Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

What is a mechanical camera? In the most popular terms, it is a camera that can take pictures without a battery at all.

Since the invention of the camera, human beings have been making mechanical cameras for a long time, and then gradually add electronic components to the camera. up to now, the camera has become an electrical appliance.

The development of mechanical camera has also gone through many processes. The original human camera did not have a shutter, because the sensitivity of photosensitive materials at that time was very low and required a long time of exposure.

The following thing like a telescope is an 1840 camera, which should be called a photographic equipment, but it is not actually a modern camera.

The first important organ on the camera is the shutter. With the continuous improvement of the sensitivity of photosensitive materials, the exposure time of photography continues to shorten, from the past few hours, to the next dozens of minutes, to a few minutes, and then to a few seconds, 1 second, or even less than a second.

As a result, the most basic definition of a mechanical camera also appears: a mechanical camera is a camera that uses a mechanically controlled shutter.

In contrast, cameras that use electronically controlled shutters are called electronic cameras, but there are also mechanical and electronic hybrid shutters, but these shutters are mainly electronically controlled, because almost all machines with such shutters have A gear. However, no matter electronic control or mechanical control, the work of shutter is a mechanical process. In the digital age, there are digital shutters that do not use mechanical parts.

Around 1890, a dual-track wooden large-frame camera like ours became popular, which had no complex mechanism except for the shutter. After the advent of the 120 film standard in 1901, small cameras became more and more active. New machines are beginning to emerge.

In the 1920s, the 135 camera was also available, and the organs on the camera became more abundant, such as the linked film mechanism, the paraxial ranging mechanism, the more complex reflector rebound mechanism, and so on. Before World War II, the types of mechanical cameras have been quite complete, and the Leica cameras and Lulai cameras that we are familiar with are all products of that era. At that time, the largest camera manufacturer in the world was Zeiss.

The 1950s, after the end of World War II, was the peak of mechanical cameras, when there were many brands, including dozens of Leica L39 cameras. Until the advent of electronically controlled shutters in the late 1960s, mechanical cameras were mainstream.

I would like to add that mechanical cameras do not mean that there are no electronic components at all. many mechanical cameras have photometric components, but they do not use electricity for other functions and can focus and expose normally in a state without electricity. However, there is a photometric system or a lot of convenience.

Manual photography and mechanical cameras are not necessarily related, mechanical cameras are generally manual focus, manually set aperture shutter, but some electronic machines are also purely manual operation. For example, the Pentax 67 is a manual camera, but it is an electronically controlled shutter and cannot run without electricity. Another example is BRONICA's ETR camera, which is also manually controlled (without a photometer), but it is also electronically controlled, with no battery shutter and only an emergency file.

You may wonder why it should be made into full electricity when it is obviously exposed manually. Here we are going to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of mechanical cameras.

From the law of the development of the camera body, electronization and automation belong to evolution, even 120 cameras pursue this. Only the large frame camera does not emphasize this aspect because of its unique shooting form.

The machinery we are talking about today is mainly 135120.

Mechanical camera bears the brunt of the problem is the accuracy of the shutter, its shutter is controlled by the mechanism, so it can not be completely accurate, coupled with wear and tear after use, and so on, will produce a lot of errors. And the mechanical shutter error of different manufacturing quality is also different, and the error of inferior mechanical shutter is great.

The design of mechanical shutter allows errors, generally, the speed can not exceed 1x3 of each shutter, excellent mechanical shutter (focal plane) full opening is very accurate, such as Nikon FM2 125, generally measured between 123126, but the slow door is a little bit worse, according to Asahi photography test, the slow door difference of FM2 is more, for example, the speed of 15 is 13.9-14 The speed of 4 is 3.38-3.5, and the maximum error is close to 1A / 3.

In contrast, the electronic shutter is more accurate in speed control. In order to make the shutter more accurate, Kyocera also uses quartz parts to control it.

For example, the Pentax LX is a hybrid shutter, the full opening speed (60) and below is electronically controlled, and the above is mechanical. The accuracy of its electronic control part is amazing, such as 15, which is measured to be 15.2, which is 3.97, with a very small error. But there is a certain error in his fully open mechanical shutter gear.

You may think that Nikon's FM2 is not much worse. Most of the time, we have no problem shooting film with a difference of 1 and 2. That is because first this is a new FM2, if combined with later wear, use, etc., the error will be further increased, especially irregular maintenance. In addition, the FM2 uses a very advanced steel vertical shutter, which is far more stable than the old horizontal shutter and is already very accurate.

The second problem with mechanical cameras is the type of failure: mechanical failure.

Any mechanical part of the mechanical camera will have a problem, that is, a mechanical failure. Many people think that mechanical cameras can be used for a long time and are very durable. In fact, most mechanical cameras are very old, already very fragile, and the failure rate is very high.

Many friends think that mechanical cameras are not afraid of breakage and can be repaired even if they are broken, which is almost purely imaginative. In fact, there are very few people who can repair them, let alone those old mechanical cameras.

Even if you can fix it, you often can't fix it. The mechanical parts of the camera are precision parts, which require high accuracy, but there is a lack of standardization. Each part is different and each machine is different. Many cameras no longer have the guidance of the original factory, and the original factory has closed down a long time ago. So we all repair it on the basis of experience.

Even like Leica and Hasu, many camera repairers are wild, fumbling on their own, lack of parts, lack of calibration standards, and it is very common that they can't fix it. You might as well go to the Internet to search Leica Hasu, repair can not be fixed, cursing a lot of posts. What if the authorities? Not only does it cost a lot of money, but it also takes a long time to wait, such as sending Leica repairs back to Germany.

Because you haven't experienced it, of course it's easy to say, as long as you break down a mechanical camera once, you will understand how bad it is to build a mechanical camera, and you will want to shove the heads of people who tell you about mechanical eternity into the gears.

We are psychologically prepared to repair electronic machines, and mechanical machines cannot be repaired. Many people are not psychologically prepared, but others still say that they will last forever. Eternity, your grandmother, eternity.

In mechanical cameras, at present, only Leica and Hasu's maintenance can be basically guaranteed, other cameras can only follow the edge.

However, Lehalo is not the big head, the one that uses the mechanical SLR is the real big head, and the faults of these cameras are really varied. For example, the over-piece gear is broken, the over-piece is uneven, and for example, the shutter blade is stuck, all can not be opened, and so on. The problem is that these machines are as difficult to repair as Leica, but they can't charge the same as Leica, so many craftsmen don't want to fix them, or they don't want to fix them.

FM2 what is expensive, if your 500 yuan Pentax SP is broken, you will want to buy another one, there is nothing permanent.

After talking about repair, the next problem is maintenance.

Maintenance is the greatest advantage of mechanical cameras, electronic machines do not maintain this view, the aging and damage of electronic components is basically irreversible, maintenance is also more violent, where broken for where. Because the mechanical camera can be maintained, it can be used for a long time.

But the problem is that many people have no sense of maintenance at all and do not know that machines need maintenance in order to be durable. Many cameras are bought at such a low price, and the maintenance is not worth it, so you might as well buy another one. You Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin must be maintained, now you take a piece of SWATCH to maintain, I am the maintenance master I do not want to talk to you.

So I can give you a basic reference, such as FM2,OM1 cameras there is no mechanical when the eternal saying, on the one hand, they are difficult to maintain, on the other hand, it is difficult to repair.

Leica M, Hasu V, Lulai double reverse this kind of expensive, famous camera can be regarded as mechanical eternity, as long as you can find reliable maintenance and repair. Some maintenance let me also very speechless, for example, I read on the Internet that the basic maintenance, do not dismantle the fuselage. If you don't disassemble the fuselage, how dare you maintain it?

Another great advantage of mechanical cameras is that they are not afraid of running out of electricity. It is more common that the camera suddenly explodes in the middle of the shot, and it is more common to lose power in the middle of the shot. After all, the kind of LR44 battery commonly used can not hold up many rolls in the face of the old electronic machine with a significant increase in power consumption. My experience is that Nikon F3 takes about 20-30 rolls, like my LX aging is more serious, take 10 rolls to change the battery. Of course, there are different types of batteries, and a better button battery can last a little longer.

There is no electricity in the middle of the video camera, it is really useless for you to call your ancestors. If it is a city street shot, you can still find a convenience store to save life, but if you want to climb a mountain or the next sea or something, you can only take out your cell phone.

Mechanical cameras are not afraid, they can still be used without electricity. Some friends said, photometry is gone, what to do! The next photometric App on the phone is fine, and one photo shoot is enough.

It is a misunderstanding that machinery equals good quality, durability, and machinery equals eternity. Is the Phoenix 205 still purely mechanical? can it be the same thing as the Leica M3?

What is more, machinery is not equal to eternity. People think that machinery is eternal because from the bottom of their hearts, people think that machinery is a simple thing, that is, some organ parts that can be repaired, while electronic chips are complex things, and they are all microscope-level things. if it's broken, you can't fix it.

My advice for novice photographers is to do it manually. It doesn't matter whether the machine is mechanical or not. Manual photography can cultivate our basic photography skills and help us better understand various photography techniques, but it doesn't matter whether you are a mechanical camera or not.

In addition, I suggest that if you really want to feel the charm and precision of machinery, you should also buy a high-quality mechanical camera, not for the sake of machinery. Rolex Machinery, SWATCH also has mechanical, but is not a concept at all. You like cars, you should play with cars, you like watches, you should play with watches, in the same way, you like mechanical cameras, you should play with mechanical cameras, and it must be much cheaper than cars and watches.

This article is from the official Wechat account: film fan club (ID:jiaojuanmi), author: Shanghai Old dirty Turtle

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.