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Author Message   Markus Tinkerer Username: Markus Post Number: 61 Registered: 08-2007 Rating: N/A Votes: 0 Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 05:51 pm:    Looking at some pictues of a Hi-Matic 7 on flickr.com it looks like, that there is a ring screwed into the thread that you'd screw a filter in. This ring has two notches and you can use a spanner wrench to loosen it. (Please resist the urge to use a couple of small screw drivers because you will inevitably slip and scratch the chrome or worse the front lens). Once you've unscrewed this ring, you should be able to get the plate that holds the light meter cell off. There will be some cables soldered to it and you might not have a lot of slack but on other cameras I've managed without unsoldering these wires, you might have to after all, I don't know. Then you should have access to the front cell of the lens. I would guess that it will simply unscrew. Again, don't use force and in particular, don't use a pair of pliers! You might want to use a large rubber stopper, as a friction tool that sits on the rim of the lens element to help unscrewing it if it is stuck. Once you've got the front element off, you should have access to the shutter blades. When you've got it all clean, there will be gunk on the lens element just behind the shutter. Be careful when you clean that, the coating on inner lens elements of these old cameras is not as hard as on the outside lens elements (some lens tissue, lens cleaning solution, microfiber cloth, and perhaps a lens pen should be all you need). Once you've put it back together, you should make sure that the rangefinder is accurate. Search the forum (and google) for rangefinder infinity adjustment and you'll find some info on how to do it. Ah, one more thing, as you noted in your first qustion, the Hi-Matic 7 takes PX625 mercury batteries which are no longer available. You can use hearing aid batteries instead, or convert the camera to use modern silver oxide batteries by soldering a Schottky diode inline with the battery chamber on the bottom of the camera. Looks like you've got a bunch of work ahead of you... - Markus