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Old 12th March 2021, 05:47 PM
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GoodOldNorm GoodOldNorm is offline
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Default Pentax Espio Mini lens not retracting.

Loaded my Espio Mini with a roll of XP2 Super.Now being a clever "so and so" I thought that I could alter the DX rating code from 400 to 200. I scraped black paint squares away and put black electrical tape where required. Took a photo and then tried to slide the door shut to turn off the camera. The lens would not fully retract and the error code L4 flashed on the LCD screen. Low battery I presumed, to open the battery cover I had to pop the sliding door off. I fitted a new battery and put the door back on, no change, so I re-wound the film and put in a fresh film with no alterations to the DX code. Voila! The camera works as it should, phew! What a relief, the Espio Mini is my favourite pocket 35mm camera.
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Old 13th March 2021, 05:01 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Norm, bad luck on this. I wonder what went wrong? I can only assume and hope that your alteration to the code on the cassette was not quite right and tus threw the camera into its "fit" and that you are not stuck with a camera which it now only works with 400 speed films

Certainly a lot of auto cameras such as my Mju II only respond to the code on the cassette and wanting to use say HP5+ at 200 or 800 necessitates altering the code.

No code results in 100 irrespective of real box speed in my case


Mike
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Old 13th March 2021, 10:32 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray View Post
Norm, bad luck on this. I wonder what went wrong? I can only assume and hope that your alteration to the code on the cassette was not quite right and tus threw the camera into its "fit" and that you are not stuck with a camera which it now only works with 400 speed films

Certainly a lot of auto cameras such as my Mju II only respond to the code on the cassette and wanting to use say HP5+ at 200 or 800 necessitates altering the code.

No code results in 100 irrespective of real box speed in my case


Mike
The camera contacts that read the DX code were not making a good contact due to me not cleaning the black paint off properly. The camera works as it should now thank you. Most of the compacts I have used set the film speed at asa100 if they cannot read the DX code.
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Old 14th March 2021, 12:52 AM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Thanks Norm so the lesson to be learned for all of us is that if we try altering the code then any slipshod work cleaning the black paint off is punished

Mike
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Old 14th March 2021, 01:44 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Now, I always thought that it was just a matter of the codes being plain or black. I presumed this as I remember people selling b/w dx codes on sticky backed labels.

But now, just reading about it all, I've learned that it has to be silver or black, with the silver making contact with the metal points that read the codes.

The guy in this link shows how to make the labels simply, but you will need silver foil tape to do it:

http://www.film-photography-blog.com...ode-of-a-film/

Terry S
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Old 14th March 2021, 05:08 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Looks like a good video, Terry and thanks. The link takes you to the video where of course being YouTube there are several others there on changing the DX code but all of which seemed either more complicated, confusing etc

For various reasons I have dipped into YouTube videos a lot more recently and the gulf between good and bad videos is wider, shall we say than the Grand Canyon

Mike
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Old 15th March 2021, 08:26 AM
Keith Haithwa Keith Haithwa is offline
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...or buy them from here:

https://www.firstcall-photographic.c...s-iso-125/p744

Rather expensive with postage added, even more so if you want different speeds but should last a while with care.
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Old 15th March 2021, 12:50 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Originally Posted by Keith Haithwa View Post
...or buy them from here:

https://www.firstcall-photographic.c...s-iso-125/p744

Rather expensive with postage added, even more so if you want different speeds but should last a while with care.
£2.99 is not too bad, as long as you can make the order worth while, to cover the p/p charge.

Surprisingly, despite various phrases being used, I couldn't find any on ebay. Maybe there's a niche in the market for them? Only trying would tell I suppose.

Terry S
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Old 16th March 2021, 08:31 AM
Keith Haithwa Keith Haithwa is offline
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Out of curiosity I spent quite some time scouring the 'net too but couldn't find any of these labels. I have no idea how many photogs use cameras that will only take DX coded cassettes and how many of those use bulk film so perhaps there isn't really the demand.
Fortunately all my cameras allow me to set the ISO manually so it isn't an issue.
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