Have You Ever Attempted To Fix Your Camera - Then Regret It?

[Sirius Glass]

I would like to fix my neighbor's dogs so that they do not yap all the time.

 

[KerrKid]

I would like to fix my neighbor's dogs so that they do not yap all the time.

Don't get me started on barking dogs. One of my top pet peeves. No pun intended. I have a dog in the neighborhood that barks non-stop. I blame the owners for letting it. Maybe force the owners to wear shock collars that are triggered by the barking.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Don't get me started on barking dogs. One of my top pet peeves. No pun intended. I have a dog in the neighborhood that barks non-stop. I blame the owners for letting it. Maybe force the owners to wear shock collars that are triggered by the barking.

Years ago I went to Animal Regulation and they got the neighbor straighten out for a while. Then an attorney in the building who worked from home dragged him into court. That reset his registers. The attorney moved out a few years ago and the neighbor started leaving the dogs out and would be gone for hours and that started the 30 minutes to hours of barking. He just got the papers, which I inititiated, this week from Animal Control and it has been better so far. What I would like to buy is an antibark device that operates 24 hours a day to put out a whistle above 20,000 Hertz, preferably operating on house power so that I do not have to replace batteries.

 

[cramej]

Tried to fix and regretted it..... not so much but disappointment, yes.

CZJ 180mm in Nikon mount that had a super stiff focus absolutely would not thread back together. Ended up tossing it. Now that I think back on it, it probably had a deformed barrel or helicoid so there wouldn't have been much I could do to save it.

Leaky batteries damaged my Mamiya 645 AFDii. Not sure it was salvageable but I ended up damaging it more on disassembly.

My track record of late has been pretty good. A couple soviet lens CLAs, patching shutter curtains and fixing a capping shutter on a FED 3. Better tools and better guides help.

 

[qqphot]

My 50mm Trioplan decided to eject an aperture blade.



Which led to removing and reinstalling all of them, which involved copious profanity.



But it all worked out in the end.

 

[cramej]

I thought I'd try my hand at a Minolta 35 Model II. They're all over ebay needing new shutter curtains which, surprisingly, is a fairly straightforward job with minimal disassembly. I wanted to tear it down farther before I committed to working on the shutters and boy was that a mistake. Those things are a royal PITA to work on. Screws that need He Man to break loose, brittle leatherette that has to be removed with some difficulty and a convoluted top plate removal. I think they wanted to improve on the Leica design and ended up over-engineering it just to make it different.

 

[qqphot]

I'm going to need to take apart a Leica IIIf soon, and I'm not looking forward to it, but i'm so discouraged by the pros that I feel like I have nothing much to lose. How hard could it be to find and tighten whatever's coming loose in the rangefinder window? Hahaha.

 

[cramej]

I'm going to need to take apart a Leica IIIf soon, and I'm not looking forward to it, but i'm so discouraged by the pros that I feel like I have nothing much to lose. How hard could it be to find and tighten whatever's coming loose in the rangefinder window? Hahaha.

https://learncamerarepair.com/downloads/pdf/NatCam-Leica-IIIF.pdf

This is an excellent guide. I'm using it for one of my Leotaxes to do a complete teardown and cosmetic restoration. I've discovered that Barnack style cameras are fairly straightforward to work on with good tools but each brand has its subtle (and not-so-subtle) differences in construction and engineering.

 

[qqphot]

https://learncamerarepair.com/downloads/pdf/NatCam-Leica-IIIF.pdf

This is an excellent guide. I'm using it for one of my Leotaxes to do a complete teardown and cosmetic restoration. I've discovered that Barnack style cameras are fairly straightforward to work on with good tools but each brand has its subtle (and not-so-subtle) differences in construction and engineering.

This is fantastic, thanks so much. I hadn't run across that guide before.

 

[albada]

I'm going to need to take apart a Leica IIIf soon, and I'm not looking forward to it, but i'm so discouraged by the pros that I feel like I have nothing much to lose. How hard could it be to find and tighten whatever's coming loose in the rangefinder window? Hahaha.

Is Youxin Ye still fixing Leicas?

 

[qqphot]

Is Youxin Ye still fixing Leicas?

Yeah, but I think he's got more work than he can handle. It's sort of a contentious subject when people discuss the various main leica repairers here, but I'll just say I'm not confident I could send a camera with a specific problem and get it back in a reasonable time with the specific problem addressed. He's worked on this camera before. Currently the rangefinder focusing element that gets adjusted by the rf focusing adjuster is apparently dislodged in some way and wobbling loose inside.

 

[BMbikerider]

I had (still have) a pre war Ensign folding camera which is still functioning but the focus is set on a sliding scale engraved in a rail on which the lens mount and bellow slide.. It became sticky so I removed the lens and bellows as one piece but didn't detach it from the camera. I cleaned up the rail and referred to an old instrument repair manual that suggested lubricating it with a smear of candle wax and refitted. It worked superbly and it moved back and forwards as if it were silk. The only problem was the infinity marker had become detached and there was no way I could replace it spot on.
I tried the old ground glass trick on the film plane but the lens being only F6.3 when wide open is not bright enough to give an accurate image. Coupled with the fact at full aperture it really isn't sharp enough anyway. Without the infinity being correct, the other distance marks are meaning less as well.
The negatives it gave me were nice to print or scan and gave a 'dreaminess' that is lost with modern glass, so I would love to get it back to what it was.

 

[qqphot]

I had (still have) a pre war Ensign folding camera which is still functioning but the focus is set on a sliding scale engraved in a rail on which the lens mount and bellow slide.. It became sticky so I removed the lens and bellows as one piece but didn't detach it from the camera. I cleaned up the rail and referred to an old instrument repair manual that suggested lubricating it with a smear of candle wax and refitted. It worked superbly and it moved back and forwards as if it were silk. The only problem was the infinity marker had become detached and there was no way I could replace it spot on.
I tried the old ground glass trick on the film plane but the lens being only F6.3 when wide open is not bright enough to give an accurate image. Coupled with the fact at full aperture it really isn't sharp enough anyway. Without the infinity being correct, the other distance marks are meaning less as well.
The negatives it gave me were nice to print or scan and gave a 'dreaminess' that is lost with modern glass, so I would love to get it back to what it was.

I wonder if you could set up a makeshift collimator rig using an SLR to get a more accurate "infinity" - I'm sure I've seen better explanations of the process but something like this: http://elekm.net/zeiss-ikon/repair/collimate/

 

[BradS]

I do almost all of my own automotive repairs and maintenance but I've always relied upon trained professional technicians to do repairs on my cameras. A man has gotta know his limitations.

 

[Sirius Glass]

A man has gotta know his limitations.

That would make a great movie line.

 

[BradS]

That would make a great movie line.

indeed....especially if the line were delivered by a real bad ass...I think that would make my day.