Realist pitting

[Truzi]

This is more of a cosmetic maintenance question than repair. At the moment my camera is fine.

A few years ago I picked up a Realist 45 in excellent condition. I doubt it had more than a few rolls of film through it before coming to me; paint was still intact on the internal part of the back that pivots (hinge-like) when removing it. I accept this will wear with use, and I'm okay with that.

The bottom plate still has the factory luster, and the only cosmetic issue is the covering is peeling a bit at a couple edges (I will re-glue it). I'm guessing a fitted case would be the quickest way to remove this luster, so I am avoiding that.

Looking online, I see a lot of these cameras with pitted and stained alumin(i)um (I am guessing that is the material). This is my main concern.

Short of not using it, how can I avoid a similar fate?

 

[tedr1]

I don't know this camera myself but I know a little bit about metal finishing. This seems to be a vintage stereo camera. I think there are probably two issues. One is the quality of the original parts at the time they were made. Items like this were probably made in small batches and the parts were made in small batches either in the camera factory or (more likely) by a metal shop and then sent to a finishing shop for plating or painting. There may have been more than one metal and finishing shop involved, and, over time the details of the materials and processes used may have varied slightly. This may give rise to differences in durability of finish in resistance to corrosion for cameras that were made at different times in the manufacturing period.
The second issue is the environment that the camera has been in since it was made. Two cameras made using identical parts have spent the past fifty years in different conditions. There are at least two common primary contaminants that are likely to cause corrosion, one is salt which is present in the air of coastal regions. The other is skin oil which contains salt and acids and which varies a little between individuals I believe. Long exposure in a hot coastal location with a lot of handling would be one extreme condition leading to the greater likelihood of corrosion occurring.

If a camera has lasted fifty years with no corrosion it is tempting to conclude that the original materials were good quality and that exposure to salt and skin oil from new handling are unlikely to now cause new corrosion. On the other hand a camera that shows significant corrosion may have been made originally (inadvertently) using parts having inferior corrosion resistance. It may have been subjected to adverse conditions in the form of sea air, and/or a lot of handling by someone working in a hot humid environment. Avoid those conditions and the camera finish may survive intact.

 

[Truzi]

You might have a good point about oils from the skin. My father's side of the family is notorious for having skin that eats cheap metal plating and even protective plastic coatings on jewelry and eye glasses.

I also tend to assume people are like me, and while I don't coddle my things, they generally stay in a dry room of the house. I suppose being in a basement could be enough to start some oxidation.

 

[tedr1]

It depends on the quality of the plating. There may be porosity in the plating that allows moisture to reach the base metal underneath. Thicker plating or plating using superior chemicals and processes may be less porous and so protect the base metal better. Metal finishing, especially on a tight budget, can be tricky, there are lots of ways for quality to vary, in addition to the materials there is the human element of paying attention to quality and actually delivering what the customer is paying for! And it is also quite likely that no-one expected the camera to still be around in 2016.

 

[Ian Grant]

Early aluminium can suffer badly from oxidation and severe pitting, later alloys are very much better. I have a pre-Anniversary Speed Graphic modified from new to be a specialist WA 5x4 camera and the aluminium used for the base below the focus track-bed had very severe corrosion it was difficult to treat. I did manage but you need the part separate from the camera.

Ian