Quick Question About Minolta Autocord

[maggiemay]

Hi All. I recently picked up an Autocord and I am excited to get it cleaned up and running again. One thing that was curious to me was that on the focusing lever there are two arrows, one little red and a larger silver one. Does anyone know what the difference between these two markers are? How are they supposed to align with infinity when set to max? My little red arrow seems to align to infinity when the focus lever is set all the way to left.

 

[shutterfinger]

Red - Infrared; Silver - regular light.

 

[maggiemay]

That makes a ton of sense. Thanks for the reply. When I'm putting back on the focus ring/lever I'll align the silver arrow to the infinity marker when set to the max.

 

[shutterfinger]

With the focus mechanism at its extreme the taking lens may be focused past infinity. Best to put a focusing screen on the film guides, open the shutter, aperture wide open, then focus the lens on a target at least 500 feet away, further is better.

 

[Dan Daniel]

The silver and red arrows are part of a thin piece of metal that is captured between the knob and the top surface of the metal lever. There is a rivet holding the three pieces together. It is not uncommon for the piece of metal with the arrows on it to get bumped and rotated.

shutterfinger is right about the correct way to confirm focus. And after confirming the taking lens, the viewing lens should be adjusted to match the taking lens focus.

But considering that you just got the camera and that you probably have much more interest in putting some film through it than learning how to colllimate a TLR's lenses, I'll make a suggestion: do an infinity check with the focus screen. Something far away 500 feet as shutterfinger says. If things seem to be pretty well ok for focus, go shoot some film. And by ok, I mean it's relatively clear, not perfect. Don't spend too much time messing around with trying to fix anything on the camera. Save that for later. Clean the lenses. Exercise the shutter. Make sure that the focus lever doesn't need a lot of force to move because it is prone to breaking. When you open the back of the camera, check two things first: that the focus lever is at infinity so that the back doesn't swing down and break off the knob, and second that the wind lever is rotated counterclockwise to the rest stop position.

If the red/silver arrows bother you, take a chopstick or other small piece of soft wood and push the arrow to rotate it so that the silver arrow points to infinity when the lever is at its extreme position.

In real use, no one uses the focus scale much at all. I've overhauled dozens and dozens of Autocord, and rarely is the lens not set for infinity with the lever at the extreme position. The arrows and the focus scale itself are close but not really needed. Don't worry about them. Use the focus screen and go shoot.

Welcome to photrio. And maybe welcome to medium format. And certainly welcome to the Autocord world. Great cameras, great lenses. Go shoot!

 

[GRHazelton]

Do heed the advice of Dan Daniel. He is an expert on the Autocords; I have an Autocord which he's reworked, it looks like an new camera and shoots like one, also.

 

[maggiemay]

Thank you everyone for the comments. Dan, I really appreciate your knowledgeable and thoughtful response.

Unfortunately, I had little choice regarding opening her up. The focus lever was virtually rock stiff. I was able to gently work it enough to get it over close to infinity, but it definitely wasn't usable. The camera is in good shape overall, however this and some gumming oil on the blades needed to be dealt with (I think someone tried to flush it with oil a while ago). I have got everything cleaned up and the helicoid re-lubed with some helimax. I made marks as I went and everything seems to be going back together like it was originally. I have some experience with repairing older 35mm cameras, but this is my first medium format and I'm really looking forward to putting some film through it.

 

[Dan Daniel]

On getting the focus lever back: the ring that the lever attaches to has marks from the set screws. One of these holes is a bit larger, as if it was made with a small drill bit or such. Not huge but obviously not just a mark from the set screw itself eating into the metal. The screws are staggered so there is only one orientation to get the lever back in the original position. These original marks almost always lead to correct focus.

The inner brass helical part will have one thread start point that leaves one hole at the top center ever so slightly raised from the outer helical. Keep testing. If you didn't mark this on disassembly.

I like to assemble the main hold down brass ring and the outer helical with grease, spin it round a bit, then remove and wipe most of the grease away from the non-rotating surfaces. It doesn't need much. The inner helical also- light grease, install a few times, then wipe most away.

 

[maggiemay]

Hi Dan. That's incredible information. I don't think that this exists anywhere on the web. You're a wealth of knowledge and I appreciate you sharing it. I noticed the slightly larger hole and was wondering how the hell that happened. At least for me it looks liked it wasn't a clean drill but more of a tool mark or something. My markings put it right on that spot so I figured it had to be. All my other marks line me up exactly as you mentioned. My grease is NGLI 1 and a bit thicker than I'd like as finding good thin grease seems to be somewhat of a challenge. I used an incredibly small faint residue of oil instead of grease on the non helical parts. These parts were swimming in oil and gunk when I opened it up so it's definitely a major improvement.

 

[Dan Daniel]

I'll usually add a bit of thin oil to the helical surfaces after the grease to get a lighter action. Again, wipe most away after engaging threads. The amount of dampening is a matter of personal preference, of course. You could slather some wheel bearing grease in there and get action that is heavily dampened.

For that final touch of cleaning, most Autocords could use with the shutter and aperture lever system being cleaned up. It's a pain but definitely worth stripping them down and cleaning off that old grease. Be careful with the bayonet mounts- there are very small springs inside the three indent parts for holding filters in place. And aligning on reassembly is annoying. A very light coating of Helimax is a good dampening. The shutter itself provides most of the resistance.

Have never understood the amount of grease and oil in the focus helical and the shutter/aperture knobs. Usually looks to be factory. I guess they didn't give much thought to what would happen in 60 years

 

[maggiemay]

Hi Dan,

I can't describe how useful that warning about those small springs is and how disappointed I was with myself when I ended up loosing one. I spent hours searching to no avail and it got to the point where I was questioning if the little spring ever did exist and maybe I thought it up. I ended up getting an ~ok replacement spring from a springbar that goes in a watch strap. The ~1.4mm width spring is really tough to find. The bonus is that the levers are now super smooth.

I ended up shooting a roll and it appears that the infinity focus is good (below), however almost all my other shots seem to be out of focus (too shallow). I'm going to put a piece of ground glass on the film plane and compare at a shallow focus depth to see if somehow the lenses are disagreeing despite never mucking with the viewing lens. Who knows, maybe the person who had it before me fiddled with it. It appeared that someone had been under the front leather when I got it.

Cheers!