A little over a year ago, I picked up a Contax 137MA. It needed its leather covering replaced, as well as new light seals. Ordered a kit for each of these and installed them. Put a roll of film through it, and all the pictures came out blurry. (It was shooting fine before). Put another roll through it, this time making sure I properly focused each shot; same result. Focal point was always about 1 meter behind the subject.

This got me scratching my head.

Then I did some researching, and it appears that these model cameras have a little nub (that's what I'm calling it; don't know the real name) that sits on the pin protruding from the inner wall of the camera, upon which the mirror sits while in its downward position. Apparently these little nubs can fall off, resulting in the mirror sitting slightly out of whack and thus throwing off the focus from the focal plan of the camera body. I ended up buying another 137 MA off of the Bay being sold "as is--untested" for relatively cheap; all I wanted was to see what the inside looked like. Sure enough, when that second camera arrived, it contained that little "nub" on the pin. I then realized that when I was replacing the light seals, I must have knocked the first nub out of place as I remember seeing it; I don't think I threw it away, but I can't find it now so it really doesn't matter. So I removed the nub of the second camera with a tweezers and fit inside my first camera. Put a test roll through the first camera and.... problem solved.

Turns out my "as is--untested" camera works fine (it just needed the battery terminals to be cleaned). What I'm wondering, now, is does anyone know how I can get--without having to buy another whole camera body--a nub to place within the second camera? I was thinking of heading to the hardware store and see if they sell grommets that are the same size, but I'm thinking that this might be a long shot.

TIA

Can't help you there BUT I want to 'Comment' ---- I'm fed up with these 'Expensive Cameras' having the mirror trouble causing back focus etc '' I have the Contax RTS II Quartz and although it has the 'famous ' Zeiss 50mm f1.4 Planar T* it 'back focuses' and I found out there is a design fault causing 'Mirror Slip' where it is stuck , then on my Pentax LX it suffers from the 'Infamous Sticky Mirror Syndrome', where you press the shutter release and if you are lucky the mirror 'unsticks' and the shutter goes about a minute later by which tie your 'subject' is LONG GONE !

I picked up that 137MA not so much for the camera, but because it came with the Zeiss 50mm 1.4 Planar T* which I wanted to affix to some of my Canon EOS bodies (with adapter). Wasn't all that interested, nor knew much about, the 137MA. But once I got it, I liked it and wanted to bring it back to its former glory. It looks and works great now.... except it truly is a design flaw if a small, little nub can fall from its place, causing the back-focus issue. I have a 139 Quartz that has the exact same mirror-stop design, but at least the nub hasn't fallen off yet.

The plastic collar that goes over the pin has a tendency to split. Once it splits it becomes loose and can fall off. First thing to do is have a good look around the inside of the mirror box and give the camera a good shake with the lens off and the lens mount facing down. On more than one occasion I've found them stuck somewhere inside the camera. If you can find it, re-fit it with a dab of glue to stop it falling off again.

If you can't find it then it's worth trying to find a substitute but the diameter has to be precise otherwise the focus will be off. And note that I did once try fitting one from a 139 into a 137 and it was different. Looked the same but the diameter was slightly different.

I ended up picking up another 137MA in "as-is" condition/for parts. Turned out the only thing wrong with it was that the batteries had been left inside and corroded. Cleaned all of that up, and bingo, camera came to life. Last night I was going to compare the diameter of the internal nub with that of one I took out of a Yashica FX-D. Upon attempting to remove it, though, it disintegrated. D'oh! Now I've got two 137MA bodies that need that nub. And the one from the Yashica? It was ever so slightly larger in diameter (by like 3 thousandths of an inch), nor could it fitted to the 137MA; the inner diameter was too small. So I have two reasons to try and find a substitute for that nub.

Did I mention how poorly designed that mirror stop is?