Everything is Broken

So… the great Panoramic Conversion Sage… well… it was an abject failure! The screws in the donor back were siezed solid, and the cheap watch makers screwdrivers did them no favours. The new JIS set removed some, but the rest were too far gone. Annoying as that is now a defunct back, and whilst it was cheap… they aren’t that cheap… and the next cheapest one available was rather a lot more! Anyway… I have bought it and will try to carefully remove the part that caused issues first and see if I can get it converted cleanly, but I won’t do anything permanent until I have everything else switched over! If it fails again I may just give up and try to find an actual 135W back, but they are running at £700 each… and that is just crazy! It’s a shame nobody has created a 3D printed insert that replaces the standard inner and slips in as a complete package as yet.

If I can get the new back to convert I may either try and restore the other back to a standard 35mm, or get another mask kit, some replacement screws and a tiny mole grip and have another go. It would be nice to have one loaded with colour film and one with black and white after all! I may also get another 120 back and do the same on medium format as well!

Anyway… family trip out tomorrow for the last weekend before schools go back and I can start trying to get back into a proper routine again!

14th August 2026