A medium format present..

Its not hard to fix the frozen lens and the lazy shutter in Isolette.

You may need micro tools, lube and lighter fluid.

What, do you just soak the shutter as a unit in the lighter fluid (naphtha)? That's what I was thinking of doing with mine, rather than disassemble it. I tried disassembling the same shutter on a Zeiss Ikonta and it ended up working worse than it did before I dismantled it. That was a bummer.

cooltouch said:

What, do you just soak the shutter as a unit in the lighter fluid (naphtha)? That's what I was thinking of doing with mine, rather than disassemble it. I tried disassembling the same shutter on a Zeiss Ikonta and it ended up working worse than it did before I dismantled it. That was a bummer.

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That's exactly what happened to my father's MTL3

If the bellows is original on the Isolette then it will leak. If 'everything works' then the shutter, focussing and aperture should have been dismantled and cleaned, and the bellows must have been replaced with a modern set. Nevertheless, the first time the camera is picked up by the bellows it will be destroyed. An Isoly might be a better choice, as it is a ready-to-use design with no bellows or separate shutter-cocking required. It also has a large viewfinder and click-stop, pictogram-based focussing as well as multi-exposure prevention.

For small hands, an Agfa Clack is very awkward to hold completely steady during exposure (tried it with my nephew). Lubitels can have the correct coupling between the taking and focussing lens easily jump/move by a few 'teeth', which then makes it impossible to focus correctly. An alternative might have been a Flexaret, which would be have an automatic frame counter and be serviced, if bought from 'Cupog' or similar. The price would probably still be a bit high for the intended purpose though.

I guess my Isolette III must be an exception. Its bellows are still flexible and in good condition. No pinhole light leaks. Just a frozen focusing mechanism and somewhat slow shutter speeds with the slow speeds.

Lubitels can have the correct coupling between the taking and focussing lens easily jump/move by a few 'teeth'.

That's what mine did in 1978 cost me £11.00 new and I got so sick of it I threw it in the bin.

Hopefully the Isolette will be ok but if not, I just had a quick look at sold listings for Zeiss Ikon Nettars on UK fleabay. A fair few went for under £10 with postage only 2 or 3 pounds. Won't be that much more to Portugal and no VAT to pay.

John51 said:

Hopefully the Isolette will be ok but if not, I just had a quick look at sold listings for Zeiss Ikon Nettars on UK fleabay. A fair few went for under £10 with postage only 2 or 3 pounds. Won't be that much more to Portugal and no VAT to pay.

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Usually postage from UK to here is going around 8 to 15£