Vintage film cameras

[Kenzie]

Originally Posted by johnnyrod

Anyway you've been bad again and made me look at ebay so I just bought something else.

Pretty sure I don't know what you mean!

[Kenzie]

Emailed a chap called Chris who does Kodak repairs and the same pin the held the spring also stops the front plate from spinning. Camera is still usable though, just need to set the focus.

[johnnyrod]

I can see the hole now where the pin went. Strange design, that's Kodak I guess

[Kenzie]

Over engineered German camera! Chris has offered to replace the shutter plate. Just waiting to see how much it would cost.

Sent from my Xperia T

[johnnyrod]

Sounds like you just need to take it out and fit a pin to it. Is the pin normally fixed to the plate or loose, sitting in a hole? On my Contessamat (Prontor shutter) the spring hooked onto the end of the self timer chassis itself (got my bits mixed up earlier). The hook wasn't very prominent, here on the left:
Shutter in bits by John Rodriguez, on Flickr
Some cameras use the self-timer for the flash pre-ignition (for M or FP settings) but otherwise you could do without it and fix the spinning plate another way.

[Kenzie]

Hooking the spring onto the self timer mech isn't the problem. The post at the other end has snapped so I have nothing to hook it on to at the other end. The post also acts to stop the front plate spinning. On a separate note, the new skin for the spare Trip 35 arrived today. Something else to do over the break.

[Kenzie]

New skin for the Trip



Sent from my Xperia T

[Kenzie]

Hey Johnny, what Zeiss cameras did you say you have?

[Kenzie]

Reskinned it





Sent from my Xperia T

[johnnyrod]

I understood about the pin, maybe it's harder to fit a new one than it looks.

I've got... deep breath...
120s: Ikonta M and a Nettar, both 6x6 and with Novar f3.5 lenses, the latter is an ornament having donated its case, but is working and just needs the once-over. They're slow to use if you don't have an eye for exposure an range (me) but the pictures are just fine; the Tessar may be a better lens but the Novar is a very close second.
35mm scale-focus: Contessa LK (Tessar f2. non-folding, all fine but rear lens element is hazy, am going to try cleaning it again. Also Ikonta 35 folder, too sticky to use but also looks nice on a shelf!
35mm rangefinders: Contessa LKE and LBE, Contessamat SBE, all with Tessar f2.8 lenses. The last two have an extra linkage so you can dial in the GN of a flash and it sets the aperture according to the range - no use for bounce though! The LBE needs overhaul and the rangefinder patch is a bit dim - the LK might be able to donate here as the viewfinder has most of the same bits.
All have selenium meters which are working. The Contessas are match needle (centre the needle type by adjusting the settings, properly called coupled meters I think), the Contessamat can work in manual or shutter-priority. I guess it's handy for grabbing a shot without taking time to set up, but the Contessas show the needle in the viewfinder, as well as a Judas window so you can read the settings from the viewfinder, so they're not too slow to set, and you don't have to take it off your face to check anything.
They're all well made and seem to be standing up to time well. There were a few simpler ones like the Colora or Symbolica which I think could also be had with Tessar lenses - avoid the Pantar ones, they're really a let-down. Some Contina models around too which are scale focus but had various interesting features as well.