Rolleiflex 2.8E

[campy51]

I picked up one that I knew needed repair but didn't know about the blurred images. It was an as is purchase but with a 30 day return. I was told it had 3 problems, slow shutter which I don't see, fungus on lenses but it's more cleaning scratches than fungus and the meter didn't work which I was ok with. I also noticed a film advance problem that I only seemed to have with HP5 plus. I ran a few well outdated film through just to check the mechanics and I noticed that when you advanced the film to cock the shutter it stopped in a different position on the clockwise stroke. Sometimes it would be 9 o'clock sometimes 8 and sometimes it just kept rotating, but it all advanced to 12 as normal. When I put a fresh roll to test for picture quality with the HP 5 it would sometimes bind up and not advance and I also noticed after a few pictures the counter didn't advance. when I developed the pictures all were blurred and some were double exposed which I assumed it was the film advance problem or a problem with the double exposure mechanism. It all pointed to a cleaning so I took the side off and using an electronic cleaner sprayed all the linkages and then oiled them with a sewing machine oil. After several times I seem to have the film advance problem straightened out so I put another roll in for testing. I don't think anything I did is going to correct the blurred imaged but maybe I will get lucky. I did a quick check on the focus by placing a small ground glass on the film plane and set up a target at 3 feet and checked the focus and it looked ok. Now I am thinking it's either the scratches on the taking lens causing it, which doesn't appear to be bad enough or the front element is a mismatch. I also want to mention when I put everything back together I noticed that a tiny pin fell out and I believe it's for the double exposure dial so that's not working but so far the advance is acting normal, so maybe it was a double exposure problem to begin with. Any suggestions on troubleshooting the image problem?

 

[lobitar]

A correctly focused object should be TACK-SHARP even wide open. Otherwise lens problem. But of-course unable to tell if mismatch, not fully or wrongly mounted elements, or chratches or something. Always good idea to post a couple of pix (in this case both of lens front and of film window rollers). My own experience is, that these twin-lens reflexes very often have serious focusing problems - i.e. the two lenses dont focus together. Good luck.

 

[shutterfinger]

Place the ground glass on the flat film guides either side of the film plane. Placing the gg on the rollers puts the plane of focus rear of the film plane by a millimeter or two. Focus on the gg then move the viewing in or out until the view hood gg matches the film plane.
Rollei club shows the 2.8E came with either a Zeiss Planar or a Schneider Xenotar.
The Planar was made in a traditional 6 glass version then a 7 glass version around 1957. Being the 2.8E was introduced in 1956 an early version may have the six or seven glass version.
Zeiss Planar 7 Glass:

Zeiss Planar 6 glass:

Schneider Xenotar:

Light travels the direction of the arrow. Elements in the cells should match the curvature in the diagrams in the same order.

 

[Helinophoto]

Also try to flip the ground glass on your camera, sometimes it is upside down.

Take care of the little pin.
You should definitely send the camera to a CLA, these cameras deserve all the pamper they can get and they will reward you for it.

Using cleaner and some oil isn't a very bright thing to do.
These things are made like watches and they should be serviced by reputable servicemen, not by some hobby-quick fix.

It will cost you some time and money, but worth it .

 

[shutterfinger]

These things are made like watches and they should be serviced by reputable servicemen, not by some hobby-quick fix.

Some of us are better than the reputable servicemen. I have a Rolleicord V that has a service tag from a "reputable" repair shop. It has screws missing from the side panel. Its now working after being used for a basketball or baseball, don't know which.

 

[campy51]

Isn't it a Cleaning LUBE and Adjustment? The electronic spray doesn't leave any residue and evaporates very quickly. Everything is back together and working better now then when I received it.