PeterW
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Post by PeterW on Oct 25, 2005 8:09:43 GMT -5
Hi all, In odd hours and half-hours over the past six months I’ve been rescuing a rather sad 1933 Voigtländer Rollfilmkamera that was given to me after it was found in a damp garage. The bellows had rotted and become detached from the lens, the covering had peeled off, the body was rusty and the focusing was seized solid. The lens was filthy, inside and out. Apart from that it was fine, and the shutter, amazingly, still worked – more or less. It was handed to me with the remark: “You like tinkering with old cameras. Best of luck if you can do anything with this”. Well that was a challenge I couldn’t resist! I’ve been serializing progress on and off in the Yahoo Vintage Voigtländer forum, but I don’t recognize many of the names from there on this board, so I thought you might like to have a look at some pictures. It’s not a perfect restoration, but it’s presentable. I’ve got a film in the camera now, and I’m waiting for some decent weather to go out and try it. I’ll post a couple of results pics when they’re processed. To go through the work in detail would take several pages, but if anyone’s got any queries about any stages I’ll do my best to answer. The bellows, btw, came from a broken 1950s cheap Kodak 6x9 folder, and the leathercloth covering came from the covers of a water-damaged odd single volume from what had been a 12-volume Victorian encyclopedia about 1890. It was water-stained blue, but it cleaned up and dyed black OK. To quote from an ancient ritual speech when apprentices were presenting their final work for inspection to the Guild Masters at the end of their apprenticeship: “Here is the piece, my Masters. I humbly submit it, with all its faults and imperfections, for your appraisal”. Peter As it was in the beginning Essential groundwork, removing the rust and treating with rust killer The ring holding the shutter just wouldn't shift. I had to saw it off. Then the frame finder which had been bent too much snapped. I repaired it with a piece of brass tube. Finished at last! I cleaned and re-blacked the DOF plate on the back.
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Post by vintageslrs on Oct 25, 2005 8:41:18 GMT -5
Peter
you did an excellent job!! I applaud your efforts!!!
Bob
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Post by herron on Oct 25, 2005 11:11:33 GMT -5
Peter -- given what you started with, you turned in an admirable effort! Looking forward to seeing some of the images it takes!
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Post by Randy on Oct 25, 2005 16:50:14 GMT -5
Peter, you are a miracle worker! Fantastic!
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on Oct 26, 2005 10:57:12 GMT -5
Thanks, guys.
It's basically quite a simple and straighforward camera without any mechanical complexity, and when you break down the jobs into smaller areas it wasn't all that difficult, except that just about all the jobs you're likely to come across on a 1930s folder needed doing on the one camera.
I'm quite sure, Randy, that with the skills you've shown us in SLR restoration, and your experience detailing diecasts and railroad stock you wouldn't find it difficult either, just time consuming, though interesting to do.
I've got it loaded with 100 ASA Fuji Superia, the slowest I could find locally even though it's faster than the films available when it was new, and I'm waiting for a chance to try it out, but the weather over the past two or three days has been heavy overcast with almost constant rain. I want to try it in decent lighting conditions if possible so I'm hoping for a bright autumn day soon.
Peter
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on Oct 27, 2005 12:26:11 GMT -5
Hi all, Well, today the skies cleared and the sun came out - and just my luck, I had barely half an hour at lunchtime to try the camera. So I took it out and more or less shot at anything, The results weren't entirely an unqualified success. Oh, the camera performed well, no light leaks, and the lens focus seems fine. But I made the big mistake of being almost as casual with a 72 year old uncoated lens as you can with a modern multi-coated one. You just can't do that sort of thing Unless I kept the camera well in the shade the lens suffered horribly from flare. Any attempt to shoot even sideways to the sun produced flare veiling over the whole pic. Probably, if I hadn't been in such a hurry to see results, and had used a UV filter plus a really good lens shade I would have got better pictures. But anyway, I'm not too disapointed, certainly not with the camera. Just a bit annoyed at myself for forgetting my basic photography!! Here's a couple of the better results. They are straight scans, no Photoshop Phiddling except for cropping. Peter The street where I live Quiet churchyard corner (you can see just a trace of halo flaring on the white tombstone in the centre, and on the white fence on the right of the first pic).
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Post by Just Plain Curt on Oct 30, 2005 7:05:52 GMT -5
Hi Peter, Nice restoration job on a fine old camera. Seems to work well, guess as you said it really only needs a good lens shade/hood and you're in business. Wish I had the time and motivation to fix a couple of my folders. I have a Balda Juwella that I was trying to tighten the shutter/lens mount on when I slipped and put a two inch (5 cm) rip thru the bellows. Needless to say it sits in a box now, with it's friends a Kodak six-16 (no bellows again), a Kodak Recomar 18 (no shutter/lens) and a Zeiss Nettar (no lens/shutter). An old gent I know has a Recomar 33 and a Zeiss Nixe (again minus shutter/lens but otherwise in as new shape, go figure) so if I can wangle a deal of some sort I'm going to try and cobble together the Nixe or Nettar body with the shutter/lens combo from my Ikomat (Ikonta D 616 film) 520/15 since it takes such an oddball film size it never gets used anyway. It's a 120 Novar f4.5 in Derval shutter so I'm not expecting any miracles but time permitting (buying a new car tomorrow, still dealing with wife's ongoing medical issues etc.) I should be able to chat with him later this week to see if a deal can be worked out.
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Post by doubs43 on Oct 30, 2005 11:29:30 GMT -5
Peter, that's one of the worst cases of light-leaks I've ever seen! LOL
You've done a remarkable job of restoration and bringing that camera back from the dearly departed. I like the colors you've gotten from the Fuji Superia. The lens is sharp and demonstrates that our elders weren't as poorly equiped as we sometimes imagine.
When you show your friend the restored camera and pictures, I'll bet that his chin drops all the way to the ground! A great job.
Walker
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on Oct 30, 2005 16:47:11 GMT -5
Hi Walker, I agree. Whenever I opened the shutter light leaked right through the lens ;D. I showed my friend the finished camera, and his first words were: "B....y H..l!". So I gathered he was suitably impressed . I've always liked the colours from Superia. They're full bodied and well saturated without being overbearing. My local one-hour place develops it in their normal C41 brew. I usually have develop only, and scan in the negs on an oldish and fairly cheap Epson Perfection 1670 flatbed. I had to make up a masking frame for 6x9 because Epson don't do a mask that size, but it was easy enough using fairly thick Plasticard, and I left it white. Doesn't seem to affect the results. Curt, I've got a Nettar, and it's a very nice camera. One snag I can forsee with mounting a lens/shutter from an Ikomat is that the Nettar is self erecting so you can't vary the back focus by sliding the lens standard along a base board. Before you take the lens and shutter off the Ikomat do a quick check on the back focus from the lens panel to the film plane and compare it with that of the Nettar. If the back focus is too long you'll have to make up some distance washers to push the shutter forwards because you haven't got all that much to play with on the front-cell focus thread of the Novar. That in itself isn't a great problem. (the problem would be if you had to move it backwards!) But the Nettar body is the same as the Ikonta, and there's so little room to spare when it's closed that a pushed-forward lens might not allow the door to shut. The Novar itself isn't by any means a bad performer. My experience of it is that at f/4.5 it can get just a shade soft at the edges on a big blow-up, say 12x14 inch, but closed down a couple of stops it gives a very good account of itself. The Nixe, if I recall correctly, is a double extension folder, originally an ICA name carried on by Zeiss Ikon. I've never owned one, but I've handled one and it struck me as very nice quality. It isn't self erecting so you wouldn't have the same problems, only possibly relabelling the focusing scale. Best of luck if you do a deal and decide to go ahead. It could be an interesting project. Peter
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Post by keith201 on Mar 21, 2012 18:55:29 GMT -5
I wonder why the images have all been deleted. I would be interested in seeing them. Images are missing all over this forum too, not just this thread
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Post by olroy2044 on Mar 21, 2012 22:03:51 GMT -5
Hi Keith
Many of the pictures posted here are from photo-sharing sites such as Photobucket, which have limited upload space on their free sites. Members upload to those sites, then to this board. When the member runs out of room on the sharing site, he is faced with the choice of paying for unlimited space, or deleting some of the older photos from the sharing site. When this is done. the link to CC breaks, and the photo shows up as deleted.
In the case of this thread, when the poster, PeterW, passed away recently, I would imagine that John (his son) might be taking some of the photos down to protect Peter's tremendous legacy of photos, possibly with a future publication in mind. This is purely speculation on my part, but I (for one) would stand in line to purchase such a book.
Roy
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mickeyobe
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Post by mickeyobe on Mar 21, 2012 23:05:47 GMT -5
Olroy said: "...I (for one) would stand in line to purchase such a book."
As much as I hate queues I would wait in line for hours for such a book.
Y'hear, John?
Mickey
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photax
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Post by photax on Mar 22, 2012 13:31:26 GMT -5
Let me be the third person in that queue !
MIK
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Mar 22, 2012 17:16:33 GMT -5
Mickey,
Did you get your bellows book?
Dave.
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mickeyobe
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Post by mickeyobe on Mar 22, 2012 18:25:05 GMT -5
Mickey, Did you get your bellows book? Dave. Huh? Mickey Oh! That book. No. He did not respond to my P.M. Probably too busy. Mickey
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