Making Spanners with ChatGPT

Close but no cigar

As part of the fixing of the Canon Dial camera I needed a spanner to remove the dial spring winder. The spanner is a bit special because it needs to fit between the winder and the camera body. Ivan was kind enough to make me one out of brass, but it turned out to be a little bit too thick. So I thought I’d 3D print one. I’ve been impressed with how tough PETG prints have turned out, and the spanner doesn’t have to be particularly strong, so I was hopeful this might work.

And, since I’m lazy I thought I’d ask ChatGPT to produce the spanner design as a Python program I can run inside FreeCAD. I asked the question and out popped some Python. Which didn’t work. There then followed around fifteen minutes of me explaining why the supplied design was wrong, followed by ChatGPT then producing a differently wrong result along with an explanation of how it had fixed the faults that were still there.

Eventually I gave up and wrote the design in about five minutes or so. These things are very clever, but if they get it wrong it seems that sometimes it stays wrong whatever you do.

The spanners worked a treat, although I had to make a really thin one

Canon Dial 35 Cleaning

Those tiny little dots in the plastic bag in the middle are the screws that hold the winder in place

I’m not sure if people really want to know the saga of my Canon Dial 35. But it’s my blog. So there.

Anyhoo, today I thought I’d get to the bottom of the the sluggish way that the camera was winding on after each photograph. I was able to take the winder off the bottom of the camera and use a whole bunch of cotton buds to clean muck off the inside. I then added a tiny bit of oil (too much oil is a really bad thing in cameras like this) and then put it all together.

And it works. Go me. The wind on is now very smooth and positive.

Achievement Unlocked - Working Canon Dial 35

The camera takes half frames across the film

My latest new (to me) camera arrived today. It’s my third Canon Dial 35. An it looks like third time really is a charm. The camera works quite well, although the clockwork winder does chug a little bit after a few frames. The light meter works perfectly for me - I just gave the terminals a bit of clean and off it went. The pictures are lovely and sharp.

The pictures are half the size of standard 35mm ones but this does mean I’ll get twice as many shots on each film.

And now I have to find a new obsession.

Enter Player 3...

you can get a Dial Lapel pin too

I’ve found a third Canon Dial 35 on sale in the UK. This one comes with the promise of a working mechanism and a faulty meter. Much excitement has ensued.

And, I’ve worked out why I like the camera so much. Unlike most cameras, the dial has its viewfinder on the left when viewed from the front. This means that when you put the camera to your eye, you are using your left eye. Which is really good news for me as my right eye really doesn’t do much.

I’m now back to waiting for the postman.

20 Camera Man

..all photographed with a phone…

It turns out I’ve not bought 19 broken cameras. I’ve actually received 20. I’ve tested each one and they are all broken. I’ve given them all names.

• Mr Sticky Shutter

• No Rewind Boy

• Just Dead

• Weird battery guy

• Stuckee

• The Battery Flattener

• The Dangly Back Kid

• Sir NoClick

• The one that winds forever

• The one with the stuck frame counter

• Flash but no trousers

• Missing buttons

• Shiny but bust

• Only clicks, never whirrs

• Nothing moves

• Chinon less wonder

• Is this the end of Ricoh?

• T’would be nice if this worked

• Shiny but that’s it

• Mr. Dial

The Canon Dial that I really wanted does more than my previous purchase, but there is still something broken about it. I’ve been looking at the repair manuals for these cameras and they are packed full of parts which are easy to break and hard to mend. So for now the quest continues….

Red Rock Cider Police Squad Ads

I was digging around for information about the Canon Dial 35 and I discovered that it was used to take an award winning photograph of Leslie Nielsen as part of an advertising campaign for Red Rock Cider. I haven’t been able to track down the picture, but I have managed to find a collection of the adverts. Well worth a watch. Back when advertising was clever and funny.

I seem to have bought 19 cameras...

For reasons that I can’t fully explain I’ve become mildly obsessed with owning a Canon Dial 35 camera. This is a clockwork half-frame camera which dates from the 1960’s. Above you can see my first attempt at purchasing such a camera. It doesn’t look too bad does it? This is how it looked on the ebay listing that I eagerly perused.

..and this is the picture of the back. Needless to say, this picture was not on ebay. It turns out that it is best if your purchasers don’t know that the camera they are thinking of buying has been used to knock in tent pegs.

The camera doesn’t work. In fact it is actually one solid block of stuff. Nothing inside it moves. All the gears have rusted solid. It turns out that knocking in tent pegs might actually be a good use for it. So today, rather than question why I want one of these cameras, I’ve upped the anti a bit by ordering a lot of 19 broken cameras which include a Canon Dial 25 among their number. Most of them are plastic point and shoot devices of little interest but one or two of them might be gems. We shall see.