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Post by doubs43 on Jul 19, 2007 21:30:19 GMT -5
If the shutter can be considered the heart of a camera body then I've just completed a "heart" transplant and the patient is still alive!  I recently purchased an Exakta RTL-1000 for the working meter head/viewfinder, an accessory that I didn't own. It came with a nice 35mm f/2.8 Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon that focuses remarkably close and a non-working shutter. There was a gap between the blades as they were cocked and the bottom set wouldn't latch in place. I tried the old denatured alcohol trick without success so I then opened the body up for a closer look. The shutter was shot. I happened to have an old body with a good shutter and different problems, so - long story short - I removed the bad shutter and replaced it with a good one. That was the easy part. Then I couldn't figure out how to get the "B" function working and that took a week of fiddling before it dawned on me that the mirror box assembly had to be in the camera for "B" to work correctly. Replacing and setting the exposure counter was a minor challenge but it's all back together now and working as it should 100%. That's the second RTL-1000 I've repaired in less than a month. Walker |
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Post by GeneW on Jul 20, 2007 4:51:41 GMT -5
Congratulations Walker! And what a great lens came with that Exakta. I'm looking forward to some pics of and from this born-again cam!
Gene
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on Jul 20, 2007 7:10:16 GMT -5
Well done, Walker. The first time you tackle an unfamiliar camera is always the hardest. The second doesn't seem so bad. Having said that I fixed a couple of Kievs (Contax type) some time ago, and tackled a third. I picked up three jammed ones for next door to nothing because most folk regard them as too complex to tackle, and the few repairers that will take them on charge more than you can get a working one for. But could I get the slow speeds to couple properly on the third one? I could not, even after several strips and rebuilds. I had several email chats with Russ Pinchbeck about it, and he couldn't see what I'd done wrong either, so at the moment it's back in pieces in its plastic box. Another round tuit! Still, I suppose two out of three isn't too bad - only one bad.  . PeterW |
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Post by John Parry on Jul 20, 2007 11:18:10 GMT -5
Well done Walker.
I've a couple of RTL1000s. One has ground to a halt with the perrenial Praktica rewind sprocket problem, The other, I keep for special occasions (I used it for the 'Doors' competition last year). Also got a beautiful Praktica VLC, which I'm also nursing for the same reason.
If they'd only used alloy instead of plastic, those cameras would be legendary now!
Regards - John
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Post by doubs43 on Jul 20, 2007 12:03:02 GMT -5
Gene, Peter & John, thanks to all of you. Here's a picture of the camera with the finder and lens that were on it when I received it. (Note that the top cover on the shutter speed/winder side is a replacement for the original which had a dent on one corner.)  This was a challenge to me but compared to stripping and repairing a Contax-type Kiev, I suppose it was as complicated as an anvil. I have Maisenberg's book and I'm still afraid to tackle a Kiev! Fixing two of three is remarkable IMO. John, I have dreams of owning a nice VLC some day. The one I have has a broken meter and is not cosmetically attractive at all. A "banger", if you will. It came to me with a malfunctioning shutter but denatured alcohol freed it up and it's worked fine since. I agree 100% that had Ihagee/Praktica/VEB Pentacon used alloy instead of inferior plastic for the advance sprocket that the cameras would be highly sought after and much more expensive today. So far - knock on wood - I've not had an RTL-1000 with a bad sprocket but I have several Prakticas that do. It's sad really because everything else about them is fine. Walker |
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on Jul 20, 2007 18:21:28 GMT -5
That looks very nice, Walker.
I agree with several people's remarks about the plastic gear in the winding train of Prakticas. With that one exception they're good rugged and generally reliable cameras.
Kievs aren't all that bad to tackle, they just look a bit daunting. I bought all three, with Jupiter lenses, as non-workers at a camera fair for £20 (about $40) so two working ones for that price can't be bad. The third one doesn't owe me anything.
I think the trouble was that after having done two without any real problems I got a bit blase and careless, and didn't scribe lines to mark the mesh points on the teeth of all the gears. I was sure I'd remember, and of course I didn't.
I haven't got a copy of Maisenberg, but I've got Peter Tooke's very good little book and video on the Contax II which is as near as makes no difference the same.
One day I'll tackle it again. It's more interesting than watching soaps and sitcoms on television - Ugh!!
PeterW
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