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Adrian
Tinkerer
Username: Adrian
Post Number: 46
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 05:27 am: | 
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After the last buy I crowed about on here, I'm hoping this one will prove to be a bit better... The last one had a knackered spacing mech, and this one has red windows so at least it will be a different problem if it is!
I've just picked up a Welta Perle with an F2.9 Meyer Goerlitz Trioplan lens (if I read it right), in a Compur-Rapid shutter with speeds up to 1/400 and a self-timer. I've not tried the self-timer - IIRC it is a really good way of jamming your camera if it sticks - and the fastest speed, on the big spring, looks to be rather closer to 1/100 than it was ever meant to be.
It's 6 x 4.5, bellows appear OK, and at a cursory inspection it looks as though a good clean and doing the leather with Kiwi will do wonders for its looks. The chrome is a bit flaky, but I'd be flaky if I was that age.
Can anyone tell me any more about this beastie? Google is not very helpful, just feeds me snippets and no real substance. |
Dgillette4
Tinkerer
Username: Dgillette4
Post Number: 15
Registered: 04-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 22, 2007 - 10:29 am: |
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Hi Adrian: I believe that camera ran production betwee 1934 to 39, It has a halfway decent lens and some came with masks for 6x6,6x9,and 645, The best thing to do would be to cla, carefully double check the bellows with strong light or test film asa400 good luck...Don ps: you're right about the selftimer.. |
Adrian
Tinkerer
Username: Adrian
Post Number: 47
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 30, 2007 - 05:39 am: |
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Thanks, Don.
I've taken the lens out and cleaned it. This may have been a bad move as under years of gunge - really disgusting, and on all three elements, I found a blue coating on the focusing lens! As I had assumed it was a pre-war camera and thus almost certainly uncoated, if it was one of the delicate early coatings on internal parts I may have wrecked it... Ooops...
I also flushed the shutter mechanism with lighter fluid. Given that there are hints that someone else has been in there before me (everything moves easily, and there are witness-marks on the black lens mounts) a quite astonishing amount of debris came out. Everything is faster bar the 1/400, which is now even slower...
I've put a roll of film through it and, if the results deserve it, I will do a proper clean-up job on the shutter mechanism, and lube the fast movement. Hopefully I can do this without disturbing the shutter blades, as I think two are cracked at the end they pivot on. As they still work smoothly, though, I'm leaving them - unless someone has spare blades for a Compur with a lens mount of the right diameter?
So I am waiting for the film...
Adrian |
Adrian
Tinkerer
Username: Adrian
Post Number: 68
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 - 07:07 am: |
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Just an update - most of the film wasn't up to a lot. Lots of landscapes taken whilst on holiday, not very inspiring and, as I have no yellow filter, fairly lousy skies. However one pic, of a dead tree between two drystone walls, is crisp and very atmospheric. I think I read somewhere that the lens was designed for portrait work so, as this was a relatively close-up shot, that might explain the difference in quality.
Anyway, well worth hanging on to and doing a proper job.
Adrian |
Dgillette4
Tinkerer
Username: Dgillette4
Post Number: 62
Registered: 04-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 06:03 pm: |
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I'm glad that you've had some success. The shutter may need another cleaning to get all the speeds up. sounds like it has a somewhat soft lens, just right for portrait work, don |
Adrian
Tinkerer
Username: Adrian
Post Number: 71
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 06, 2007 - 08:18 am: |
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Thanks for the interest, Don! Come September I should have a bit more free time, and the Welta is one of the three jobs I aim to do first. I have no doubt at all it will clean up a bit more yet as I can see gunge on the shutter blades through the lens - amazing it works at all, never mind quite well.
Adrian |
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