposure mech doesn't work on that camera! It just lets me cock the shutter. I didn't change anything so I don't understand it at all. And, when I took apart the cameras, it is impossible to get the speed setting in the right place. So I can set the speed, but the indicator doesn't line up...so I just have to know that I am three clicks over so it is at 60. I tried like 5 times to get them to line up and they won't.
So...ANYway. At this point the shutter works so I glue it back together and check focus with ground glass. Seems to be perfect! But, another problem...I destroyed the interior parts of the camera when I was cutting. When you cock the shutter, it totally lets a bunch of light into the interior of the camera. There is a piece on top that block light, and a shield for the sides that blocks light, as well. In this shot, along the sides...light shines through that gap, so it has to be covered yet allow the shutter to slide.

I had to reconstruct all of these parts with plastic. I don't have any photos of this process because by this time I wasn't having fun anymore and just wanted to be done with it. So, yeah, I did finish it...

Ugly! Did I forget to mention that I dropped the camera on the floor, bending the front of the lens? Doesn't affect anything other than the looks. And I lost the front skin...must have thrown it away, or it became a cat toy and is under the couch. But....does it work better than it looks? My first test shot with 664:

Leaky! I took it inside and shined a flashlight all around the inside and couldn't find any leaks. I figured it was my baffling system I built out of plastic, but it seemed to be light proof. Put some Fuji FP-100C in and took another shot...

Still leaky! Looks better cropped, of course.

So...it works! Focus seems to be spot on. Just that pesky lightleak. Another shot with ID-UV.

It was at this point that I painted the camera black in hopes that it would fix the mysterious leak. This morning, I took it out again for a few more test shots.

Argh! Leaks! After looking at it in the dark multiple times and finding nothing, I realized that it couldn't be the camera...it had to be the Polaroid back. And it was...leaking from the dark slide slot. So a piece of tape over the opening fixed the problem. No more leaks!

So, it works. A few thoughts. The bottom is cut off (which is actually the top of the Polaroid). I had this figured out pretty exactly, but when I made the plastic mask, it moved the back down just enough to cut off the edge of the shot. And the ugly edges from my baffling and tape. If I do this again, I will try to keep as much of the original camera intact as possible. I probably spent 20 hours on this total, but that included redoing things, etc. I could probably make another in six hours or so. Not sure if it's worth the time, money and hassle though. But that probably won't keep me from trying again. I'll call this the prototype. GRP.v01!

Adios until whenever!