Typewriter Insurgency Strikes Michigan

I thought this letterhead appropriate since I'll be taking my Olivetti typewriters.

The Olivetti family all packed and ready to go.

I was hoping to acquire a Lettera 32 by now, but the typewriter gods did not provide. The family is minus one of its mid-sized brothers.  I do have a copy of Richard's book, Tony's book, and the movie included along with some typewriter company letterheads and a poster of a keyboard.  Gotta pack the back seat because the trunk is needed for Mrs M's mobility scooter.

Digital Imaging & California Typewriter

The Kodak 1A Stylus gave me my start in collecting old Kodak cameras. The 3A is similar, but larger.

Back about 1990 or so my Grandma was clearing out what remained of my Grandfather's belongings.  One of the things she gave me was his old Kodak Stylus camera.  Long before Olympus made the Stylus 1 Kodak made real cameras with real styli. The stylus camera came with a nice metal stylus that was held in place by 2 mounts on the back of the camera beside a door that could be opened and the photographer could then sign the film if he wished.

I have several cameras from the late 1800s and early 1900s that still work fine. I adapt 620 roll film to use them except for my Eastman View-2 that uses 4 x 5 and 5 x 7 sheet film. There will NEVER be a digital imager that works when it is over 100 years old. We are lucky they last 20!

The old and the new.  For the longest time I have been using the old OlympusCamedia 3.2 Mp imager for most of my on line imaging.  For the Olivetti and digital imaging typecasts I used the 5.1Mp Kodak.

Neat lens that doubles as a front body cap for the OMD.  It is fully manual and is fun to use doing street photography.  I really like this lens in crowded places because most people think I left the lens cover on my OMD or I forgot to remove the body cover and install a lens.  Great for in places where it may seem too obvious I was imaging someone.

As with all my photographic gear and digital image gera...it must be cleaned.  So I'm cheap and buy my microfiber cloth at the dollar store where I get 2/$1.00 and the sable hair brush also from the dollar store for $1.00. It is a super soft ladies face paint installation tool that works great for cleaning lenses and other things.

All of my OMD lenses and body fits an old Tamrac 35mm SLR bag I had. If the strobe fit, it would be perfect.  I do have bigger bags, but for the micro four thirds they are way too big, but the strobe would fit.

Being cheap as I am, I love to pick up these free koozies at trade shows.  They are padded and make great lens covers.  For my camera lenses I use the hot pads with a pocket in them.  I think I bought a few dozen of them at Wal-Mart several years ago.  Shown above is my 40mm to 150mm M. Zuiko zoom lens for the OMD.

One of the nicest camera bags by Tamrac is this (no longer made) Explorer 100.  It is made for MFT cameras and a spare lens or two and works great for street photography.  The center divider is padded and attaches to the inside with velcro so it can be moved to fit.

Holds the Stylus 1 and auxiliary telephoto lens.  The aux. lens adds about 750mm f2.8 to the main 300mm f2.8 lens.

California Typewriter arrived Monday.  I spent Monday evening watching it.  Fine movie.

This is the No. 6 with today's typecast.

I planned more photos of some of my MFT equipment, but I do not know what I did with the files.  I've been getting things together for Saturday's Type-In so blogging has been on the back burner.  I have not decided if I will post more digital imaging on this blog or start a new one.  I do plan on posting more.  One thing I am avoiding doing is calling digital imaging photography.  I thought it was just me, but since I got the OMD I have been doing more reading on line and find many other photographers refuse to call digital imaging photography so in my own Luddite way it is nice to not be alone.

By the way all my old Kodaks do work and I have used them when I lived in VA where I had a dark room.  I did all B & W with them due to the plain glass lenses that were not coated for color film because back in the late 1800s and early 1900s color film did not exist.

Olivetti Typewriters for the Type-In, Red Lettera 22 and others

The first Lettera 22 I received.  It is the red Italian one.   Outwardly it looks the same before and after cleaning.

One cannot (well, yes I could, but I need to plug one of Ted Munk's excellent manuals) start work on a Lettera 22 without the manual.

This is getting ready to remove the cover from the Lettera 22.  No need to remove the bottom plate. In fact not removing the plate before removing the covers, and putting the plate back on before replacing the covers makes cover removal and reinstallation easier.

When I bought the Lettera 22 the type bar rest pad was loose and laying in the machine.

I cleaned all the old adhesive residue from the mounting channel and used printer's cement (rubber cement will work) to remount the leather pad.

A bit out of place, but this is the pad before reinstalling it.

I need practice to be able to use this keyboard whether or not I use the 2-finger method or not. It is much more difficult to use than I thought it would be.

The 1938 Universal.  No case and a very difficult sticking T type bar.  The T wanted to hang in the type bar guide yet looked like it was properly shaped when compared to all the others.  After hours of honing it and tweaking, I think I finally have it working. As with all the other Underwood typewriters I ever used, this one is a superb typer and nothing was done to it yet except to get the T working.  This is the third Universal that crossed my bench and all were excellent typewriters.

A bit of color shift from the LED lighting in my shop.  This is the taupe Lettera 22 being readied for a cleaning.

Reminds me of an SM 3 or SM4.  The rubber mounting washers for the cover were all deteriorated.  These are actually small rubber gaskets that I had plenty of from working on radios.

Note again, to remove the cover the platen must be fully left as far as it will travel.  The same to replace it.

After cleaning the type slugs and blowing the dirt out of it.  This typewriter typed great and did not require any other cleaning besides cleaning the very dirty type slugs.

Not perfectly clean, but much cleaner than when I started to clean them.

This one is now ready for next Saturday's Type-In.

Here are the Universal and Clipper awaiting repair along with a script H3k I hope to finish for Saturday.

Another superbly fun to use typewriter.  Every time I use an Underwood the only thoughts that come to mind is loads the paper perfectly straight the first time and every time, and nothing beats an Underwood for great typing,  Speedy, Snappy, Fast, Dependable.  Even my No, 3 is a joy to use.

And a preview of my digial imaging hardware. Yes, that is a Panasonic lens on the OMD.  Nice thing about the micro four third format is the lenses are not camera manufacturer body specific and I can still use my 35mm lenses!

Both of these are fun to use for what they are.  I'm still learning, but I'll take my 35mm, medium, and large format cameras and real film over digital imaging for quality any day.