PeterW
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Post by PeterW on May 4, 2008 16:34:12 GMT -5
For Mickey and others: Here’s the first report on restoring the Weltix. It was obvious that the top plate would have to come off so that’s where I started. I always try screwed components in the wind-on mechanism for left and right hand threads, putting beef behind the screwdriver only when I’m certain. Just as well in this case. The wind-on knob has a central screw – actually it’s a domed nut with a screw slot – which unscrewed with a right hand thread. Then the knob itself unscrewed with a left hand thread. Under it was a six-pronged star washer. The rewind knob unscrewed right hand thread in the normal way after wedging the cassette fork inside. That left the exposure counting mechanism. Here I had to make up a special screwdriver with a slot in it – see sketch – to undo the collar nut. I’ve made up several of these in different sizes for different cameras, but of course none of them would fit the Weltix collar nut. I make them from old, often rusty, screwdrivers from the 20p junk boxes at boot fairs, and find that the ones made by well-known tool companies, ones marked GPO for the old General Post Office, and ones with the Government broad arrow or AM (Air Ministry) mark on them are much better quality than the new cheap drivers. If you thin the new ones down too much they just twist when you exert any pressure. You can buy these slotted drivers in different sizes from Micro Tools – at a price - but it took about 10 minutes using a Dremel and a small grinding wheel to shape this one. Under the nut was a washer, the exposure counter disc and another shim washer. I thought then that maybe if I took out four small screws on the top plate it would lift off complete with the viewfinder. But it didn’t want to budge. Maybe there’s another screw or screws inside the viewfinder I thought, so I took the cover and lenses off that. No screws: the finder base was riveted to the plate. OK, pause for a cup of coffee and a think. Nothing came to light after thinking and a closer examination, so I tried my old trick of gently tapping round the top plate with a small hammer to try to dislodge any corrosion that might be holding it. Quite suddenly the top plate popped off onto the workbench. And it was literally that – just a flat top plate, not the usual sort of inverted dish you usually find on cameras. It was stuck by the old paint and general crud. Never come across this before. The more cameras you tinker with the more you learn. The mechanism under it sits in a sort of tray with small pedestals into which the top plate holding screws fit. I needn’t have taken the viewfinder apart at this stage, but it had to come apart anyway because it was filthy inside. I was a little disappointed that the tube for the shutter release rod and button didn’t come off with the top plate. I had idea for making a rod with a screwed-on knob and a mushroom base so it wouldn’t just lift out, but fitting that would mean a whole lot more dismantling, involving rivets, so I shall have to rethink that one. I’ve got a couple of ideas which I’ll try. I flush-cleaned the mechanism inside the top, and that now works freely instead of sticking. The next stage will be to mask that, and the leatherette, off with masking tape, get rid of the rust, clean the tarnished nickel parts, and repaint where necessary. Hope to do some more tomorrow, which is a bank holiday in the UK. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime here’s a picture of what’s under the top plate and a sketch of my ‘special tool’.
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on May 4, 2008 8:06:45 GMT -5
Sorry, Andrew, I forgot to answer your question about paints.
To be honest I'm unsure about the distinction between enamel and lacquer. It seems that paint makers use both terms somewhat indisciminately.
I've used various brands of paint on cameras but my favourite at the moment is an acrylic paint made for modellers by Tamiya. It's more expensive than most auto paints, but you don't use a lot on a camera. In fact in the tiny jars it works out very expensive, but you can get larger tins. It comes in matt, semi-matt and gloss. Most pre-war cameras I've found have the painted parts finished in quite a high gloss.
Being acrylic based it will thin down for spraying with water, but I find the Tamiya thinners is better. The thinned paint flows better in an airbrush. For the thin edgings on a camera I generally use it straight from the tin with a small soft artist's brush. It dries fairly quickly but slowly enough to let brush marks flow out. I wash the brushes and the airbrush in warm water and washing-up detergent.
Even when it's dry it isn't hard. With air drying hardening takes at least three to four days but a gentle heat speeds things up a lot. I find that standing the painted part under a desk lamp with a 60 watt bulb (about 5 or 6 inches away) hardens it in about four to six hours, depending on how thick the coat is. I used to use a heat box 'drying oven', a plywood box with two 60 watt lamps inside, and still do if I've got a lot of bits to paint, but for one-off small jobs I find the desk lamp works OK.
I do this only on parts that come off the camera. For the edging I don't like to subject the whole camera to heat so I usually paint it and leave it a day to see if it needs a second coat, and then put it by for about a week to harden naturally. I paint the edgings after I've given the body a good clean, polished any brightwork that needs doing and repaired any leatherette that needs doing, but before I give the leatherette its final wax polish.
Other people may have different methods, but that's the one I've settled on at the moment.
PeterW
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on May 4, 2008 7:32:23 GMT -5
Thanks for the rundown on Welta, Andrew. Although my collecting interest is mainly pre-war and early post-war German cameras I must admit I haven't yet gone very deeply into the Welta company, but the more I learn about Weltas the more interested I'm getting.
PeterW
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on May 3, 2008 18:40:20 GMT -5
Mickey: Your wish etc. Provided I don't get too engrossed in what I'm doing I'll stop and take pictures along the way.
PeterW
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on May 3, 2008 17:24:40 GMT -5
Pretty Grotty Weltix. No, it doesn't describe a girl, it describes a camera I just bought on ebay, a neat little 35mm Weltix from Welta in Freital, near Dresden. It was another of those 'I know nothing about cameras' listings, and the seller also said he wasn't sure if it was working or not. I'm not really surprised he wasn't sure because you have to know at least a little about old cameras to find out if it's working or not when the shutter release button's missing. His small out of focus picture was just clear enough to show that it was very sadly neglected, and that it lacked a shutter button. Anyway, no-one was interested, and it was in the period and area I collect. I got it for a very low price, including postage. It turned up yesterday and, as you can see from the picture, it's pretty grotty. The Retina influence is obvious. As you can see, it's filthy dirty, the nickel plating is tarnished to a delicate yellow and the paintwork is chipped and rusting. But it opened smartly when I pressed the button, which was reassuring and, when I used a small drill bit in lieu of a shutter release rod, the Compur operated happily on all its speeds, even the slow ones - old Compurs never die!! The shutter serial number puts it at about 1935-36. The back opens easily, it's quite clean inside, and the bellows look in good condition. It's got an uncoated f/2.9 Steinheil Cassar that, after I cleaned the outside of the front element, looks clean and clear. It focuses down to 1.2 metres, and a nice little touch is that when you move a lever at the back of the top plate the whole viewfinder tilts forward for parallax correction. The leatherette is dirty but should clean up nicely. I began to think "Better and better". The workmanship and general build quality seems very good, but I shall know more when I take the top plate off and look inside. It will have to come off for repainting and to make a new shutter button and rod which ought not to be too difficult a job. I'm rather glad I haven't got to take the shutter and lens out because it's too cramped inside the back to wield my adjustable lens wrench. I would have to make up a special tubular tool. It was cramped enough inside the Agfa 127 which I finished this morning. The aperture lever was stuck because one of the steel shims behind the shutter had started to corrode and this had jammed the lever and aperture operating ring. The diaphragm blades themselves were fine. Once the corrosion was cleaned off it worked OK. Now the Agfa's finished I can start on this one, but I expect it to take a little longer. I'll keep you posted on progress. PeterW
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on May 3, 2008 12:27:56 GMT -5
Hi Andrew, enjoy The Camera Collector.
Interesting story, and I'm sure you play down what must have been some very trying times. Loss of memory like that must be very frustrating.
Glad to hear you have now got back into cameras and photgraphy; they're great therapy!
Best wishes for your future camera work.
PeterW
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on May 3, 2008 7:40:16 GMT -5
Bill, that looks much better now the red streak's gone. I also like the crop. It seems to give the picture extra action, maybe because they're now flying into the picture on a diagonal more just hanging in the sky.
Very good tracking shots, really sharp. I don't know if you use a little tip of technique I was shown by a pro who photographed motor cycle racing? The tip was to follow through with the tracking after you press the button instead of bringing the camera to dead stop. This guy was really experienced, and could get pin-sharp tracking pictures on a dull rainy day even at slow shutter speeds like 1/50 sec.
I tried it and found I was getting sharper pictures because I had been tending to stop tracking as I pressed the button instead of after the shutter fired. There was just enough delay to make the planes, cars, bikes etc blurred. I never got nearly as good as he was though.
I haven't tried this with a digital or auto focus camera having a longer 'shutter lag' but I imagine it could make a big difference.
Maybe that's why on older cameras the open wire frame finder was often called a 'sports' finder? You could keep the object in view both before and after taking the shot.
PeterW
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on May 2, 2008 12:04:23 GMT -5
Gene, I'd forgotten about my Industar 61, but I'll agree it's a very nice lens. Mine sits on the front of a 1985 FED 4. I quite liked using that camera when I first got it some years ago. It's never given any problems, even the meter still works, but I had a few niggles.
I like a diopter adjustment on a viewfinder, but turning the eyepiece on the FED 4 isn't as convenient as using a lever because you can't look through it while you're adjusting it. Also it doesn't have strap lugs, and I don't like using a camera in the bottom half of its ER case.
But the main reason I stopped using it was the silly sidewinder thumbwheel for rewinding. I found it slow and finger aching. Anyone else got any opinions on the FED 4? They don't fetch much these days, even in excellent condition.
Wayne, Like most people who get a few FSU cameras I've had my fair share of poor quality bodies. But they're so cheap in the UK, and there's loads of them still about, that the bad ones I've had I put on ebay for spares or repair with an opening bid of 49 pence (just under $1) and listed all the faults. They all sold, sometimes for more than I expected, so someone had faith in being able to fix them.
I agree with you about the quality of grease in the helicoids of FSU lenses. It goes to the consistency of hard soap and makes focusing accurately almost impossible. The only Jupiters I've had have been Jupiter 8s, so I can't comment on other focal lengths.
PeterW
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on May 2, 2008 9:52:23 GMT -5
Bob,
I've never had any argument with FSU lenses. I used to use Helios lenses a lot when I was more into M42 SLRs, and they performed very well.
I believe the very early ones got a reputation for mis-aligned elements, but my earliest is a 1959 Industar 50, and that's fine. My 300mm Tair (ex-Photosniper) is absolutely brilliant, as are the Jupiters on my Zorki 4s and Kiev.
I haven't found FSU lenses to suffer from the same lack of quality control as some of the cameras.
Maybe the earlier reputation stuck in some quarters.
PeterW
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on May 2, 2008 4:48:17 GMT -5
Nice pictures, Bob.
For my taste you had the shutter speed just right to keep movement in the water to catch the spray without freezing it all to look like crumpled cellophane.
PeterW
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on May 1, 2008 15:55:38 GMT -5
Gene: The standard answer to that question in the UK seems to be "Through the nerve endings in my finger tips". . PeterW
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on May 1, 2008 15:50:04 GMT -5
To all recently joined members: Welcome to The Camera Collector. If you haven't already done so please post something about yourselves, where you live, the type of cameras you like and your collection - even if at the moment you've got only a couple.
By now you've probably gathered that we're a very friendly bunch, always interested in what you collect.
So let's hear from you.
PeterW
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on May 1, 2008 15:38:12 GMT -5
What a lovely picture, Craig, caught at just the right moment.
PeterW
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on Apr 30, 2008 16:46:48 GMT -5
Ritchie Blackmore (A bit OT)
One or two people who like some rock electric guitar music mentioned Deep Purple, or Ritchie Blackmore which is tantamount to saying the same thing. DP wasn't the same when he left.
Despite being a brilliant and well-studied musician, and despite his quite awesome technique on the guitar, Blackmore never made quite the same impression on British rock fans as Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton et al - though Clapton was at heart more of a blues guitarist than rock guitarist, and IMHO much better at blues.
For those of you who play instruments, Blackmore has sometimes been called a 'musician's guitarist,' in that, in many of his solos, all improvised, he often used chord progressions from Bach and other 17th century classical composers. Sometimes, in slower pieces, the chord changes were well signalled, but other times were almost hidden by the speed of his playing, and so subtle it's easy to miss them (listen to Bach's 'Sheep my safely graze' or any other of Bach's cantatas if you want to hear subtle chord progressions.)
Blackmore was [is] also influenced by some earlier medieval music about which he is reported to have said that a lot of it was quite simple but sometimes had more music in one bar than in the whole of some symphonies by later composers.
Maybe he never quite made the top of the popularity charts because he was reputed to be very difficult to get on with: he has been called short-tempered, argumentative and stubborn. He is said to have had frequent arguments with other members of Deep Purple about the direction their music was taking, possibly because they were not so classically oriented, and this led to the break-up of the group.
Perhaps this attitude, possibly born of exasperation, can be excused in a musician as brilliant and talented as Blackmore, but by several accounts he was well respected, admired even, by other rock players, but not all that often really well-liked to work with. Possibly too much of an individualist, though he denies ever seeking the limelight.
I never saw Blackmore play live, but for me listening and watching videos of him playing is riveting.
PeterW
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on Apr 30, 2008 14:33:56 GMT -5
Just your Puckish sense of humour, Reijo. . (The only trouble with Shakespeare is that it's so full of quotations!). PeterW
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