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Disclaimer: You should probably just send your gear off to a professional to get it repaired. Should I repair my own camera gear? Well, depends on how damaged the piece of equipment is, your experience, etc. Honestly it's probably better to just send the gear off to a professional, or better yet take it to a local repair shop if available. On the other hand, repairing your own gear can be a lot of fun, and is really rewarding when you don't gently caress it up. What tools should I have? While you can make due with some smallish screwdrivers and a pair of tweezers, the job will go by much more smoothly if you have the right tools for it. JIS Screwdrivers Lots of cameras are made in Japan. Thus, they use Japanese Industry Standard (JIS) screws. These look very similarly to western phillips-head screws, they are subtly different. While a phillips-head screwdriver will work, you run the very real risk of damaging the screw, or worse the gear itself. I recommend getting a decent-quality set of precision JIS screwdrivers, preferrably with magnetic tips because holy poo poo why are all these screws so small. I've heard VESSEL brand are real great. I use this lovely set and have been happy with it, but you should probably get something higher quality. Lens Spanner  Used on basically all lenses, but also very useful on many cameras, lens spanners can adjust to fit into the small grooves on many lenses and unscrew components. I bought this one on amazon and it seems fine so far. While this seems like a niche purchase, there's not really much you can replace this with. Sometimes a set of tweezers can replace it, but I've stabbed my finger one too many times trying that so I wouldn't recommend it. Tweezers Get some solid tweezers, you'll be dealing with a lot of small parts. Also careful not to stab your finger with it like I've done. Dental Pick A dentist's pick can be extremely useful for getting into small spaces, picking up tiny parts, or cleaning out hard-to-reach nooks and crannies. Plus they're surprisingly cheap online. Kim Wipes Useful for cleaning lens glass. Not much else to say, really, they're really great. Cotton Swabs All-around useful cleaning tools. Just be careful of leaving behind teeny tiny fibers / hairs when using these, especially if you use one inside of a lens. Lens Cleaner You'll probably want some dedicated lens cleaning solution, most lenses have special coatings on them so you wanna be careful what you use to wipe them down with. This also can be good for Cleaning other stuff on the camera. Denatured Alcohol Useful for cleaning camera parts aside from the lens glass itself. Ronsonol Also useful for cleaning other camera parts, specifically cleaning out old gunk and grease from lenses. It's also good for cleaning off grease from aperture blades. Tips & Suggestions Do research! Google the hell out of the fix you're trying to do. There's tons of material online about how to open up popular cameras / lenses, and how to fix common problems. The youtube channel Fix Old Cameras has a lot of good resources. On the other hand, you may run into problems finding solutions to very specific fixes, especially on older cameras. You may very well need to make heavy use of Wayback Machine in order to view old pictures or guides. If you're particularly unlucky, you may not be able to find ANY info on the job you're trying to do. In that case I'd recommend just trying your best to find guides on similar jobs on the gear, or for the job your'e trying to do on similar pieces of gear. If you're really lucky, you may be able to find a pdf of the gear's repair manual, but good luck with that. Prepare a clean workspace. I suggest doing work on a large clean table, maybe doing so on newspaper or something to protect the surface depending on what work you're doing. Get some containers for all the tiny screws you'll be taking out, and preferably arrange them in some way so it's easy to remember which screws go where - not all screws on a camera or lens are interchangeable, so you'll often want to keep track of which screw goes in which hole. Working with springs or other small parts that could snap off? Try to put the camera / lens in a ziplock bag or something, so that if it flies off you'll be able to easily find it. Barring that, you better hope your carpet is white and the part is dark, because poo poo can fly across the loving room if you're not careful. Speaking of which, BE CAREFUL AND GO SLOW! Take it easy, and go through everything slowly. There's no rush, it's not a race. Take your time and do the job right. If you're not sure about something, don't experiment - look online, or ask about it in this thread and hopefully someone can help you out. Take lots of pictures You want to take pictures of every step in the process as you take something apart. Take pictures before you take something off, take pictures after you take something off. Take pictures from multiple angles during this part. You wanna have a fuckin' treasure trove of pictures by the time you're done with the repair. And not just to post in this dumb thread about your project, but also to help you keep tabs on everything you'd been doing. Many camera and lens components need to be aligned in specific ways, and boy howdy does it goddamn suck to think you've successfully done a repair only to realize you don't know how you're supposed to align one piece to another, or you can't remember the order some parts are supposed to go back on, or something like that. Don't use WD-40! I know WD40 is like, the gold standard for lubricrating mechanical stuff, but you don't wanna use it on camera gear. It's a penetrating oil which means that it will work its way through everywhere. Including the surface of the lens glass and the aperture blades. Once there it will trap dust and grime, creating a sticky gunk that will gently caress things up and require more cleaning in future. Helen Highwater posted:Focusing helicoids are usually lubricated with grease. Specifically molybdenum or lithium grease. You can buy it an an auto parts store. It's a few bucks for more than you will ever need. Get the old stuff out with ronsonol (any benzine based lighter fluid is fine such as Zippo brand) and a small screwdriver to chisel out the congealed bits. Add a tiny amount of the new grease at the end of the helicoid furthest from the aperture blades and screw the parts together and back off again to distribute it. Wipe off the excess before final reassembly. To add to this, according to this guide on replacing helical grease, you want grease that has temperature resistance, the proper consistency, longetivity, stability, and non-evaporating. Apparently some greases made for cars or bikes can fail in one or more of these areas, and so S-10 or S-30 helicoid grease is recommended. However it’s a bit on the pricey side, so a cheaper alternative would probably be fine?? Resources & Links Videos Fix Old Cameras - A youtube channel with tutorials on basic repairs for tons of cameras. Mostly has a focus on older film cameras, and doesn’t have many tutorials on more complex fixes, but for something simple like taking off the camera’s top to oil something up or to re-align some guidewires, it’s super helpful. Daito Camera - Another youtube channel, this one unfortunately only in Japanese. However, it's still useful even if you don't understand the language! Daito livestreams camera repairs every week or so, and thus the channel has a huge archive of various repairs all on camera. It's relatively easy to look through for various cameras, to see if he's done a repair / breakdown on a camera you're working on. Even if you can't understand him, he's got a relaxing voice and it's very easy to watch him walk through various repairs. Repair & Service Manuals Learn Camera Repair - A HUGE online library of service manuals, all available for free download as PDFs. Service manuals give professional instructions and pictures for how to disassemble drat near every piece and part of a camera. Manuals Lib - A large online library of various manuals. This isn’t limited to just cameras, but there is a fair collection of manuals for cameras, both regular & service ones. General Advice + Resources Learn Camera Repari - Posting this again, because it's just a good general resource! This site has a variety of tutorials, resource links, troubleshooting advice, and even an online "course" for camera repair. A good place to go whether you're looking for general tips or to hunker down and learn a complicated repair. Jon Goodman - A US-based light seal kit provider, he makes custom light seal kits for many different cameras, and includes very well-written and detailed instructions. His light seal kits are higher quality and cheaper than anything you can find on ebay. Richard Haw’s blog - A blog with tons of repair articles and helpful advice. The site is focused on Nikon products, but many of his tips and tricks can be used for any manufacturer. His series of articles on repair fundamentals is especially useful for both camera and lens repairs. Sauer posted:Here's a good series of posts on adjusting Rolleiflex focus. Its for an Automat but I'm pretty sure all models use the same method. Good Luck! CodfishCartographer fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Jan 7, 2020 |
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Sep 16, 2018 20:42
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If anyone has any suggestions for resources, tools, tips, etc to put in the OP, please lemme know and I'll edit them in! For now, I'm gunna open up an Industar 50 as practice for my LTM Canon 50mm.
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Sep 16, 2018 20:45
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 This is my Industar 50. I got it for like 30 bucks or something, got it with my recent Bessa R purchase. There's nothing really wrong with it, other than FSU thread mount standards don't match Leica's, and thus it doesn't focus properly with the Bessa's rangefinder patch. You can fix this by shimming the lens, but I don't have any shims so I'm not gunna do that. Why am I opening it up then? Well I also got a Canon 50mm, which has a really sticky aperture ring. I figure hey, they're both LTM lenses, maybe taking the Industar apart first will be good practice for the Canon? Since I don't care that much if I gently caress up the Industar. I also am going to clean the lenses, because if I'm going to open it up I might as well. Anyways, first thing I did was remove the front glass element. You can see four notches in the front element, these are turned with a lens spanner to unscrew the element. Afterwards, I did the same with the rear element.  Here's the rear element.  After taking out the front element.  And here's the inside of the lens after taking out the front element. This lens appears to only have two lens groupings in it, so after removing the front element you can access the aperture blades directly. Since this is a rangefinder lens, the aperture blades don't close when the shot is taken - instead, they just always open / close to whatever aperture you set on the lens. I'm not 100% sure how the blade mechanism works, but you can see little pins that slide along those tracks as you rotate the aperture ring, which then closes the aperture blades.  After removing both front and back element. There's now no actual glass in the lens itself, which means I don't have to be quite so careful with it. (Surely I won't come to regret that decision)  Next up I'm gunna remove these screws, which hold the focus and aperture detail rings to the lens. I really cannot overstate how loving small these goddamn screws are. They're so small when I tried taking pictures of them with my phone, they just looked like specs of dust on the photo. They're fuckin' small, be goddamn careful with them.  Took off the aperture detail ring first. Is there a better name for this? Aperture ring??   Here's a shot of how the focus mechanism works. The pegs mark the closest/farthest focus, and make sure you can't rotate the focus ring too far. It's not super clear in the second picture, but the pegs will collide if i continue unscrewing it. I originally just took these pictures to show the thread how it works, but these actually wound up saving my rear end later on. ALWAYS TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES  Anyways here's the focus ring.  So, in order to unscrew the focusing helical, you need to unscrew one of these pegs. Luckily, there's a convenient opening near infinity focus for us to unscrew it from. This peg is made of metal, but at first I thought it was plastic - it was just really gunky and old, and took a bit of forcing, but I got it to unscrew.  Here's the focusing helix. While I did think ahead and marked where the helix is at infinity, I did NOT mark where the helix should be re-attached to, as it detached faster than I thought it would. I put it where I thought was correct and marked that, but spoilers it turned out to be incorrect.  Anyway, here's the aperture housing. I was stumped on this for a while, because there was no immediately obvious way to open it further. There was a small ring on the back with two holes that a spanner could fit in to, but it didn't want to turn so I didn't force it. After a quick googling, turns out that ring IS supposed to turn, so I figured mine was just stuck. I put some muscle into it and sure enough, it gave way and unscrewed just fine, allowing me to remove another portion of the aperture housing.  You can see the ring I removed along the top there.  There's not a whole lot left to the lens at this point, it's entirely the aperture mechanism and its casing. There are these two small silver shims that slide off super easy, careful not to lose them. You can also see a screw there - that screw is how the aperture ring adjusts the aperture - as you turn it along the helical, it pushes the screw, rotating and adjusting the aperture. Since my goal is to eventually clean out and replace the old grease of the canon's aperture ring, I decided to take this apart to see how it works.  After removing the screw, I unscrewed the aperture helical itself. This time I was SUPER careful to make sure I marked EXACTLY where it disconnected from, so I could easily align it later.  Here's the remaining bit of aperture housing, I suspect all that remains is the mechanism of the aperture blades. There's another screw that can be removed, but at this point I didn't want to go any further lest I gently caress up the aperture blades. I actually came close to loving them up anyways - the screw that the helical turns ALSO holds in part of the aperture blade housing, and without it the blades looked like they were ready to fall off their placements, drooping down farther than they should. This also made it impossible to put that screw back IN, as the housing had adjusted. I had a minor panic attack thinking I'd bricked the lens before realizing I could push the drooping part with my fingers and re-align it properly. Since most of the bits were separated at this point, I made a few different attempts to clean the dirty chrome pieces. Denatured Alcohol, Ronsonol, Lens Cleaner, but none of them were able to get the rust (dirt?) off. I didn't try any actual chrome polish / rust remover, so maybe that would be a better choice? Anyone have any suggestions on those? Anyways, at this point I considered my job done - I knew how to get in to the lens's aperture helix, so I figured I could probably do the same with the canon at this point. I started retracing my steps, putting everything back together in the opposite order. This is when I realized I had made a mistake with the focusing helix.  Notice the problem? Yeah, neither did I. See, the pegs around the helix should just barely touch when you focus as close as possible - but when I put it back together they didn't, instead missing each other and allowing the lens to completely unscrew itself apart if you continue focusing closer and closer. It was then I realized that my reference markings were incorrect, so I began looking back over my pictures. You'll notice in the earlier shot of the pegs, the two on the top drat near touch the bottom with the lens at infinity, but in this photo there was quite a bit of space. So I sat down on the couch for about half an hour threading and rethreading the two components, trying to get them just right. Eventually it was a success, and then I put everything back together without any more problems. Well...until I decided to try taking it for a test run. See, I actually have never tested this lens in the first place. I've shot photos with it, but am still waiting for the film to come back from the lab. An M39 to Micro 4/3 adapter arrived while I was working on this lens, and I stupidly didn't think to wait to start this operation until after it arrived, so I could compare the before and after. So I put the lens back together, slapped it and the adapter onto my EM10 ii, and took this picture of my dog...  Not great. Stopping the aperture down to f/16 made it a teensy bit better:  But still not acceptable. I decided to try out the canon on the adapter as a test:  Much better. Obviously I missed focus, but hey the point is it actually is functional. I'm not sure what this means for the Industar. I'm not sure if it was that blurry before I hosed around with it, or if I messed up something inside it. Has anyone used a M39 > micro 4/3 adapter before? There's a way to adjust the adapter, maybe I just need to do that? Either way, my hands are tired from working with small bits and pieces, so calling it a day for now. CodfishCartographer fucked around with this message at 01:25 on Sep 17, 2018 |
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Sep 17, 2018 01:21
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Y'know, it never occurred to me that you could even put a lens in crooked like that. I assumed they would just, y'know, fit in nice and flat. Also poo poo, you're braver than I am. I dunno if I'd have the nerve to open up a modern lens with all the electronics they have. At least with mechanical stuff I can (theoretically) figure out how it all goes together and what all the bits do. If I had to bet on what went wrong, maybe that loose wire should have connected to something on the board that's visible? Maybe?? Also thanks for the tips for more stuff to add to the OP, I'll edit them in when I'm not on my phone. CodfishCartographer fucked around with this message at 07:42 on Sep 17, 2018 |
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Sep 17, 2018 07:40
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Blackhawk posted:Definitely going to be following this thread. Recently picked up a Minolta SR-T 100 from a flea-market, my first dive into film photography... How dusty is it, exactly? A little bit of dust won’t cause any image problems. I wouldn’t worry about dust at all until it becomes very obvious even when not held up to the light. If you shine a flashlight into a lens it’ll cause every minor spec to stand out like a sore thumb, making the lens look worse off than it actually is. As for the camera body itself, I dunno about the shutter speeds but the mirror dampener is an easy fix. I’ve replaced mine on a Canon AE-1 before (i’ll post about it in this thread at some point), but not one a Minolta SRT. I can’t imagine it’s particularly different, just take it slow and be VERY careful not to get any gunk on the mirror or focusing plane. Little bits will get on those, of course, but just be diligent to remove them using tweezers / a q-tip before continuing, you don’t want to leave them sitting there or they could stain. e: here's a Minolta SRT 101 service manual pdf. I know it’s not exactly like the 100, but it’s probably close enough?? I'm not sure if this counts as  but if it does, mods please let me know and I'll edit it out.
CodfishCartographer fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Sep 17, 2018 |
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Sep 17, 2018 17:43
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Blackhawk posted:Thanks for the help, what did you replace the damper with? It looks like it was originally some kind of adhesive black foam. There is a fair bit if dust in there, I'll take some photos in a few days of it to see what people think. I'm also going to order a shutter timing tool, a bit pricy but I doubt there are any film camera repair places around where I live and my shutter curtains are definitely going at different speeds. Mirror dampeners are generally part of a light seal kit. If you can find some adhesive-backed foam from a craft store that'll work, but it's probably easier to email Jon Goodman at jon_Goodman@yahoo.com. The dude offers light seal kits and detailed instructions for drat near every camera, and they're cheaper + higher quality than anything on eBay. I'm not sure if he ships outside the US though? In your case though, I'd recommend trying to fix those shutter curtains first, assuming they are inaccurate of course (it sounds like they are). It'll likely be a tough fix to DIY, but the cost of getting it done professionally would be more than the cost of a new camera. Wait on replacing the dampener until after you try to fix the shutters, because if you can't fix those then you'll probably need a new camera anyway.
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Sep 20, 2018 14:49
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Double post, but I'm in the middle of working on my Canon 50mm with a stiff aperture ring and need advice. I've successfully taken it apart, only to find the aperture ring is NOT a helical - it's a metal ring built into another ring, so they can rotate freely. Any oil or lubricant I could put in it to smooth it out? It actually turns fairly freely, I think what is making it so stiff is actually the ball bearing that clicks at each aperture mark. Maybe I could oil that up or something? also notice some oil on the aperture blades, so I should probably clean those too. I'm not confident enough to take out the blades and clean them individually, is it fine to just clean them in the aperture housing? I have all this helical grease I bought but now nothing to use it on lmao
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Sep 21, 2018 02:24
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President Beep posted:Wonder if powdered graphite would be okay in an application like that. I suppose it wouldn’t gum things up/attract dust, but it might get into the guts and onto the elements(?). Dunno! I don't have any, so instead I used ronsonol and denatured alcohol to clean the various parts. I managed to get the aperture ring off its holder, then cleaned them both very thoroughly. I also cleaned the aperture blades as thoroughly as I could without taking them apart. Just in case the ball bearing for the aperture clicks was the problem, I also cleaned its holster as well. Put everything back together, and Holy poo poo not only does it all work and focus correctly, but the aperture ring is SUPER smooth now, it's so nice. It might almost be a little too easy to turn now, haha. It's a shame I didn't get to use the helical grease I bought, maybe I should regrease the focus helical for good measure? It doesn't feel stiff or anything, but a new coat of fresh grease probably wouldn't hurt. I'll do a more detailed post tomorrow with pictures on how I did everything, for now I'm headed to bed.
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Sep 21, 2018 05:52
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 So, here’s my Canon 50/1.8 LTM. I can’t find any information on what this specific model is called, but it’s similar to the Serenar. This model also may be kind of hard to find?? Maybe at some point Canon stopped labeling the lenses as “Serenar”, or maybe they started naming them that after a while. It seems like the vast majority of Canon 50/1.8 LTMs have a black+chrome casing instead of the pure chrome. Apparently the black + chrome version is newer, and possibly has worse coatings / glass? I’m not sure. Anyways, I got this one for a hundred bux on ebay, and the glass is mostly clean. No haze, no fungus, but there is strangely what looks like a fingerprint on one of the inner elements, so maybe someone clumsier than I have opened this up before? Either way, the real problem I’m trying to fix is the stiff aperture ring. For some reason when it comes to turning the ring between the wide apertures, it gets REALLY stiff. More than once I’ve accidentally began unscrewing the lens while trying to stop up. After opening up the Industar earlier in the thread, my theory is that this Canon’s aperture ring has old grease in its helical, so I’ll be trying to re-grease it to smooth it out. There is also a slight amount of oil on the aperture blades, which should probably be cleaned. I was able to find this guide on opening up a Serenar, but it doesn’t detail how to get into the aperture ring, and I don’t know if my canon has different innards compared to the Serenar. After several days of trying to find more information online and coming up empty, I decided to just figure it out on the fly and hope for the best. I might even be able to clean up some of the rust on the chrome too, if I’m lucky. Let’s dive in!  Here’s the front of the lens. My initial plan was to see if I could just go in through the front and remove the aperture ring that way, to avoid having to take apart the rear. I couldn’t find an obvious way to go in through the front, so I decided to start from the back elements of the lens. Later on I’d learn it’s literally impossible to deconstruct it from the front.  Here’s the rear of the lens, and here we go - several different places where a spanner can be used to unscrew stuff. We’ll start by unscrewing the outer ring rather than the inner ring - this outer ring is what holds the focusing mechanism and the rest of the lens together.   Taking off the focusing housing  And here’s the rest of the lens. Right now it’s basically the aperture housing holding the lens elements, and the aperture ring attached to it.  I unscrewed the rear lens element so that I could work with the rest of the equipment without worrying about damaging it.  The next lens element is hard to get to, my lens spanner is juuuuust small enough to get to it.  And here it is removed. This took a lot of unscrewing, it was awkward with my lens spanner so I just used a dental pick instead. On the inside of this lens element I found a fingerprint, and it was trivial to clean off. Now we can access the aperture blades, and the back of the front element.  At this point I actually wasn’t sure what to do next. I couldn’t see an obvious way as to how everything was connected together, but there were a few more screws that I could take out. I decided to remove some of the metal holsters next - these are used to adjust the aperture as you move the ring, to stop the ring from moving too far, and to roll a ball bearing to “click” on each of the aperture stops. This specific one I removed sits on a small screw that’s connected to the aperture housing and is also attached to the aperture ring, so as you turn the aperture ring it rotates the aperture housing, opening or closing the blades.  Next I removed this holster, which collides with another screw that sticks out of the aperture housing and acts as a blocking point, so you can’t rotate the aperture ring too far. Oddly, the screw that the previous metal holster rotates physically cannot move far enough to do so, so this seems a little superfluous. I assume it’s here to not put extra strain on the aperture housing screw? But there’s not another blocker on the opposite side, so who knows.  Here’s the final metal holster, which is what clicks the aperture ring into each stop. There are grooves carved into the ring, which a small ball bearing sits into.  This ball bearing is literally the size of a grain of sand, holy poo poo. Out of fear of this little thing rolling away and me never being able to find it again, I decided to unscrew this bit inside of a ziplock bag in case the ball bearing decides to run off. Luckily I got it removed and stored safely. Notably, the aperture ring turns much more smoothly after removing the ball bearing. So problem #1: the ball bearing is a significant factor in what’s stiffening the aperture ring. I took a closer look at the metal holster for the ball bearing and it definitely looked like it’d seen better days, so I gave it a quick ronsonal bath to clean it up.  I was hoping that at this point that removing those metal holsters would allow the aperture ring to slide off, but no dice. I considered calling it quits here, but I figured gently caress it, let’s see if we can go deeper. I noticed three screws along the aperture housing, so I decided to try removing them. (and also the screw which rotates the aperture blades)  That did it! After removing all those screws, the aperture ring mechanism slid off of the lens and aperture housing.  Here’s the aperture housing itself. Not pictured: me unscrewing the front lens element. It was easy to unscrew with my hands, no tools needed. Anyways, I decided to clean the aperture blades at this point. I wasn’t confident enough to take them apart and clean them individually, so I just decided to clean them in the housing. I did this by dipping a Q-tip in ronsonol, tapping out the excess, then VERY LIGHTLY running it over the closed aperture blades. I’d then open and close the blades to distribute the lighter fluid. Once it was distributed, I’d use a dry Q-tip to sop up the gunk that the ronsonol loosened up. I did this over and over on both sides of the aperture blades until no more gunk was coming out, then I let it sit to dry for a while as I worked on the rest. The aperture opened and closed noticeably easier after doing so, which was a good sign!  Here’s the aperture ring. Contrary to what I believed would be the case, it is NOT a helical.  me for getting helical grease, I guess. Anyways, it’s a ring that rotates on a housing component, held in by this thing ring that’s somewhat easy to remove with a dental pick. The ring itself was a bit stiff when turning, so I figured it needed some cleaning. Here are the two pieces of the aperture ring separated, and as you can see there’s definitely some gunk and rust in there. I spent an hour or so cleaning both pieces very very thoroughly, scraping gunk off with a toothpick + dental pick, wiping both down with ronsonal, and letting both pieces sit in baths of denatured alcohol for 10-15 minutes. Afterwards the two pieces glided together very smoothly, so I considered this a win and that my job was done. I put everything back together, and SUCCESS! The aperture ring is super easy to turn and adjust. Perhaps even too easy at this point, maybe I should have put a little bit of the helical grease in between the aperture ring and its metal casing? Oh well, either way the problem is fixed, and the lens is good as new! I tried it using a Micro 4/3 adapter, and the picture is sharp and clear. Well, except for the chrome looking like garbage, unfortunately nothing I could do was able to fix it - scrubbing with ronsonal, denatured alcohol, nothin’. Maybe I should use some kind of chrome polish or something? I might open it back up and re-grease the focusing helical. I have the grease for it, but the focusing isn’t particularly stiff or anything like that. I dunno, maybe I’ll do it later on, but I like the feeling of the focusing now - it’s not super slick, but it’s slow enough to where I can focus carefully and it doesn’t drift or anything.
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Sep 21, 2018 17:02
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Blackhawk posted:The main reason I didn't go with the kit is because given where I live it would have cost twice what the kit was worth in postage and taken weeks to arrive. You could always try frankensteining the camera - see if you can find an SRT with a working shutter mechanism, but otherwise broken somehow, and see if you can transfer the working shutter mechanism into your body?
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Sep 30, 2018 02:20
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Man I love SRT's, they may be my favorite film SLR. If it wasn't somewhat heavy I'd take it goddamn everywhere with me.
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Nov 13, 2018 07:42
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Nice! Forcing poo poo is always such a worrying technique, but is so satisfying when it works.
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Nov 23, 2018 20:22
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How easy is it to peel off and re-attach leatherette? The shutter speed dial on my Yashica Mat 124 is a little stiff, and while I could live with it, it also seems easy enough to open up and clean those gears. The only part I'm iffy on is the leatherette,which I'll need to remove to open the front plate, and I've never dealt with that stuff before.
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Jan 2, 2019 06:03
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Helen Highwater posted:Easy enough, the chances are (as mentioned above to Pres. Beep), that the leatherette is fixed with a shellac glue. You can chisel it away easily and then reapply it after reheating it with a torch. Duh, I should read my own two-page thread.  Anyways, what's the best method to remove the leatherette without damaging it? I assume using a small screwdriver / toothpick / scalpel to kind of slowly peel it up while pulling gently on it? Slowly chisel away underneath it? Something else?
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Jan 3, 2019 16:10
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President Beep posted:Wonder if a warmed up putty knife or similar implement would help to peel off the old stuff. Not hot enough to mess up the camera itself, but maybe just enough heat to get the shellac a bit gummy. That’d be ideal, I could just re-use the shellac rather than needing to buy more, and wouldn’t risk stretching / tearing the leatherette all that much. Maybe I could just use a blow dryer / heat gun on the front of the leatherette to warm up the shellac and make the leatherette easier to remove? I'm not sure what amount of heat could hurt the camera, but I think if I keep the heat gun / blow dryer a fair distance away, i can heat the front slowly enough to loosen the leatherette. In case it wasn’t obvious, I’d prefer to just re-add the leatherette back onto the camera, since it’s perfectly fine and I just need to remove it so I can remove the shutter casing and clean it. thinking about it, maybe I could just pull up the bits of leatherette around the screws to reveal them? e: After doing some research, it seems that if you’re really slow and careful you can peel up leatherette using a scalpel, and some isopropyl alcohol can loosen up the adhesive if needed. Being delicate with it, you can remove the leatherette without damaging it. It also seems that Pliobond is commonly used by repairmen to apply leatherette, so I might just pick that up from a local hardware shop and not have to worry about applying too much heat to my camera. Anyone have any experiences with using the stuff, good or bad? CodfishCartographer fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Jan 3, 2019 |
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Jan 3, 2019 20:34
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Longer effort post incoming, but I successfully opened my Yashica Mat AND put it back together in working order! Without damaging the leatherette! Bad news: turns out what was gunking up the shutter dial is inside of the shutter mechanism itself, and I am nowhere near experienced enough to try taking that poo poo apart. So while I didn't brick my camera, I wounded up back where I started. Oh well!
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Jan 7, 2019 00:45
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Sauer posted:The Yashica Mat has a regular old Copal shutter in it. Probably one of the easiest shutters to service yourself if you're feeling up to it. This is the guide I followed when I took mine apart for the same reasons yours is having trouble. That guide is for a Yashica D but the mat has the same shutter. Pull out the timing escarpment dunk it in lighter fluid for a few hours, work it a few times, dunk it back in, repeat until moving without issue. Do not lubricate it (you can if you have light machine oil in a hypodermic needle and can apply the tiniest littlest drop to the gear posts). Usually no need to remove the triggering assembly. Ooh, thanks for that link! I'm leaving for Tokyo in less than a week, so I'd rather just deal with having a stiff shutter dial than an inoperable camera if I gently caress it up. I might try again at it after vacation, though! I'd heard of Mark Hama before, but apparently over the last couple months he's gotten slower / less responsive, and I've heard stories of people sending their cameras to him for 3-6 months with no communication at all from him. What I'll probably do is maybe see if I can get a junker body for super cheap and use that as practice before diving into mine. And hey, maybe with some luck I'd be able to fix one and turn a profit! Anyways, here's the story of my adventure.  Here's my Yashica, other than a few scuffs here and there it looks great. Which made it all the more painful knowing I had to peel off the leatherette.  First order of business is to take off the shutter lock switch. This is fairly simple, but requires a pretty small spanner to unscrew the nut that holds it in. My spanner was just barely able to fit on it to get it started, then I used a dental pick to finish unscrewing it. After unscrewing it, the shutter lock switch just lifts off. As I lifted it off, I felt the shutter button shift slightly, which was worrying. Turns out it's held in place by a spring, and the shutter lock switch + nut that secures it are what keep it upright and in position - removing them causes the shutter button to shift off to the side under the pressure of the spring. Luckily, this is easy to move back into its correct place, but it panicked me a bit at first.  Here I started peeling up the leatherette using a scalpel. I followed the advice in this video on how to remove it without damaging it. It basically boils down to being really slow and careful. Removing it was actually easier than I thought it would be!  I caused a few dings here and there while removing the leatherette, but they're pretty much invisible.  Leatherette successfully removed! You can see I took a small chunk out of the bottom-left corner, but it's still on the camera so with the leatherette on it's invisible. After removing it, I spent some time cleaning off the old glue from the body.  Next I removed the shutter's outer casing. This is NORMALLY done by removing five small screws, but this camera only had four. I guess someone lost one at some point! Also, ONE OF THE SCREWS WAS STRIPPED! What the gently caress, previous repairman? Luckily I was able to get it off and then back on without damaging it further, but I suspect it won't survive through one or two more openings. Maybe the missing screw was stripped so badly it was unusable? I also used some washi tape to hold down the shutter and aperture dials, just in case they're difficult to get back in the correct positions.  Here's the underside of the shutter outer casing.The gear closest to the photo turns when you rotate the aperture dial, and the metal clip on the left rotates a peg on the shutter itself to adjust the aperture. The clip on the right is attached to a gear underneath, which rotates a peg that sets the shutter speed. I assumed that these gears were gunked up and stiff (which they kind of were) so I spent a fair amount of time cleaning them with ronsonol. I had intended to open this up further and clean each gear individually, but the nuts that hold them in didn't want to budge. I decided not to try forcing them, and instead just poured in a little of the lighter fluid at a time, then turned the gears to move it around. I did this several times until they glided along as smooth as possible. Turns out the washi tape was superfluous, since it was very easy to just line up the clips with their corresponding pegs. I also dripped a little ronsonol into the shutter mechanism itself, but was very light with it since I didn't want it to travel to the wrong places. It was at this point that I put the outer casing back on and tried the shutter dial, only to find it wasn't really any better. Moved easily when detached, was stiff when attached - thus, the problem is in the shutter mechanism. Putting it back together was mostly uneventful. Pliobond smells loving AWFUL and gets everywhere, so wear a mask and be very careful with it. And probably open a window or three. The only other hiccup was putting the shutter lock switch back on, and screwing the nut back. Remember how I said that the shutter button was pulled away by a spring? Putting it back into place long enough to screw the nut on was surprisingly difficult. I was honestly a little worried I wouldn't be able to get it abck on, but eventually I managed to make it work. Tested everything as best I could without getting film developed, and it all seems to work fine! Unfortunately the shutter is still very stiff to adjust, but I can live with that for now. Anyone happen to have a junked Yashica TLR I can experiment on to practice getting into the shutter mechanism?
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Jan 8, 2019 03:44
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Fwiw, it sounds like a super easy fix. What's most likely that things just became unaligned - when you turn the aperture dial on the camera, it rotates a set of gears, which moves a lever on the shutter housing. The lever is very small though, and easily came unaligned when I was taking mine apart. The shutter mechanism itself is very clearly labeled what each setting is for each lever, so just set the lever at the same aperture that the dial is set to, then put the front casing back on. Before you screw things in and reapply the leatherette, try turning both the aperture and shutter speed dials several times to ensure you can feel resistance (the aperture dial will probably have more resistance than the shutter speed dial) and that they don't jiggle loose, then you're good to go. If the tab lines up correctly, AND the aperture lever on the shutter housing moves freely with no resistance, then you're probably hosed as it's something wrong in the shutter housing itself. Opening that is a whole other beast. Also a valuable lesson - test what you can before you screw everything back together.
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Apr 3, 2019 02:34
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pseudorandom posted:This sounds like pretty much the same issue I'm having. I made a video to try to show what's going on, since explaining it via text seems kind of difficult: Unfortunately, I can’t provide a lot of feedback on this  I can say that I’ve used empty film spools in my Mat 124 with no problems. I vaguely remember reading about a similar problem someone was having elsewhere online, and if I remember right it was due to a missing or bent internal piece, so that the lever wasn’t fully pushing as far as needed. You can find a repair manual for the Mat 124g here - it’s more of a diagram of how all the internals work, and it may not apply to your model since you don’t have a 124 variant, but it might be a good place to start. Possibly comparing it to your model might help you find where something could be wrong. It seems like you’ll probably need to open it up further, though.
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Apr 4, 2019 21:54
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Blackhawk posted:Kinda long shot but does anybody have any info regarding voigtlander bessa r3a rangefinder vertical alignment? I've had a search around and the website that everyone seems to link to doesn't appear to be working. I also see a lot of pictures showing a mechanism which is clearly different to mine. The alignment screws are under the hot shoe, which I've removed but people mention that the hot shoe is held on with three screws while mine is held on with four and all of the photos I've seen show a large Philips head locking screw which mine doesn't appear to have. Not specifically on the R3A, but I did this exact repair on my Bessa R. Unfortunately, it was shortly before making this thread, or I would have posted about it here. I remember mine looked different from most of the pictures I could find, so I had to experiment a little bit. Turns out that the rangefinder alignment is VERY sensitive, and even putting pressure on the screw will often have a slight (non-permanent) effect on the rangefinder. So if you look through the viewfinder and just put a little pressure on one of the screws, you can see if it moves the correct way or not. If it doesn't, then just releasing the pressure will return it back to what it was with no lasting effect. Once you find the right screw, then you can adjust it as needed. I forget the details of mine, but I remember most sources of information I could find on the repair referred to the screws being in horizontal alignment, but mine were vertical (it may have been vice-versa??). I feel like for mine it was the top screw. I know it was easily accessible, as I was worried I'd need to remove the entire top plate, but luckily I didn't need to. I might still have photos I took from it, I'll check when I get home from work later today. If nothing else, you can probably use archive.org to check that site that is down. I remember running into the same problem with this fix - there's some site everyone referred to, but it was down. Luckily the wayback machine was even able to retrieve the photos from it.
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Apr 9, 2019 15:15
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I couldn't find the pictures I had taken, but it sounds like you found some anyways. A tip before you try: once you find the right screw, you barely need to turn it at all. Mine turned fairly easily, but I've heard they can be held tightly with some kinda glue. Just be careful not to turn it too much or be too forceful with it. Turn it a bit, remove the screwdriver, check the viewfinder, repeat. You could also try watching through the VF as you turn the screw, but I found that the pressure of turning the screw made me over/under-compensate. I'd also recommend taking a very clear picture of its original position, and then turn it less than a full turn initially. That way you can return it to its current state if needed.
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Apr 10, 2019 03:34
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drat, nice. I've yet to need to take apart a set of aperture blades but I know it's only a matter of time, with how often I get older lenses that I like to dissect.
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May 3, 2019 02:13
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Speaking of practice, I've been vaguely considering picking up a busted Leica off ebay for cheap with the intention of fixing it up, but goddamn even completely ugly nonfunctional Leica iiif's are still well over a hundred dollars. I mean I know by Leica standards that's dirt cheap, but still more than I wanna spend on a project that may never work. I figure Leica is the best for this because I'm sure there's plenty of online guides to do literally any repair on one. Also I dig the looks of the old Leica iii's but that alone isn't really enough to justify dropping the $300+ for a functioning one, so spending less and fixing it up would be a fun compromise. As a nice bonus, if I can actually get one back to proper working order it would likely be worth quite a bit more than I'd paid for it.
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May 3, 2019 05:48
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President Beep posted:God dammit. My X-700 crapped out. Advance lever jammed and the meter lights would go as soon as I’d depress the shutter release button. Did some reading online and pretty much every resource I found made it sound like my experience was a classic failed capacitor scenario. Great, I thought, I’ll pick some up and swap them out. No biggie. Oof, I've never opened up an X700 but that sounds like a pain in the rear end. Sounds like possibly something wrong with the internal gears? That'd make sense for a jam and also not fully cocking the shutter. No idea how much of a pain in the rear end it'd be to fix it, though. That's a shame because that camera rules. e: on the other hand, stripping it down completely WOULD make some good fodder for this thread
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May 11, 2019 03:57
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Megabound posted:I picked up a Minolta SRT 303b with a stuck shutter button and film advance with the intention to try and repair it. Has anyone run into this issue before and can give me a clue at where to start looking? How "stuck" is the shutter button? I "fixed" a stuck shutter button on a Canon AE-1 by just swapping out the top housing for a new one, found a new top on ebay for like ten bucks. But if the lever is stuck too, it may be something jamming both of them. Do either of them move at all? If so, how far? What is the resistance like when they get stuck, is it sudden? Jerky? Sticky? Etc
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Jun 2, 2019 22:31
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Note: do NOT use a can of compressed air on anything camera related, use a hand blower like k-zed linked. Compressed air cans have propellants and poo poo inside that can stick to the sensor and that's a LOT harder to get off than a few dust specs.
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Nov 4, 2019 16:55
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President Beep posted:I’ve got a 50mm f/1.4 Rokkor X with some fungus inside the front element. The thing that sucks about these lenses is that the front group is sealed, making it impossible to open up without also destroying it. Can you get to the front element through removing the back and opening up the aperture blades? I have that same lens but won't be home to look at it until later tonight.
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Nov 17, 2019 18:56
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I think I remember reading at some point that soaking the entire shutter housing in isopropyl works for mucked up copals, but I haven't tried it personally, and dunno how shellac would effect things. If you haven't yet, go ogling for tips on how to lube up stiff copals might help you out? I did some research when trying to figure out how to smooth out my rough aperture wheel for my Yashica mat 124.
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Nov 23, 2019 04:34
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Since the thread is fairly active at the moment, anyone have any suggestions for cleaning out fungus from lenses? I got a Mamiya C220 with two lenses - one looks fairly cleanable, but the other has the worst case of fungus I've ever seen. It looks like the glass is frosted! It might be too far gone, in which case I might just use it to practice breaking down and rebuilding copal shutters.
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Nov 23, 2019 19:09
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Butch Cassidy posted:Canon TLb with 50mm prime. The mirror hangs up after firing every shot. Loosening the lens collar or giving the body a rap on the bottom drop it back into place. Good way to stop the binding? My best guess is it just requires some lubing up, especially if it sticks without the lens on. If it stops sticking when you take the lens off, I guess check to see if there’s anything sticking out on the lens that might be blocking it? Since jiggering with the camera seems to loosen it up, I’m guessing it’s due to gunked up parts. Some Isopropyl Alcohol or Ronsonol should be good to clean them out, if you can figure out where it’s getting stuck, which might be the more difficult task and may require taking some of the camera apart. If you can’t figure out where it might be sticking, you could try putting a few drops of isopropyl into some of the machinery, it probably won’t hurt anything but may flush the gunk into other parts of the camera. Here's a video for at least partially taking the camera apart, in case it comes to that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0l6hcbI6Kw
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Dec 6, 2019 23:43
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If the viewing lens sticks forward enough to get a grip on, you could try loosening it that way with rubber pliers or something. Alternatively, you may need to unscrew it from the back, either by removing the mirror or by removing the front leather and removing the whole lens casing that way. I haven't been able to find much info on that particular model, but looking up repair info on similar rolleis may help?
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Dec 10, 2019 22:07
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Sauer posted:You don't want to adjust the viewing lens that way anyhow. You've loosened it from its socket on the older Rolleis and its free to vibrate its way out or get knocked out of focus even more with handling. The viewing lens is screwed tightly into a tube that is screwed into the lens board. A jam nut locks the tube in place. Unfortunately to adjust things properly you need to take the front cover off and that also involves prying up the leatherette. These links are wonderful, adding them to the resources in the OP.
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Dec 11, 2019 00:32
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So I stumbled onto this youtube channel recently, Daito Camera: youtube.com/user/daitocamera/videos All his videos are in Japanese, unfortunately, but they're still valuable even if you don't understand the language. He livestreams camera repairs, and uploads the recordings of the streams. Even if you can't understand him, it's fairly easy to tell what he's doing and watch him walk through the process of taking a camera apart, cleaning it, etc. Might be valuable to wade through his videos and see if he's working on a camera you plan to work on, he has a huge library of videos and has worked on a wide range of cameras. In his most recent video he also showed off an English site called "Learn Camera Repair" which has a huge depository of camera service manuals!
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Jan 7, 2020 18:59
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To be fair, zooms are way more complicated. I kind of want to get one just to try taking it apart but i know i'd just gently caress it up royally
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Jan 12, 2020 03:46
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Great breakdown! I've been considering picking up some junk lenses / cameras to practice on, and maybe even see if I can fix them up / restore them. Did you have any luck cleaning up that practice lens, or did you not even try? Also, while I hate seeing evidence of sloppy work when I open something up, it's kind of fun to see some evidence of a previous repair. One lens I did a CLA on had some helpful marks on the helicoids already there, that didn't look like they were from the manufacturer. It is kind of a neat feeling seeing them, it feels kind of like saying hi to someone through time. I always try to imagine what they were trying to fix, or who they were. I wonder if anyone will one day open up the stuff I've worked on, and see some of the slight evidence I've left behind, and wonder what I was doing and who I was?
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Jan 12, 2020 09:45
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Helen Highwater posted:If anyone wants copies of the National Camera Technical Training Course, this guy has most of it up on his site with apparently the rest to come later. There are also a poo poo ton of service manuals and parts diagrams from a whole bunch of different manufacturers. This rules, the first two lessons are pretty standard - the first explains how the course works, and the second is more or less "how a camera works 101". The third course, which I'm on now, is all about lenses and how they refract light. Super interesting stuff even beyond its uses for repairs! e: I am confused on one point, though. Maybe someone here who's more knowledgeable can help me out. On pg.38 and 39 of Lesson 3, in the section on testing a lens using a NBS chart, it talks about using the chart to test Radial and Tangential lines. I get the concept that radial lines would pass through the center of an image, and tangential lines never will, but I don't understand how it works in regards to the lines on a NBS chart (especially since there's a radial/tangential diagram in the center of the chart anyways). Here are the pages in question:   Like, all sets of lines would pass through some center line at some point, right? If it's just referring to the center point, then NONE of them would pass through it, right? Like, drawing out the center lines:  It's clear that all lines would pass through the center lines, but not the center itself. I don't get it. CodfishCartographer fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Jan 12, 2020 |
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Jan 12, 2020 19:59
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I'd guess it's a faulty connection between the needle and the light meter itself, yeah. Does the other needle move when adjusting shutter speed or aperture? The SRT series has a very fragile cord that connects the controls to the light meter needle, and I've heard if you adjust the shutter speed too quickly the cord can come off its railings and lose tension. Not sure if that's connected to the light meter needle itself, but could be possible.
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Apr 30, 2020 05:28
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drat that's cool, I never thought of just making a new bellows from scratch. Definitely doesn't look too hard, looking forward to reports on how it turns out
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Feb 28, 2021 23:13
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bltzn posted:Hi thread, Sounds like the internal focus got knocked out of whack somehow. I imagine it'd be difficult but possible to fix. I've never opened one up, but I don't think it'd be too terribly difficult to see if maybe something is threaded wrong or if something seems obviously incorrect. If you're lucky, it could just be missing a focus blocker or something that'd be easy to replace. However, I imagine to get the correct focus it'd require a lot of trial and error of adjusting the focus helical a ton. Can't hurt to try? But might be a lot of screwing on the focus, testing it, then retrying it. Dunno how easy it'd be to check the focus while it's disassembled though, so checking it might require putting it all the way back together again.
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Sep 25, 2021 06:24
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Megabound posted:That shutter sensor won't detect a dragging curtain, for that you need a second emitter/receiver so you can compare the time at 2 different positions. I actually just build a shutter tester yesterday and will be putting in a second pair of IR break beam sensors for this purpose. I can visible see a bug with your setup 
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Apr 26, 2022 01:48
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