Ihagee Exa 500 shutter service

[Stephen]

Not a blow by blow service tutorial, the shutter on the Exa 500 is quite simple, robust and, like all Exakta shutters, needs lubrication occasionally.

The older Exa 0 used a mirror shutter, and rarely require attention, bar dirt entering the top slot where the speeds leaver enters the body.



However the Exa 500 had gained the vertical running cloth focal plane shutter, a sound design with step less speeds from 1/2th sec to 500th, instant return mirror, T and B.



The nice thing about the Exa is the whole shutter unit can be removed from the cast metal body, tested and serviced all in one go, it comes out of the top of the body castings after releasing the outer chrome screws, four internal screws, and in this case the mount, as it is being exchanged with another faulty but serviced one.



The shutter is slightly faulty, one tape is slightly buckled and needed re-glueing to shaft, and all the main bearings are absolutely dry. The mirror action is too slow on high speeds, again lube issue. The basic speeds are slow and there is a faint dry squeal as the shutter is operated.



The only minor stripping issues are to retain the shutter release as the body and shutter come out, the release knob is not retained by anything! Also there is a spring on the rewind shaft, when it is unscrewed from the film drive. The wind on sprocket shaft remains somewhat loosely with the body, easy to guide back as re-assembled.



The shutter mechanism can be cleaned with lighter fluid on the gears and bearings, any excess removed with cotton buds along with old oil and grease.



The main bearings can be oiled with watch oil, sewing machine oil, or Nano oil, which is a new type. Labelle oil can also be used they do non drying silicone oil and grease, mainly sold for Model Railway uses. Use a small artists brush to transfer the oil, do not squeeze the can and get a gusher of oil!!

Use minute amounts, wipe away excess carefully with cotton buds and tissue etc. Do not get petrol or oil on the tapes or the shutter blinds.

After oiling and working the shutter, the squeal noise should go, and it all works smoother. In this case the mirror is now working fine, no lag.

If you find broken tapes or damaged blinds , they are not so easy to cure, new ones are needed, and are beyond the scope of the lube needed here.

This one seems to have been assembled at the factory with the twisted tape, I have re-glued with super glue to straighten it, and put a slip of thin paper under the other tape end to shorten it a fraction to level up the pull. This was the method used by Exakta on the Exakta full sized shutters to adjust the tapes. only use super glue or a glue that 100% sets rock hard, if sticky it will interfere with the running of the tapes.

All the dust and dirt was blown out with an air line, protecting the blinds whilst doing this.



The camera was a very cheap buy on Ebay, so no loss really if it was worse than just a lube job, but it now works fine again. The speeds are correct within reason now, a bit slow, but acceptable.

An easy to service design, as is the Varex as well, but that's a different story.....

Stephen

[mickeyobe]

Stephen,

This is the very best tutorial I have ever seen.

Now I must find a defective Exa 500 and get to work.

Thanks.

Mickey

[Stephen]

Nov 10, 2012 0:41:53 GMT -5 mickeyobe said:

Stephen,

This is the very best tutorial I have ever seen.

Now I must find a defective Exa 500 and get to work.

Thanks.

Mickey

Lots out there, just try to make sure they are not a basket case, needing new blinds or tapes, or broken mirror, not too complex to do but more than a lube job.
The other item can be the prism de-silvering etc., making the viewfinder dim.

The shutter is pretty simple, it is a standard sort of design, and once running gives the correct speed range without adjustment. The parts are quite robust, it is just the East Germans did not oil the mechanisms with a decent oil. I tried the Nano Oil, (on web ref), as it is a new type, making large claims, but seems to work well in cameras. The grease I always use is Labelle, USA, easily available by mail order, the silicon PTFE type, it never dries out. The standby oil is Singer Sewing machine or 3 in 1, but these can dry up and get sticky.

Once up and running the Exa 500 is a very competent camera indeed.



The shot shows more clearly the four black retaining screws that release and retain the shutter unit in the body casting, and also a reminder to oil the sprocket bearing, which is out in the open in the film chamber. The only other ones are the chrome headed four around the top chrome housing, two front two back.

With Exakta most screws will move quite easily, but use well fitting screw drivers to minimise risk of marring the head. Do not over tighten, no need, risks stripping the threads, (which are metric standard, and easy to replace bolts etc.,),
Stephen.

[Stephen]

Exa 500 with 50mm Zeiss Tessar lens and Ihagee rectangular metal hood.

The Exa 500 SLR camera all restored and now freshly lubed, the shutter speeds are now correct up to 250th, but 500th is partially capping when lined up on the dial, a fraction lower, (it is cam that controls the speeds, not quite stepless), and the speed is OK at 500th. This indicates a slow first blind, but it is not worth a further strip as yet.

All the other speeds are spot on, and the mirror lag has disappeared completely. The gap is equal side to side, tested on CRT TV tube image.

The Exa vertical shutter has dial adjusters for the cloth blind tensions, they are on the side of the shutter crate, and are quite easy to tension up a touch. But with all other speeds all right, I'll leave it for now, the oiled bearings may still be settling in, and the issue vanish with further use.

It is now very quiet and no shutter or mirror kick, unlike before, when as the mirror rose, the camera twitched noticeably.

It was bought from Ebay as a very cheap, possibly non working camera, mainly for the standard lens, a Tessar, rather than the usual Domiplan. The Tessar is clean and bright, no fungus or dust.

Mind you, the Meyer Domiplan F2.8 50mm lens is not such a bad lens, definition is good, but only at medium apertures does it really get as good as the better contrast Zeiss Tessar lens.

As the Exa 500 arrived, it was a squawker, typical of Exakta lacking oil, same applies to both the Exa II and all Exakta when dry. The East Germans did not use proper oil, it should be a high grade no drying watch or clock oil really.

The only other job was to wash the mirror clean, and clean the screen, which is fixed in the Exa 500, but can be cleaned through the lens mount aperture. It is quite a nice screen, fresnel and microprism, and the microprism really works very well, better than Exakta Microprism screens for the Varex.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

I have worked the shutter quite a bit, and the 500th speed is still partially capping, it is the first blind that is slow, needs higher tension, and as it is the only fault I might s well open it up and do the work.

The main annoyance is the other speeds are quite accurate as it stands! I have home made shutter tester, and it shows within 5 % on all the lower speeds, also the gap is even, checked viewing a CRT screen via the focal plane.

The shutter produces a flash of light the width equals the shutter speed, and can be used as a quick speed check, but the shape of the rectangle also shows if the blinds are running even at higher speeds.
At least the mirror being slow and capping part of the image has vanished with the lubrication of the pivots and drive to the mirror.

This gives two Exa 500 in working order, the earlier one can now have the same lube job as well, although it is working fine, but is noisier than the freshly serviced one, which is now very quiet indeed.

The next big job is the two Varex IIb to be lubed, and the Varex IIa needs attention to the whole shutter. I don't think they need tapes or blinds, they are in good untouched condition, no rot, or holes.

The IIA has developed missing second blind functions on T and B, and locking out of the higher speeds, unless the shutter selection is made after wind on at a lower speed......not sure what is wrong there, as at any speed it will wind on, it is working at correct speed, so the tapes must be all right.

I think I will strip two at once, the Varex IIbswarker, (dry bearings, but working), and then the faulty Varex IIa , so that the operation can be compared in case things are out of line, or gears miss meshed or damaged in the speed control. They are almost identical internally, just different knobs and cosmetics, and minor internal parts differences. Ihagee did not change the design much in forty years!

I found a decent stripping guide on the web, and an Exakta full CLA service book is available from the States as well. Only spares parts are a problem, but some can be made in the workshop, or sourced from a further purchase.

At least with the Varex the prism is no problem to replace, and mirrors are made to suit. Screens are easy to source, plenty on Ebay, except the clear cross hairs type, which was specialist for microscopes, and telescope work.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

The second Ihagee Exa is all lubed now, and did not need any attention to the blinds or speeds, it is working on all speeds correctly, but is a bit quieter as a bonus, about as quiet as an SLR gets.

I'll have go at re-tensioning the blinds a bit on the first Exa next, to cure the 500th sec., issue, of not working properly when the dial is set to 500th.

The internals are the same with both Exa 500, Ihagee were always making small modifications, even to the same models!

The mirror, screen and prism have all been cleaned as well, so both cameras are in good working order.

The older Exa 0 will be next, if I can find out how to open it, it is entirely different, more like the Varex in opening up, the shutter is still a unit that removes from the shell as a working shutter. Not sure how or if the knobs have to come off for the strip, they may unscrew. The Varex has obvious crews to retain the knobs and winder on etc, but there are none on the Exa 0. It uses knob wind, not a lever and the wind is on the right unlike the Varex etc. The shutter release is still on the left, to match the lenses.

It is a simple mirror shutter, much simpler than a focal plane shutter, but still has pivots to oil, but no slow speeds gears as it has no slow speeds! The mirror trips the exposure, and variable delay is applied to the capping shutter that follows it, with a cam and springs to control the delay, and give speeds from 1/25th to 150th.

The Exa 0 is usually very reliable, unless dirt and dust enter the mechanism via the slot around the speed shift lever.

The earliest, are very rare, Exa 0, had 1/250th second as the top speed, but it proved unreliable and they down rated it to 150th as the maximum.

Still leaves a reasonable range, just needs a bit more planning when calculating the exposures.

Stephen.

[midwichcuckoo]

Hi, I'm new to the forum so apologies if you've seen this elsewhere....
I have two Exa 500's, one bought working (although the shutter curtains were sluggish) and one cosmetically lovely but with a jammed winder. I managed to free the jammed one (using info from a now moribund classic camera repair forum....thanks to another gentleman named Steve...your good self??). Anyway, after freeing it, it simply would not cock the shutter. I could wind the lower of the two big sprockets inside with my fingers to engage the cocking pawl lever, then it would fire, but the advance/winding lever would come to a stop when the peg on the lower (second curtain?) sprocket was about half a tooth away from being held by the locking pawl. Very frustrating.
Well, I decided to do a straight forward judicious lubrication of the curtain spindles etc on the working example. Having exposed the internals, I wound it on and released it a couple of times to see if anything would indicate what was wrong with the other camera. Wouldn't you know it, this one immediately became beset with the same problem!,..ie not quite engaging the cocking pawl! So now I have two nice looking cameras, neither of which I can use unless anyone can give me some pointers on this deeply frustrating issue. Many many thanks in advance if you can. Peter.