About To Return To SL66-Land

[Walter G]

Greetings everyone. I just joined this site today as a means of preparing for the acquisition of an SL66 E. My name is Walter and I am a Sydney based professional whose career kicked off in 1965.

In 1969 I bought my first SL66 and acquired an entire system around it. What concerns me is FILM TRANSPORT. In that early system I had two 6x6 roll film holders. One worked perfectly and the other used to crimp the edge of the film, sometimes rendering it impossible to wind the film further. This would in turn lead to problems with loading the film into reels for processing. I heard of many other SL66 users at the time who had similar problems.

So, my question is, does this problem persist in later models or did the design folk fix it. I am not certain of the vintage of the SL66E that I am getting but it would have to be years later than that first unit I purchased.

Cheers,

Walter

[JanBoettcher]

Hi Walter,
really two film inserts or to magazines?
Jan

[Walter G]

Two complete magazines. Both purchased new.

[JanBoettcher]

hmh, so far I have heard of "other" magazine-trouble only, but not of this fault.

[slixtiesix]

The magazines undergone a few changes since the introduction of the camera. I think you can buy the SL66E with confidence as it hit the market some 20 years after the initially SL66. Early magazines were prone to failure, which led to a redesign of some parts. The early magazines can easily be recognized: (hope this works)

http://web.archive.org/web/200503071457 ... /parts.htm

PS: Make sure that the meter works accurately.

Best regards, Benjamin

[Walter G]

Thank you very much for the great information Benjamin,

I feel quite reassured now.

The meter is probably not of great concern to me. I haves hand metered for a lifetime. It is the condition of the particular SL66E and its age that appeal to me more than the TTL meter.


Cheers,

Walter

[fuwen]

The meter can come in handy if u do macro work that saves time on adjusting exposure due to bellow extension.

[Walter G]

Thank you Fuwen,

I have spent my life working with view cameras and so bellows factors is part of daily life but I do take your point that it could be quicker than punching bellows length into my PDA.

Cheers,

Walter

[fuwen]

View camera? Oh then bellow extension calculations are too easy for u. Anyway SL66 lenses can be reverse mounted without accessories for macro photography with reproduction ratio more than 1:1 then build in meter becomes handy again as when a lens is reverse mounted the effective f-stop changes.

Enjoy your SL66/SL66E.

[Walter G]

You are right Fuwen,

For a moment I had overlooked the lens reversal situation. Thanks for reminding me.

Cheers,

Walter