In Mechanica Antiqua

To start, this is a massive beast of a lens.  It’s got a sturdy metal construction and it feels good in the hands.  I borrowed this lens from a buddy a couple weeks ago, and if I recall correctly it’s an 70-210 zoom lens.  The E series lenses were manufactured by Nikon in the mid to late 80’s and consisted of about 7 budget lenses.  Budget meaning cheap.  I’ve shot my 50mm prime almost exclusively, and it cost me 40USD.  It’s cheap, low quality, skimpy lens coatings...but for the price it’s a super powered rocket on its way to mars. I liked my little 50, though it wasn’t sharp, it surprised me time and time again with close focusing.  Stop it down past f4 and you’ve got something pretty darn decent.  The 210, another E series worth about $80 seemed like it should be of similar quality.  I’ll cut to the chase, it looks impressive, it handles like a Russian tank powered by a golf cart engine.  The focus and the zoom is really smooth, a...

I regrettably didn’t take as many photos of this machine as I wanted to.  This machine was another repair, and it needed some escapement tuning and a bell tuning.  The bell was easy, the skipping escapement was not.  This machine doesn’t have a star wheel like most other typewriters, instead it has two teethed pieces that move in and out of alignment with the carriage rack, one of which is on a small compression spring that regulates spacing.  This makes the machine pretty sensitive.   The escapement was eventually fixed by reforming a section of the spacebar linkage over a torch, the same with the letter spacing leaver.  The rest was polishing.  That’s that, a very short story for a very interesting machine.  Wish I had more time with it!  I do want to note the level key top action, which does not cause the keys to shift forward or back more than a fraction of a millimeter.  Very remarkable!  The Coronas tend to loc...