New-to-me Contax III -- CLA reference?

awty · Feb 14, 2021

So did you sort it out yet?
I have a Kiev iiia in near mint condition, was in original box, with leather case, original metal film cassette, instructions and even purchase invoice from the fifties.
Speeds were all over the place, took about 100 or more actuation to come good.

Bill Burk · Feb 14, 2021

I recommend finding the actual shutter speeds of a few speeds which do work. 125 is usually close. 250 might even be good enough.

Then use the camera at those working speeds.

That was my strategy with my Contax II color dial for the first 35 years I had it. The slow speeds weren’t reliable (because the train would not reset and spring back to position reliably).

Only last year did I venture into making it work right at more speeds. I learned a lot about avoiding and dressing tool marks, and now it’s working better at most speeds - though still not above 250.

The slow speed escapement is under the flash shoe (in your case under the meter) and you would not need to go deeper to get them working. But the sequence of unscrewing and keeping track of which piece goes where is insane as you take apart just the top deck. Not inhuman like impossible but it is a thousand piece puzzle and you don’t want to lose any parts.

I would just use it and enjoy it at the speeds that work.

GRHazelton · Feb 14, 2021

Advance Camera in Portland Oregon did a nice job on my Contax IIa, the cost was reasonable. Here's their website: https://www.advancecamera.com/ I can't speak to their cost for a Contax III since the shutter is really different. Good luck!

awty · Feb 14, 2021

Actually the slow speeds on my Kiev3a are slow to, now that I tried them.
What a big noisy awkward camera it is. Takes a deal of commitment to use one.

Donald Qualls · Feb 14, 2021

@GRHazelton I'll try to email Advance Camera -- as things stand, the seller refunded my money after a "not as described" claim (the way I've been using my Kiev, 1/25 needs to work for me -- both for available dark and for flash), and didn't ask for a return (to Japan) due to cost of shipping. I can probably get a clean, working Kiev II for less than it would cost to get this Contax III gone through, though. I don't use a meter much on 35mm, though a flash sync is welcome (a Kiev IIa would have that, and is still a pretty faithful copy of a pre-War Contax II).

@Bill Burk I have no intention of trying to take the meter and top plate off this Contax. I've looked at the Kiev Survival Site before it went down. It's not much more complex under there than the Exa II I disassembled all the way to the shutter box (and reassembled and used for another couple years) when I was fourteen -- but I'm not fourteen any more, and I have a lot more respect for old hardware (and it's almost fifty years older than it was then, and that much rarer in even "partly working" condition). After fixing stuff for a living for seventeen out of the past twenty years, I also have a much better handle on my own limitations in regard to being able to fix stuff. I'd still get into a Compur at need -- but I try to avoid stuff that has multiple layers of complex parts that has to be 100% reassembled even to see if I got it back together right.

Dismayed · Aug 15, 2021

I'll add to this older thread.

I had Henry Scherer service a Contax IIa for me some time ago. It took over a year to get my camera back, and his waiting list only had about 100 cameras on it then. He now has 568 cameras waiting for service, so there is no way that he will get cameras added now back within 4 years. He also has to be pretty old - he worked in a camera store in the early 1960's.

I eventually sold my Contax gear and bought a Nikon SP. The shutter is far more reliable than the Contax shutter, and there are plenty of excellent lenses available.

Dali · Aug 15, 2021

Forget Henry Scherer. Years ago, I had a Contax IIa in his waiting list. 5 years later, it was still in his waiting list. Sold the Contax and moved on.

Dismayed · Aug 15, 2021

Dali said:
Forget Henry Scherer. Years ago, I had a Contax IIa in his waiting list. 5 years later, it was still in his waiting list. Sold the Contax and moved on.

How many spots did you move up in he list during those 5 years?

Don_ih · Aug 15, 2021

Donald Qualls said:
has to be 100% reassembled even to see if I got it back together right.

That is one of the big problems with that camera. I took mine apart to replace a shutter ribbon. I cleaned out as much dried gunk as I could while I had it apart. You need three hands to replace that ribbon, by the way. Truly irritating. And I had to take it apart two or three times while trying to put it back together.
Worth the effort. I never use it.

Dali · Aug 15, 2021

Dismayed said:
How many spots did you move up in he list during those 5 years?

I don’t remember but I was not close to the top of the list. I wasted my time thinking it could be CLAs in a « reasonable » delay.

Dismayed · Aug 15, 2021

Dali said:
I don’t remember but I was not close to the top of the list. I wasted my time thinking it could be CLAs in a « reasonable » delay.

It seems futile to ask to be added to the end of the list now. You'd think that Scherer would have hired an apprentice years ago to move through the backlog and hand the business over to. But I suppose that no one else on the planet is worthy of servicing Contax cameras.

Donald Qualls · Aug 16, 2021

Dismayed said:
no one else on the planet is worthy of servicing Contax cameras.

Based on his web site, it's more like no one else on the planet is willing/able to adopt his "my way or the highway" attitude for something that's supposed to be a business servicing cameras that have been out of production for seventy-ish years. I really need to get in contact with Oleg -- I'm not the level of purist to consider it a high crime to use Kiev parts to fix a Contax, as long as they work correctly in the end. Then again, that would leave effectively a Kiev in a Contax body. Would it be any better than a Kiev given the same level of service? Doubtful -- and I think I see the trailhead to where Scherer lives -- but a perfect Contax I might or might not get back before he dies is of much less use than a well-working Kiev I can use this year or next (and can afford).

RDW · Aug 16, 2021

Despite any suggestions to the contrary on certain websites, there are other highly regarded Contax technicians in the world. You might give Ed Trzoska in the UK a call: http://europhotoservices.co.uk/

Dismayed · Aug 16, 2021

Mark Hansen services Contax IIa and IIIa cameras. He worked on a TLR for me a few years ago and did a nice job. I've never sent him a Contax, though.

ZeissIkonRolleiRepair.com

New-to-me Contax III -- CLA reference?

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