I'd wanted one of these for a long time. They're one of those weird American cameras--in my mind they're in a similar place to the old Argus bricks, if not slightly cooler. Early half-frame, made prewar for special film and post-war (as the Mercury II) for 35mm. The selling point was high shutter speed... it has a spinning disk focal plane shutter like the much later Pen F, giving it a range of 1/30-1/1000 (and one that could do 1/1500 was made briefly). Two disks with sectors missing are rotated relative to each other with the speed knob, creating a variable "slit" that's actually wedge shaped--doesn't make much of a difference because the wider parts pass faster across the film gate. They also have a hot shoe that looks bizarrely modern for the 30's and 40's, but is probably unusable due to being placed right in front of an obstacle that would keep most modern flashes from mounting, a second cold shoe that was designed for an extinction meter that could itself mount a rangefinder on top of it, and parallax marks in the viewfinder... all very nice features from a camera that retailed for a fraction the price of a Leica Standard, or indeed any 35mm American camera.
Didn't think I'd ever spend any real money to get one, but they're very neat. But today I was in an antique shop with practically no money, just to browse, and one of these, with a little surface corrosion, was sitting off away from the other cameras (saw some sick stuff there, too.) I asked the guy for a price and he looked at it like it was poison. "Oh, we had one of those before that was good. But that one is water damaged. Moisture was trapped inside the case. I haven't tried moving anything on it. You don't want it. Five dollars."
I had already test fired it. It was all pretty good, and the shutter improved with exercise, so of course I bought it. I particularly wanted to shoot stereo with it, like someone had mentioned in another thread. The only other problem was the aperture had sat quite a while, and was very slightly sticky, but release very easily and is no longer sticking anywhere. Film transport hasn't been tested yet but appears nominal, Shutter doesn't look like it's going quite fast enough but it's rotating freely, so I think the spring is less springy than it used to be.
I had a few questions about the shutter.
Has anyone had success cleaning and lubing these? As I said I don't think the problem is that the disk isn't rotating freely, but I suppose lube couldn't hurt, if I can open the thing without breaking it.
Is the shutter supposed to click into place at the end of its travel? By rotating the shutter speed knob slightly further in the direction of travel, I feel a click and it latches into place. But watching from the back with the lens removed the shutter opens and closes fully and doesn't reopen unless you turn the knob in reverse. So I'm not sure if that's really a problem. But I assume it was meant to have enough velocity to lock in place so it couldn't be turned backwards?
Am I correct in assuming that these can taper due to the disk speeding up or slowing down, but can never cap? Just an interesting difference from other focal plane shutters.
Didn't think I'd ever spend any real money to get one, but they're very neat. But today I was in an antique shop with practically no money, just to browse, and one of these, with a little surface corrosion, was sitting off away from the other cameras (saw some sick stuff there, too.) I asked the guy for a price and he looked at it like it was poison. "Oh, we had one of those before that was good. But that one is water damaged. Moisture was trapped inside the case. I haven't tried moving anything on it. You don't want it. Five dollars."
I had already test fired it. It was all pretty good, and the shutter improved with exercise, so of course I bought it. I particularly wanted to shoot stereo with it, like someone had mentioned in another thread. The only other problem was the aperture had sat quite a while, and was very slightly sticky, but release very easily and is no longer sticking anywhere. Film transport hasn't been tested yet but appears nominal, Shutter doesn't look like it's going quite fast enough but it's rotating freely, so I think the spring is less springy than it used to be.
I had a few questions about the shutter.
Has anyone had success cleaning and lubing these? As I said I don't think the problem is that the disk isn't rotating freely, but I suppose lube couldn't hurt, if I can open the thing without breaking it.
Is the shutter supposed to click into place at the end of its travel? By rotating the shutter speed knob slightly further in the direction of travel, I feel a click and it latches into place. But watching from the back with the lens removed the shutter opens and closes fully and doesn't reopen unless you turn the knob in reverse. So I'm not sure if that's really a problem. But I assume it was meant to have enough velocity to lock in place so it couldn't be turned backwards?
Am I correct in assuming that these can taper due to the disk speeding up or slowing down, but can never cap? Just an interesting difference from other focal plane shutters.
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