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good morning
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all right so I'm here in sunny not so
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sunny Southern California I'm in
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Temecula and this is episode two it's
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October 1st 2023 so I was watching a
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Brian Brooks video not too long ago and
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he said YouTube is hard and you know
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what it's not so much that YouTube
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itself is hard but definitely recording
0:37
yourself is super tricky I mean I in my
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day job I get in front of people all the
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time meetings no problem fire off crazy
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wit go on forever no problem but once
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you hit record on the camera funny
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things happen and I gotta do a zillion
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takes because I'm a crazy perfectionist
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so this time I got notes and I'm just
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gonna use them and you know what we're
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gonna leave the flubs in let's knock
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this out in one take
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all right so
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I've got two large format 4x5 cameras a
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45 G and a 45a one of them is a monorail
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the 45g and one of them is a field
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camera the 45a now they're both
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manufactured by Toyo so they have
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similar characteristics in terms of the
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of the bellows
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one of the pitfalls of owning a view
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camera is you know what they're they're
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wailed unless you buy a brand new camera
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which I did uh or near New on my 5x7
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chamini the Bellows are just going to be
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old and cracked and worn out so my
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cameras I believe they're manufactured
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probably somewhere in the 80s and that
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puts them around uh 40 years old so it's
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just something you got to watch out for
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and both of my cameras needed to be
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replaced because I stuck a flashlight in
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the Bellows and I promise you if you do
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that on an older camera it'll light up
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like a Christmas tree and I did that one
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day and I'm like oh my gosh I've been
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shooting with this and really the
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shooting was not a problem I didn't
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notice any light leaks but it was
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definitely time to replace the Bellows
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so I mean just a note as you see this
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video you can use the similar technique
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on the monorail and actually the
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monorail camera I did second it was a
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bit easier because you can take the
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whole Bellows off and then there's two
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frames front and rear and those of you
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that own one will know what I'm talking
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about but
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similar technique but a whole lot easier
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okay so let's get into the actual
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Billows replacement process
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um
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I looked around on the internet as I was
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trying to figure out if I wanted to do
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this and I can only find a few pieces of
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information mostly mostly text in large
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format photography forms and everybody
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was sort of guessing on how to do it but
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there was no definitive here is the
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step-by-step process I did find one post
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with a bit of information that helped me
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along
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um but the reason why I posted this
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video uh somebody noticed on Instagram
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that I posted a video of my Bellows
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completion and wanted to know any tips I
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can give them on how to do that and then
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somebody else has the same question so I
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decided to post this video because it
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took me a really long time to
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investigate and figure out how to do
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this and then ultimately I just ended up
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just winging it and jumping in
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um so
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first I tried to find a repair shop on
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large format cameras and they don't
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exist but somebody out there
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I mean you had to believe that somebody
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was going to have the ability to repair
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or replace Bellows so please I emailed a
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whole bunch of shops most responded that
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they weren't able to do it I did find
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two and you know what one of them uh was
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the Mac Group you know on the East Coast
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I think they're in New York and they
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actually repaired Toyota cameras and
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they gave me a quote of about 350 bucks
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give or take and I'm not sure if that
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included the actual Bellows I believe
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that it did but I'd be looking at
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shipping both ways so it was around 400
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bucks in order to replace the Bellows so
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that gave me a little bit of confidence
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um and what I mean by that is if I was
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going to replace my Bellows and I messed
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up I knew that I had a backstop to send
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it off to the med group and they would
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fix it
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um me being bargain-minded I wanted to
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take a shot at replacing it myself
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not only that when I replace things
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myself and and you get you handyman out
4:32
there know what I'm talking about
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there is something to installing
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yourself you do the steps all yourself
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you're proud of what you did and if you
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messed something up you'll just keep at
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it until you get it right so I figured I
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would apply that same
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methodology and installing the Bellows
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because honestly at the end of the day I
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thought that I could do a better job
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than anybody else could do as long as I
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understood uh what I was doing
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so I purchased the velos uh the Bellows
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from etonephoto.com it's a website in
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China
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um and China has anything to do with
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this nice website they have a whole
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bunch of series I would encourage you to
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go visit them and support them they're
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manufacturing a lot of new items that
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large format photographers need so if
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anybody's listening from that website
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thank you and keep it up I really
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appreciate what you do
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um and I ping them a couple times and
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they sent me a video on how to do this
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really fast uh video sort of a Time
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Lapse video and it didn't cover all the
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things that I think that you'll need
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that I found that were pitfalls and they
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didn't use any adhesive which I'm like
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doesn't make any sense wouldn't you need
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adhesive now to be fair it probably
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would work fine without adhesive and and
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you'll see in the video what I mean by
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that but
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um they gave me a bit more confidence
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they didn't really show the details that
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you need but anyways I appreciate the
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video that they sent me and they offered
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to repair the Bellows but I didn't want
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to send my camera overseas back and
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forth I didn't know if Customs would be
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an issue so anyways very nice website
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thank you very much for all your help I
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ordered the Bellows I was able to search
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my camera and find the exact size I
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needed and as I say in the video it took
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a couple weeks to get there the shipping
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was free and I'm not in a hurry on any
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of this so it really didn't matter
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now when I got the Bellows
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um as I say in the video very very
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impressive in terms of quality uh dark
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black heavy fabric material looks like
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it'll probably Outlast both me and the
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camera
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now the Bellows themselves was about
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eighty dollars from this website which I
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thought was very very fair and and the
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rest of the stuff that you have to buy
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the glue the tape
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um the screws which I'll get into
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um was about 30 bucks so all in I'm
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about 110 dollars uh into this repair so
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money although I enjoy a good bargain
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wasn't really the primary motivator for
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me doing it myself me doing it myself
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was the primary motivator because
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um if you know if you own a home and an
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installer comes to your house and they I
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don't know let's say install a kitchen
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sink or something and you notice later
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on that there's little things that you
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would have done differently it just bugs
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you so
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I'm not an expert installer but when I
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do something I will stick to it and do
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it to the best in my ability and if I
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think it's wrong I'll do it again so I
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wanted to apply all of that to this
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Bellows install
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um so I made a note here I liked it I
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can control each step I just said that
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Okay so
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I want to save you a bunch of anxiety
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and it well let me back up I had a bunch
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of anxiety and fear once I realized uh
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what the problem with this install was
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and it was a pretty big problem so I'm
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gonna take that fear and share it so
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that you don't have the same fear and
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anxiety
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so once I got the front standard off and
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glued it and then tried to put the
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original screws back on no matter how
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many times I tried no matter how much I
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pushed they just would not go back on so
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um I really considered giving up I was
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going to send the camera back to the Mac
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group and go ahead and spend the 400
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bucks and then just write off the cost
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of the Bellows but then I realized
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um man if I just had some screws that
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were the same size but just a hair
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longer maybe a hair thicker in width
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I could probably solve this problem so I
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got to looking around on Amazon
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searching machine screws and then
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um I found two kits which I bought both
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of them just to be sure and they showed
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up at the house and then
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um I tried several sizes I honed in on
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the two or three sizes that I thought
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would work and
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um man I just felt a whole bunch of
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relief when I tried a particular size of
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screw and it went right in it bit and it
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screwed in and as it was sinking in I
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was like oh man that feels so much
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better so
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anyways that is the entire problem that
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you'll run into at least I believe you
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run into it when you try to replace your
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own Bellows if you don't order these
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screws ahead of time and the nice thing
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about these screw sets you'll see them
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in the video there's only one set that I
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show but each Set uh comes with probably
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I don't know like 20 or 30 different
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sizes so both sets I now have probably
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40 different sizes and the 45 G the
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monorail camera that I did after I did
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the field camera used a different size
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screw because they have plastic frames
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and I think there are more screws on
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that but anyways once I got through this
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field camera it gave me the confidence
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to do both cameras and now I have both
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cameras done they're going to last a
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whole a whole bunch longer after this
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and you know what they're light proof I
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did test both the monorail camera and
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the field camera just so you know
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um took it out in my front yard set up
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both cameras and did an extensive test
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with the 120 film holder so I can shoot
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a bunch of exposures and they are light
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proof solid so this technique works for
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me
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um let's see here I looked on Amazon and
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bought two you got that
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um
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the 45g different screws mention that
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all right so just a note on the JB Weld
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sealant the adhesive
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um it was probably Overkill I think you
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can use regular adhesive but something
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about the um the adhesive being black I
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thought was I don't know that was good
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for a camera I actually searched on
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Amazon black camera sealant or something
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along this line because this came up as
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the first result so I'm not an expert on
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adhesive this might be the wrong
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adhesive for the job it might be a bit
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Overkill and it was a little bit messy
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but it wasn't too hard to clean up
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afterwards but I feel that the the
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sealant itself was easy to work with
11:09
because it didn't set right away
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um I think the instructions say it sets
11:13
after about an hour and it really
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finalizes after 24 hours so you have
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quite a bit of time in order to mess
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with the camera and get it all lined up
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and be able to screw in the screws and
11:25
still be able to move it around so don't
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panic once you do that but I believe
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that with regular adhesive it would
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probably set a little bit quicker so I'm
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going to say that my serendipitous maybe
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wrong adhesive mistake which I now think
11:41
is right really helped me so
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uh the video itself
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um this was shot several months ago and
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to be honest I wasn't really planning on
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posting it I just wanted to record it
11:54
for myself maybe post it maybe not but
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the video is not that great I shot uh
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most of it with my iPhone initially and
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then I put my old 80d Canon up on a
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tripod to my left and then just recorded
12:09
what I was doing and if I got a video
12:10
out of it and I could email it to
12:12
somebody I posted in a form that was
12:15
really my plan but
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as I said in the beginning
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um I think that those of you that need
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new Bellows take a look at this video
12:23
and you might appreciate it because
12:25
you'll understand that if you've been
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searching around it it should be
12:29
um really helpful all right so let's get
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into uh the video and there are a couple
12:35
flubs in the video as well but I'm going
12:37
to leave those in because I'm rolling
12:39
with one take nowadays so anyways let's
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do that and you have a great day and
12:45
um
12:46
episode wise I don't know how many times
12:48
I'm gonna post but I plan on continuing
12:51
this my mission really is to
12:54
um
12:56
I think to share and to become a giving
12:59
member of the community I've been in
13:02
photography I think I mentioned this in
13:04
my first episode uh since the 80s uh
13:08
long long wedding career as well so
13:10
there's a lot of information that I
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think that I might be able to share I'm
13:15
not purporting to be the master of all
13:18
knowledge but I think that I have enough
13:20
that I can give back and that's my plan
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so if you could please subscribe and
13:26
share this who knows my mission is just
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to help as many people as I can so that
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being said let's Roll the video
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okay so I ordered the Bellows for my
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Toyo 45a field camera from
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etownphoto.com
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took a couple weeks to show up and when
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it did I was pretty impressed the fabric
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is very thick dark black
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very durable
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and I think it's even better than the
13:51
original bills that came with the camera
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the extra fabric here will come off but
13:55
you need that in order to install the
13:57
frames
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so let's take a look at my camera it's
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about 40 years old and the light leaks
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typically appear along the creases both
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the upper creases and the lower creases
14:07
and that is definitely where the light
14:09
leaks are happening in my camera
14:12
all right so the first thing you got to
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do is remove the four screws on the
14:16
front standard and in order to do that
14:18
you got to remove these little round
14:19
leatherette things I use a safety pin to
14:23
sharpen to that to do that
14:25
then you got to remove the revolving
14:26
back in order to do that you got to
14:29
slide the upper slide up and the lower
14:31
slide down there's the lower slide there
14:34
go ahead and slide it down and the whole
14:36
thing comes right off
14:40
okay so there's eight screws on the back
14:42
take a regular Phillips head screwdriver
14:44
and remove those
14:47
all right so the front of the Bellows
14:49
actually comes off pretty easy just a
14:50
little tug and it comes right off
14:54
now you can see the residual adhesive on
14:56
the front not a lot of adhesive on the
14:58
front
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there's the adhesive residual on the
15:02
front standard and you can see where
15:03
they didn't go all the way around with
15:05
that
15:06
okay so the back is a bit trickier
15:09
you gotta stick a screwdriver in between
15:11
the frame and the bellows
15:13
and just twist a little bit and it'll
15:15
eventually come right off
15:17
now the back has quite a bit more
15:18
adhesive on it you can see the residual
15:20
there on the back frame
15:23
and on the back of the bellows
15:27
not quite sure why there's more adhesive
15:28
on the back than the front but that is
15:30
definitely the case
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okay so you got to pull the frames out
15:35
of the Bellows so let's go ahead and
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take the front frame out first and you
15:38
just peel it off work it out not that
15:40
hard
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and then there's the front frame you can
15:43
see the residual double-sided tape that
15:46
they used
15:47
and then you do the same on the back and
15:49
you can also see the double-sided tape
15:51
that they used on the back
15:55
all right so there's the back frame and
15:58
it's a little bit crooked I corrected
16:00
that manually
16:03
all right so here comes the fun part
16:05
now I took a screwdriver and just worked
16:08
off all the residual adhesive from the
16:10
frames of the camera and then the frames
16:12
that go on the Bellows themselves took a
16:15
little bit but needed to be done
16:17
all right so then I flipped it over
16:19
clean Side Up of the frame
16:21
installed in the front of the bellows
16:24
now this extra fabric here you got to
16:26
take a pair of scissors and just cut
16:28
that out don't cut too much but you'll
16:30
see where to cut
16:33
and then you got to cut sort of V's in
16:35
the corner so that they'll lay together
16:39
so I did that
16:42
all right I ordered three millimeter
16:44
double-sided
16:46
tape from Amazon and the three
16:49
millimeters refers to the thickness of
16:51
the tape the width I should say of the
16:53
tape itself and I just rolled off a
16:55
couple inches of tape there
16:58
and then you'll install that tape
17:01
right between the frame and the fabric
17:03
itself and then lay the fabric right
17:05
over the tape so it'll stick and you got
17:07
to install several pieces and do it all
17:09
the way around on all four sides of the
17:10
frame
17:11
once that's done I notice that the
17:13
corners were popping up and they weren't
17:15
laying flat so I decided to use some
17:17
super glue here
17:19
and make sure that the corners
17:22
stay flat so I got a solid light seal
17:27
so I dab some on all four corners
17:30
and you can see here I'm going to do
17:32
this one corner right here and then I
17:35
use some tweezers just to press that
17:37
down so that it stays flat
17:41
once that's done on front and back I
17:43
took a look at the Bellows everything
17:46
looks good nice and flat should get a
17:48
very nice light seal everything looks
17:51
really good ready to go
17:55
okay so in order to make this easier you
17:58
got to pull off the front standard in
18:01
order to do that you got to remove the
18:02
screws from a stop there you'll see them
18:04
just unscrew them and then the front
18:06
standard just slides right off
18:08
and then you go ahead and set the back
18:10
of the camera aside
18:13
so I use JB Weld black silicone sealant
18:15
as my adhesive here
18:19
so what I did is I laid a bead of
18:21
sealant on all four sides of the front
18:23
standard
18:26
all the way around
18:28
and I decided to do the standard and the
18:30
Bellows just to make sure there was
18:31
enough sealant in the front
18:34
because the front standard has some
18:37
little dips and valleys in there I just
18:39
wanted to make sure there was enough
18:39
sealant in order to make a clean nice
18:43
light seal
18:50
all right so it starts to set but you do
18:54
have a little bit of time so don't panic
18:56
so what I did is I stood up
18:59
so that I could get a straight down look
19:00
at it and line it up a lot easier
19:04
I look straight down the middle of the
19:05
camera and just made sure it was lined
19:08
up and then once it was applied pressure
19:14
all right so the secret to this whole
19:15
thing is Phillips Panhead machine screws
19:18
size number M2 times five and I ordered
19:21
those from Amazon
19:24
and then
19:25
at this point I reinstalled the four
19:27
screws that I had taken out
19:30
onto the front and then I realized that
19:33
there appears to be a little gap between
19:35
the frame and the Bellows and it's
19:38
sealed but I just wanted to put some
19:39
more sealant in there so I put it on a
19:41
toothpick and just ran it around the
19:43
four sides of the front standard
19:47
and then let it sit a little while took
19:49
a flashlight really carefully looked at
19:51
it made sure everything was done
19:53
correctly and it all looked good
19:56
all right so I let that sit for a day
19:59
and in order to install or reinstall I
20:02
should say the front standard you need
20:05
to use a screwdriver to pry up a little
20:07
flange you'll see it when you do it and
20:08
you got to do both sides but just pry it
20:11
up and then the the standard sort of
20:13
slides right back on all right so we've
20:15
got the right side
20:17
go ahead and do the left side
20:19
you just got to slide the screwdriver in
20:21
there and give a little twist
20:24
and then it just pops there it goes pops
20:26
right back on
20:27
and it slides back up and down
20:32
okay then you got to reinstall the stop
20:35
using the same two screws
20:39
check it out everything looks good
20:42
make sure the lock still works and then
20:45
the standard slides back and forth good
20:47
to go
20:51
okay so I used a shoestring here off of
20:54
one of my shoes
20:56
because when you tilt this camera back
20:58
on its back the the Bellows will fall
21:00
down and get in your glue and you don't
21:02
want to do that so
21:05
go ahead and finish tying this shoelace
21:08
here
21:09
and then you'll see once we put the
21:11
camera on its back it will really help
21:13
keep it out of your way
21:14
while you work putting the adhesive down
21:17
on the back standard
21:22
okay so got a flashlight in my mouth
21:26
classy right all right so then I put
21:28
some sealant down on all four sides of
21:31
the back standard
21:35
okay so once I let the Bellows down I
21:37
realized that it wasn't close enough to
21:39
the back so I went ahead and pushed the
21:42
front standard forward a little bit to
21:44
give it a little bit more room to come
21:46
down without wanting to come back up
21:49
so that's what we're going to do here
21:50
put it down a little bit
21:54
and then carefully line it up
21:59
got a flashlight
22:02
all right so it's lined up put a little
22:03
pressure on it then I held it together
22:05
with my fingers stuck a toothpick in
22:08
there watch me drop the toothpick here
22:10
made sure that that hole was lined up
22:11
that was the reason for the toothpick
22:13
now I ordered also some binder clips
22:16
binder clips paper clips and this really
22:19
helped kind of keep everything kind of
22:21
kept everything together while I was
22:22
working
22:24
so there you see the clips all the way
22:25
around let that sit for a little bit
22:29
and then I put some sealant on my finger
22:31
and just ran it around the edges sort of
22:33
like I did in the front
22:35
I'm sure it's all good but just wanted
22:37
to make sure that we're good to go use
22:39
the paper towel cleaned it up and then
22:41
took my screwdriver and reinstalled all
22:44
eight screws
22:46
I took some alcohol dabbed it on a
22:49
little towel made sure everything was
22:51
cleaned up
22:52
all right then I put the clips back on
22:55
and just let it sit overnight
23:00
okay so the next morning it's pretty
23:03
much done so now I got to put the
23:04
revolving back back on it's just the
23:07
process that I showed you before in
23:09
reversed Slide the top back down
23:13
make sure that's all on there correctly
23:15
and then slide the bottom back up
23:18
there you go make sure that's all on
23:20
there correctly
23:22
and everything looks good so I'm going
23:24
to go ahead and reinstall
23:26
the ground glass that just slides a
23:29
little bit and then just snaps right on
23:31
everything is good to go everything
23:33
looks good
23:35
you got a brand new camera