| Author |
Message |
    
CJ
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 13, 2005 - 02:29 pm: | 
|
Hi All,
I've got two rangefinder cameras, (Konica Auto S2 and Minolta Hi-Matic 7s) both with aperture problems (Konica stuck at~f/16 & Hi-Matic 7s stuck at f/2.8, plus strange and intermittent shutter problems.)
I'm looking for one or two comprehensive books on rangefinder camera repairs--one that I can refer to as I venture into a camera for the first time.
That said, can anybody recommend a couple of quality books that might suit this purpose?
I'm a neophyte with camera repair, and my knowledge of the subject has been greatly bolstered by the people on this site and others who maintain excellent reference pages. I'm looking for an adjunct to these Internet resources; preferably with exhaustive information & diagrams of Copal shutters, etc.
To phrase it another way--and to anybody who works on their own vehicles--I'm looking for the Bentley or Haynes-spec manuals on RF camera repair (with SLR info being a bonus, but I"m not having problems with mine at the moment) :-)
Many Thanks,
-CJ |
charlie
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 13, 2005 - 03:23 pm: |
|
There are several books by Tomosey (I think that's the correct spelling), often available in public libraries. You might look at them and then find them for sale if they meet your needs. They don't cover every camera but you might luck out. |
Curt
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 14, 2005 - 04:48 am: |
|
Hi CJ,
As Charlie said, Tomosey's "Camera Maintenance and Repair, Book 2", Pages 94-97 cover the Konica Auto S2 extensively. I have four of his repair books, but no luck on the Minolta Hi-Matic 7S, although I do remember seeing a site specifically with this repair. I'll keep digging since I have several hundred sites in my "Favourites" to glean through. I'll try and keep you posted. Hope this helps. Curt in Canada. |
Mike Kovacs
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 14, 2005 - 09:02 am: |
|
I was given some schematics for the HiMatic 9 if you want them. The HiMatic 7 I just finished was an easy camera to work on and 99% the same. They might help you with the HiMatic 7S. You'll need a spanner wrench for the lens/shutter, as well as for the top plate.
Does it have the Seikosha shutter or other? There a good link that has this and two Copal shutters, plus more.
http://daniel.mitchell.name/cameras/index.html |
Jon Goodman
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 14, 2005 - 11:16 am: |
|
Actually, you can find a lot of valuable information on Rick Oleson's website...plus it is a lot more interesting and clever and Rick is usually happy to answer questions.
http://members.tripod.com/rick_oleson/
Jon |
Gary Turner
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 14, 2005 - 04:29 pm: |
|
I bought almost every readily available classic camera repair book & manual I could find. I must have 10 or so. To tell the truth, I found none to be as detailed or informative as I'd like. Some assume you can fill in between the lines. Maybe I missed a few good books? Okay, the books were actually helpful on occasion but I learned much more about camera repair by acquiring 'down and out' practice cameras at low cost (mostly $5 to $15) via eBay and other sellers. After about 10 or 20 'trial & errors' with these clunkers I slowly graduated to better models. I actually repaired & sold some of the clunkers plus built up an important supply of screws, springs, top & bottom plates, screens, misc. parts in the process. Like me, you might download and save camera Internet repair articles via Google Search. Some good & cheap practice cameras: older Petri 35 MX rangefinder, Mamiya/Sekor 500TL (SLR), various cameras with Pronto, Prontor, Compur, Seikosha, Copal lens shutters. One camera a beginner might avoid: Canon Q17 GIII (complex, hard to remove the tiny & tight retainers). Even the Konica S2, similar Minolta Hi-Matic & Yashica Lynx manual shuttered series cameras can be affordable for practice. I won't say I'm ready to replace a focal plane shutter or dig real deep into a lens shutter, but I made good progress over the last 3 years. I can appreciate the professionals who charge $100 or more to fix some of the nicer cameras. It can be a lot of work and you are paying for their experience. Practice, practice and buy the proper tools! Maybe buy a few books too but don't expect the books alone to work any miracles. Good luck! |
CJ
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 02:17 pm: |
|
Thank you all for your help and suggestions; now it's just a matter of narrowing them down.
Also: Thank you, Curt, for the Auto S2 tip...that book'll definitely go on my list. And Mike--yes, I believe it's the Auto S2 with the Seikosha shutter, though I don't have either in front of me at the moment. |
Tony Duell
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 01:13 pm: |
|
The Tomosey book I've found the most useful is the 'Repairing the Great Collectible Cameras' one -- the one that covers post-WW2 devices. His other books (I think there are a total of 6 so far) are worth reading, though. I've found things that I prefer to do a different way (I am not afraid of removing things to make access easier..) though.
Another book, now alas out-of-print I think is 'All you need to know about the design and repair of Russian cameras'. Since Russian cameras were often clones of others, there's a lot of info in that book that applies to the Super Ikonta rangefinder, the Contax shutter, and so on. In fact the description of the Contax (or Kiev) shutter is the clearest I've ever read, and I found I could actually understand what was going on...
I will second the recomendation to buy 'junk' cameras and have a play. I've bought many, and either got them working or still have more work to do (I've not made any worse :-)).
Models I've picked up for <$30 a time include :
Several L-series Prakticas (vertical metal shutter) including a VLC (interchangable prism...)
Several Werras (Prestor shutter, which I think is one of the most ingenious leaf shutters of all time)
A couple of Pentinas (Prestor Reflex shutter, which turns a bug in the Prestor into a feature)
Several Feds/Zorkis (Leica-like shutter, and a lot cheaper than a real Leica, good to practice on)
Konica Auto S2
Several Kievs (Contax-like shutter, not simple, but worth understanding)
Examples of most of the common leaf shutters (Compur, Prontor, Epsilion, etc)
Pentax Spotmatic
Several more modern electronic SLRs (Nikon, Pentax, etc).
Even a battered Rolleicord.... |
|
