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Peter Wallage
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 04:30 pm: | 
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Hi all,
Just picked up a Samoca LE II rangefinder camera with an f/2.8 Samocar lens sitting in an un-named 1 - 1/300 sec shutter. It's got a built-in selenium exposure meter with the needle under a window in the top plate. It seems to be quite well made, fairly heavy for its size, and I would imagine it dates from the 1950s or early 1960s. It's in nice cosmetic condition, and everything seems to work OK. Even the meter seems reasonably accurate. Only problem is that the viewfinder is so mucky and cloudy inside you can hardly see through it. There's a faint double image for the rangefinder, but moving the lens doesn't seem to alter it.
Obviously the top's got to come off, but before I dash in with the screwdrivers I thought I'd ask if anyone knows anything about it. The only reference I could find on the internet was to a Samoca LE, not LE II. It looks very similar but that's as far as I could get. The site's in Japanese, and the best Babelfish could do with the caption to the picture was: "It is the camera which was made ordinary and not funny absolutely." Oh, OK, thanks.
Anyone come across one of these beasties?
Peter |
John Scott
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 06:19 pm: |
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Hi,
Yes, I recently repaired one of those, and was happily surprised at the image quality I got in my test photos.
Mine had shutter blades that were stuck shut, so I went so far as to remove all of the lens glass, clean the shutter blades, and clean under the shutter-speed cam-plate ring. I had the top off to clean the sighting windows, but I don't recall anything unusual about the rangefinding mechanism. Maybe your's needs a little solvent or light oil on the pivot points. Be careful cleaning the mirrored surfaces, so as not to lose the double image.
There was quite a bit of friction in mine as I was rewinding the film back into the metal can, so much that I thought the film might break. I took off the bottom plate and put in a thin washer as a shim and a bit of grease on the bottom end of the axel of the film advance (wind-on) spindle.
I think I saw that same Japanese site that you mentioned, which dates the camera to 1957. But I'm assuming that at that time, the same design may commonly have been used several years running by many camera manufacturers.
-Scott |
Peter Wallage
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 12:37 pm: |
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Thanks John,
When you cleaned the shutter did you take it off the camera or did you just remove the lens elements? I ask because although my shutter is working OK I suspect the slow speeds are too slow so I'd like to clean the shutter. If possible, I prefer to do this with the shutter off the camera, and am wondering if it comes out on a panel from the front after lifting the leatherette or whether it's held from inside.
Peter |
John Scott
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 07:37 pm: |
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Hi,
You don't necessarily have to have the lens elements out in order to clean the slow-speed escapement gears. I had to take them out because the shutter blades were stuck shut.
I think this same basic type of shutter is described in some of the repair articles elsewhere on this site.
The slow-speed escapement gears you can get at fairly easily, and without having to take the shutter off the camera, and (I think) without having to take out the lens elements, or peel any leatherette. Just remove the rings and plates from around the front of the lens until you see the flat, threaded, "wavy" brass ring whose position is fixed by a single screw which has one side cut away. This brass ring is what holds down the shutter-speed cam plate that is turned to set the different shutter speeds. Turn the screw so that its flat side faces inward towards the center of the shutter, then unscrew the brass nut, and then you can pull off the cam plate, which exposes the slow-speed mechanism. In my experience, a few drops of solvent and then some canned compressed air are all that is needed to clean the mech. enough to get the slow speeds sounding right. The shutter-speed cam plate can be a little tricky to get back into correct position, so probably you can drip some solvent in the right spot and blow some air through the mech. without taking off the cam-plate. The position of that brass "wavy" nut/ring is what sets or determines the amount of "play" or friction on the shutter-speed cam plate. When you get just the right amount of play, you "lock" the position with that half-headed screw.
-Scott |
A. Lemke
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 04:53 pm: |
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John, Scott, others:
I have a Samoca LE purchased in 1960 which had worked well over the years until the shutter / advance mechanism refused to operate. Is there anyone out there with the "know-how" to help me get it going again with costing too much in the way of $$$. It's more for the memories than anything, but it did take quality pictures in the past. Thanks for any advice.
A.L. |
John Scott
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 07:05 pm: |
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As with all other cameras with the concentric metal-blade shutters, it's dirty shutter blades that most often causes the shutter and the advance mechanism to become stuck. That's not the only explanation, but it is the most likely, in my experience.
If the blades are not clean, there will be too much friction as they slide against one another. The advance mechanism gets stuck because the excess friction of the shutter blades prevents the normal completion of the shutter release cycle. Once the shutter blades are clean and working properly, then the advance mech. will also work. Be sure not to force anything.
Even blades that look quite clean already may need to be cleaned. Also, part of the blade is not visible without disassembly.
I usually remove the lens glass, and carefully drip some naptha/lighter fluid on the blades, run the shutter a few times, and then wipe the exposed part of the blades clean. Don't use more than 3 or 4 drops. Wait a day or so before putting the lenses back in. Often, a shutter that works properly right after being cleaned will begin to stick again later when the solvent has evaporated.
See the several "camera repair articles" in the "camera articles" section of this site. |
Arnold Lemke
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, December 18, 2005 - 10:23 pm: |
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John:
Sorry for taking so long to respond, and thanks for your advice. I would like to try and follow your suggestion about cleaning the shutter blades, but my question is more basic since I have not done any repair along this line before. How does one remove the lens glass? Is a special tool needed to accomplish this? I'm assuming it is a unit that simply screws out from the metal ring in front, but I'm not sure how to approach this. Any advice you might have here would be much appreciated. Thanks.
A.L. |
Scott
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 19, 2005 - 07:52 am: |
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Hi,
Yes, you'll have to unscrew something to get the lens elements out. I no longer have my Samoca LE, but as I recall, there was nothing unusual about its design. For both the outer and the inner element/s, there is a lens retaining ring that must be unscrewed. There are two notches in that ring. Using an adjustable lens spanner is the best way to unscrew such rings without damaging the lens glass, but it is sometimes possible to do it with two small screwdrivers if it is not too tight. The chrome lens filter ring is probably held on by 3 tiny set-screws.
I think the lenses in the Samoca LE models were of considerably better quality than most of the Japanese cameras made at that time and in that price range. Here's a test photo I took with mine:
http://www.photo.net/bboard/big-image?bboard_upload_id=25608584 |
A. Lemke
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 19, 2005 - 08:31 pm: |
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John:
Well, I surprised myself by getting farther in terms of getting the front lens out and down to the shutters than I expected, thanks to your good directions. A careful use of the solvent did not appear to do the job with the stuck mechanism, however, so now its back together as it was. My sense of it is that the problem may be in the advance mechanism since that was what seemed to stick suddenly when trying to advance the film after taking a picture back when it stopped working.
I guess the next question is, whether there is anyone around anymore who might be able to look at this camera for me to see whether it is repairable. Are you available? Is there someone you can refer me to that I can contact? (I'm writing from Minnesota.)
Thanks for your suggestions, and for whatever help you can give me as to the next step that may or may not be taken to get it operational again. If it helps, my phone number is: 952-470-6245. |
Scott
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 19, 2005 - 10:16 pm: |
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Hi, I'm in Taiwan. My advice: take it apart and try to fix it. There's usually at least 5 of these on the big on-line auction site at any given time, and they normally go for under $15 dollars. So, if you can't fix it, it would be easy enough to replace. A relatively basic camera like this one would be a good camera to start with if you're interested in repairing any others.
Make sketches as you go to help you remember where screws go and in what order the parts come off.
If there is some problem in the advance mech., then one approach is to simply remove the whole lens/shutter assembly from the camera body. Then you can start by making sure the shutter is cocking and releasing properly (you can cock and release this kind of shutter even if it's off of the camera body). With the shutter off, you can more easily identify problems in the winding and advance mech.
To get the shutter off, you may have to remove a ring from the inside, you may also have to remove screws under the vinyl covering on the front. You may or may not have to remove the top cover. You will alomst surely have to remove the bottom cover, and may have to un-hook a spring connecting the shutter and the cocking mechanism. |
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