Yashica-Mat - can you help me identify it? and get it working right.

[Dan Daniel]

Do you need the slower speeds? Why not shoot for a while and see what happens? I think that Copal has a single crossover at 1/10 to 1/25, or 1/15 to 1/30, so unless you need 1/10 or 1/15 and slower, wait. But if you must....

Take photos as you move along. Especially when you go inside the shutter. I don't remember the specifics of that shutter, but I think it has a part or two that sits on top inside and needs to be, A, not lost, and B, reinstalled properly for things to work. I find having a series of digital images showing the item from various angles again and again lets me go back and find things like how a spring was hooked, etc.

Don't flood the thing. Drip some naphtha into the escapements and work the shutter for a while. If you do apply fresh oil, make certain it is very very light, and is applied very very sparingly.

While the front lens group is removed, clean the front of the rear group through the shutter. Just because...

 

[StepheKoontz]

Ok I ran test roll though. It winds and fires and counts the frames perfect. Its quiet. I think I had put a test roll in the exposed side. I re rolled it to make it a unexposed roll and it went through perfect. So Im not worried about film transport anymore. The only thing now is the shutter. It fires fine on the high speeds. Slow speeds are hanging. I dont dare try the self timer. So I think I will take off the front and see if I can get some lighter fluid on the shutter. Any advice? I sent a nice email to Mark Hama. He replied with a form letter and said it would be $200 to overhaul it plus parts and didnt answer my questions. Im sure he is good but I dont think he wants to do it anymore, burned out. and I dont blame him. So Ill try to get her going myself and hope for the best.

He receives tons of emails and is burned out dealing with that, not burned out working on cameras. He just recently rebuilt my Rolleiflex 3.5E and it works like new. I got it back last week and it winds ultra smooth now! It did take him 8 weeks and he isn't great at follow up emails, likely just doesn't like email, lots of older folks don't. But he does excellent work. These are his specialty, if I owned one of these, I wouldn't hesitate to send it too him unless the cost if a factor.