Junk Shop Find

[matty]

Under a pile of broken point and shoots in a local junk shop I found a couple of gems, a Yashica Electro 35CC and an Olympus 35RD. Both are incredibly dirty both seem to be in quite good condition under the muck.
The Yashica needs new seals but the shutter fires ok, I'll pop in new seals and batteries and see how it goes. Had a look on evil bay and was shocked by some of the prices, up to £260, is it really worth that much? (Not that I want to sell it!)
The Olympus has a sticking shutter, so when I get a bit of time I'll open it up and clean the blades, unless anyone knows of an easy way to free up the shutter.
Matty

[lloydy]

Good score, the Yashica's are very nice.

[matty]

Oh no, had another look at the Olympus this afternoon and tried the shutter but it now jammed. I'll have a go at taking it apart but it might have gone beyond repair. Cleaned the Yashica up and is really looking good, will try and do the light seals in the next couple of days.

[Stephen]

The Olympus RD is not an easy camera to open and service the shutter, I have just tried on an old one that was bought in a sale clear out a few years ago for a few pence. I have a feeling it was water damaged! It has been reduced to a pile of parts and spares now!...the viewfinder optics going into a universal viewfinder replica for an Altix.

Stephen.

[matty]

I'll have a go anyway. Even if it is bust beyond repair the Yashica is more than worth the price I paid for the two, so I haven't really lost anything and I'll learn a bit more about taking cameras apart.
Matty

[mickeyobe]

This past Sunday I went to my favourite flea market. I have not been there for months. I used to attend religiously every Sunday but rarely bought anything.
This Sunday was different. Two cameras.

First, this lovely little Bencini S in very good condition with its rather sad papery material case.
I think the manufacturers really cared about quality despite this being an inexpensive camera.
I was particularly taken by its elegant screw in lens cap. $5 CAN.


And then came the Perfex Fourty four. It needs some work. Shutter and film advance are jammed. I hope Mr. Butkus will have some advice for me. The ring around the lens for the filter is a little bent. That I can handle.
Nobody seems to have very much good to say about this camera but I am impressed by its unique design and features and solid construction. I don't usually want to put film through cameras in my collection but I would like to give this one a go. Even its most unusual extinction light meter cries out to be tested. My only criticism so far are the extremely tiny numbers on the shutter speed dial which, by the way, goes to 1/1250 sec. The leather case is in need of a cobbler. I could learn to love this thing. $15 CAN.


Mickey

[Stephen]

A slightly well used Perfex Forty four is far better than an unused example,it indicates it worked properly at one point, the problem is not just the design, but the staff who put them together.

The Perfex company came from the American Radio trade, as did several other US makers, and assumed that assembly could be on a normal factory production line, pop a piece into the camera and so on down the line till complete and working, then test.

But with cameras each sub assembly has to be adjusted and tested correct at each stage, and it needed experience, both to design the parts, and have good well trained staff who could set the various parts to work.

Zeiss relied on precision parts, Leica on hand assembly of graded parts, the Japanese on the same ideas. The US makers assumed Henry Ford was right, a production line did not need trained staff, and they often got it wrong, or like Ansco, and Kodak, tailored the designs to simplfied low part count production.

Perfex tried too hard to rival existing German designs, at a far lower cost, which mass production should give, but they soon found out that production was slow and complex, losing all cost advantage, and promptly lost a lot of money.

The War period did not help of course, but if they had got the design and production together, it should have sold before the rivals recovered, but they decided to simplify the design further, and the final models had no real market against the early Japanese offerings.

It was recounted that Perfex were forced to have a huge testing department, that virtually had to re-build each camera, when all they should have done was quality control testing. At times, production simply stopped as they needed all staff on the correction work, and the untrained staff struggled badly trying to keep up with the work load.

The Perfex cameras are totally serviceable, I stripped one and got it running. It does have rather small spindles on the shutter, which give the same slightly uneven exposure that Wirgin Edixa and Exakta suffer from. Some repair shop people noticed the problem, and tried to cure it, but you can't, it is part of the design, and in most use is unimportant, as it barely shows.

The cloth and tapes can be poor quality, but can be changed to modern cloth and good thin tapes, which help the evenness of the run. The rest of the mechanism is OK, a bit cheaply made, but basically sound. Do not try to get the top speed 1/1250th accurate, the shutter springs are not up to it! If set tight, the low speeds are way out! The range that can be set is not linear (few focal plane shutters are), but the Perfex was one of the poorer designs in this respect.

What stopped them fitting larger shafts and blind spools was the old now forgotten issue, Leica held extensive patents! So every other maker had to find different ways to get similar focal plane shutters to work, or in the Zeiss Contax, re-invent the wheel!

The whole mechanism should be lubricated with a good oil, Nano oil would suit, or good clockmakers or model railway oil.

The lens are a bit mediocre compared to German makers, they are good if in good condition, but time and damage may not have been kind to them. The glass will need a very good clean up, they are not coated as far as I am aware, but there might be coated around.

Stephen.

[Doug T.]

Hi Mickey!

Those are very nice finds at a great price!
I went to a flea market on the Harbour front a few years ago. We had a great time, but I don't remember finding any photographica.
Toronto is a beautiful city, and only a 5 or 6 hour drive from here

Doug

[mickeyobe]

Doug,

The flea market in question is in the north St. Lawrence Market on Front street at Church St. a little east of Harbourfront.
It is held every Sunday from 5am to 3pm.

If you decide to make the drive to Toronto let me know in advance.

Mickey