Farewell to ABA 8P-CAX

As a matter for regret, my A3 ABA-8PCAX is leaving from me, not because of any inconvenience in her, but because I was obliged to change vehicles into Golf GTI  ABA-AUCHH as a matter of fact. Though I gave GTI to my son several years ago, he bought another vehicle and he hoped me to be an owner of it, this is why my lovely A3 is deserted unintentionally. Following his proposal might be a better way to keep the peace of my family in spite of my true eager for A3. As a geriatric, too much harder suspension of GTI is not desirable at all, also too much speed at the corner is denyalable under side force. Probably, lower tire pressure would solve the problem of riding uncomfort?

As for my basic opinion on vehicle, I enjoy the note of combustion engine while driving---I'll visit to a Kinder Park if I wanna drive electric vehicle.

Portrait shooting meet at Osaka

I took part in a portrait shooting meeting supported by Panasonic and Umeda Photo Service also with a professional photographer, Mr. Akihiko Moriwaki from Tokyo. He was enough technology, background and keen skill to have given impressive satisfaction. Especially, invited model, Miss. Ayana Natsuki was extraordinarily so kind and cooperative as to satisfy even amateur photographers.

I recognized the fundamental difference between professionals and amateurs. Probably, because the reason, difference of the energy putting on the work.

In case of failure, an amateur is not required any responsibility, just a failure, let'a try next time? But, as for a professional, it's leading to self-ruining!

There is no king's road in any profession. 

Air- cooled VW Super Beetle 1302, Radio & Meter craster maintenance

An amplitude modulation receiver that's in Air-cooled VW Super Beetle has some inconvenience, scratching noise in the potentiometer and channel selection knob does not work, preset piano keys move with heavy action. In addition, sensitivity is dull. So, I determined to replace it into more uptodate one, preparing two pieces with Frequency modulation waves. Before proceeding to the procedure, I disassembled and opened it finding out so lovely pure mechanical movement of pre-set station selector. This beautiful construction produced half a century ago obliged me to change my initial mind. 

Consequently, I made up my mind to reconstruct it as it had been 50 years ago, oiling and greasing on the all of the slipping and penduram movements, and indispensable replacement of electrolyte capacitors, the were all different capacitances with 9 pieces costing 485 yen in total. 

Crogging and Inhibiting wall to be ridden over for me in order to repair as it had bee is tandem connected potentiometers for sound control and loudness also a main switch is connected together, it's almost impossible to find out the same kind of mechanical electric part however hard I might seek in the Websites. Very high and difficult wall shutting out my intention! How come?

It took me a minute to find out the way to solve the problem, I applied special magic technique to survive the worn out volume resistor unit. As we know, the resiter material, often carbon layer is scratched only on a line along with mediorinal figure, so carbone surface would be revived like new if the lines were moved--- out or inside. The metallic case of the round rotating potentiometer has often small windows for heat measures, you can recognize a moving terminal with spring action. Push or pull it without hesitation with adequate pushing power to change the tracing arc radius---resulting like new part. 

For example,  an old servo motor in my Radio control model airplane produced 50 years ago is still in the air even now, of course exactly the same mending method in the potentiometer had been invited on the potentiometer inside. 

Though a bit an antenna impedance adjustment and Intermediate Frequency Trans(IFT) was required, S/N separation and sensitivity were obtained after all in spite of it's half a century circuitry ancient design.

Another critical problem was uneven stylus movement in the fuel gauge, the angle of stylus does not show full tank position in spite of actual condition. As we know,  '71 Super Beetle has the meter coil and fuel tank sender resistor comparison thought design applying some standard voltage supplied by bibelator. The voltage stabilizer is constructed with pure mechanical design, bi-metal and pulse production. At the beginning, I planned to replace this primitive voltage stabilizer into a Semiconductor #7805 at 5.0V. Later consideration led me to change my idea---keeping the original construction as much as possible to restore VW Super Beetle. 

The way to change the output voltage of the stabilizer is reducing the pulse width---this is done by the terminal distance adjustment---10 to 15 degree turning in. As the stylus moves fair after adjusting after all, the concept "Restore the original condition" was followed excluding recent electric part invasion.

As for speed meter wire cable, periodical maintenance is required, otherwise lack of lubrication will damage the connection connection between the meeter and left front wheel. Some tear drops of machine oil at the hub center solbs the threatening problem. Counter clockwise coiled wire will transmit the lubricant upward to the meter craster. Consequently, too much application or a stupid attitude from the meter side will damage the claster.(It's often the case, oil soaking.)

Illumination balbe at 10 o'clock position was out order, filament was alive but vacuum condition was lost. Utilizing the original socket, balb was replaced and the performance of the meter craster was survived safe.

Ashiya Symphony Orchestra the 97th regular concert

I enjoyed ASO concert last night utmost. The work by the great group was superb at all. Especially, the sound of strings was quite changed, the expansion, thickness were so impressive, melody, harmony, rhythm were well balanced. 

It did not take time to know the reason why changed thoroughly. Also, the design of panflet was changed.

Very young conductor was the main effector. The sound of ASO was completely reconstructed from the base by him.

Among the program, the workmanship of the third one was second to none if compared with that even done by some professional orchestra. His fuselage, arms, fingers and feet were waving as if he himself was inside of ASO, all of them were involved and combined together!

Anyway, the future of the conductor and ASO is brilliant with the tight promise!

Transplantation of Summilux M 50mm/f1.4 from SONY E to GFX

If I carefully observe the chromatic aberration of the Leica Summilux M 50mm/f1,4 2nd generation, I would notice the S curvature line! Fully compensated at f2.0, then returned to zero point at f1.4, with the aperture fully open. I have never encountered such a correction value for standard focal length lenses, including large format lenses. That's why the Summilux M 50mm/f1.4 2nd Generation has a special charm that is difficult to explain in words. As a result, I have kept this lens as my jewel for half a century. Ernst Leitz GMBh has been making this model for 30 years without changing it's basic lens design, and this fact is backed up by the unwavering confidence in this lens.

Judging from the point of view of recent demands, the only drawback of the Summilux M 50mm/f1.4 is its helicoidal structure. The typical value for standard lenses these days is around 45cm, but the shortest distance of Summilux M is 1.0m to match the Leica M model's rangefinder adaptation. To solve this unavoidable problem, I decided to replace the Summilux lens with a standard SLR lens case equipped with a Hexanon 52mm/fl.7, which had mold in void, on the Sony E mount.

This time's work is porting from SONY E to GFX mount. As a lucky tip, Pixco has supplied us with an M65-GFX adapter compatible with the helicoid-equipped Summilux 50 at a reasonable price, bingo!!

Preliminary experiments to adapt it to the 44x33 large format have proven this lens' performance, although if you look closely you can see very slight vignetting in the corners. After that, we made final adjustments to the infinite position setting using the full length of the helicoid, and spent several days rebuilding and rehabilitating it. My gem “Summilux” will soon survive in large format. 

Former foreign settlement in Kobe

I visited Kobe's former foreign settlement for the first time in three years. Due to the recent earthquake and bombing by US B29 while WW2, all of the buildings dating back to the Meiji era, which is a good part of Old foreign Settlement Ward, were destroyed and lost completely, but they have been skillfully rebuilt while retaining the atmosphere of the past. The taste and skill of the designers and builders are noteworthy. Although it has been rebuilt, no one will be disappointed when visiting this place. The sewer pipes of the settlement, infrastructure, some of which are still in use, are now visible on the sidewalk for pedestrian. I was surprised to see it established with blocks 100 years ago on display actually.

It is already September 10th today, but it's still very hot and I fell into dehydrated condition. The people I pass by here Kobe Motomachi are all sophisticated and nice outstandingly, in good mood and atmosphere.

After the photo shoot, I had lunch as usual at "Oboya" on the north side of Motomachi Station. The  meat bowl of Oboya I took was enough to restore my energy.

Minolta New MD 135/2.8 survived

A new MD 135/2.8 appeared as a junk item on Yahoo! 135mm tends to be less popular among photographers as an intermediate focal length. The item I received looks brand new in the sense that it has never been used, but unfortunately lens infections, in my opinion, are prevalent under UV-free conditions. Mold spores spread everywhere around us and are impossible to stop completely. However, sunlight, especially UV light, can prevent its spread, if not completely. As a result, moldy lenses could not be used in the field. UV rays did not pass through the lens material. This is why unused lenses get moldy.The MD 135/2.8 I received had deadly mold on both sides of the rear component, making it unviable.

So, I tried another MD 135/2.8 on Yahoo auction for compatibility in the same war, but the newly acquired rear component was alive and bingo!

As a result, two of his molds attacked by 135/2.8 ended up voiding the other, but he was able to re-establish a capable MD 135/2.8.

The 135 focal length works the same as the 105 with a 33x44 image sensor. This is my favorite choice and I carry this with me for photo shoots. 

Switching from SONY to Fujifilm

Following my son's obligation, I gave up the SONY A9 that I used for 3 years. Then I switched from SONY to Fujifilm GFX 50S2 to increase the pixels of the image sensor from 24M to 50M, increasing the imaging area by 1.7 times. Naturally, changing the concept of focal angle to 0.8x does not impair peripheral resolution.

Finding a suitable 135 lens in the 44X33 format required some effort, and real fitting trials were done for that purpose. All shooting procedures are performed in manual action, no autofocus, auto Ev or shutter speed is used. Recall that shooting in 4X5 inch format does not require advanced automated mechanisms.

The choices were made mainly with Minolta branded MD and MC lenses due to my experience in the silver film era.

MD28/2.0, MD28/3.5, MD35/2.8, MC50/1.7, MC55/1.7, MD Macro 50/3.5, MD100/2.5, MD200/4.0, MD300/4.5.

Leica Macro Elmarit 60/2.8, Sonnar T* 85/2.8 and Leica Tele-Elmar 135/4.0 were invited without any discussion.

A matter for reglet

Sadly, a white-tailed skimmer had its tail torn off and fell into the garden dead, but to my surprise a new healthy female flew in. He was not murdered by this female, but by some other kind of predator such as a small bird, so I hope. When I saw the state of mating, I was worried that the tail would be easily torn off by a female.

NIFREL Suita Aquarium

This facility was founded and operated by Osaka Kaiyukan, the world's largest aquarium, so the interior is very similar to that, but with smaller scale, leading to no whale sharks. In exchange, it is possible to interact with animals such as birds and monkeys without shielding. Here, it should be noted that there are personnel in charge to prevent danger, but parents of small children need to be careful not to let them come into contact with animals carelessly, remember the object is wild animals! It is hoped that no accident will occur. Photographers will play enough there but with partially some too dark area inside. There is no problem with drinks and food at the convenience store. Of course there are also a toilets, wheelchair users acceptable. 

Hotel Lodge Maishima Osaka

Hotel Lodge Maishima is one of the most highly sophisticated inn around Maishima area, so it's fee is not so low reasonably as a matter of fact. The stuff are well educated in smart manner. You might take this hotel if you prefer their smart measures for you.

As I visited there with the purpose of photo shooting only, I had no opportunity to have lunch or dinner, so no comment about meals.

Many flowers are planted around the voyages and lodges, of course including my shooting target Hydrangea. It's a matter for mentioning here that small group planting method makes it possible to watch them from every direction, also this situation is very convenient for photographers to take good angle position with good lighting source! This is the greatest advantage to location at all.

Professional gardeners are invited to take care of plants all day long, this is why all the trees and flowers are put in the best condition.

Vehicle parking fee for several hours, 1.000 yen is a bit expensive?