| Author |
Message |
    
Haig Hovaness
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 15, 2006 - 12:18 pm: | 
|
I am wrestling with the restoration of a Konica C35, a nice compact RF with miserable foam gunk all around the back door edges. In the course of my work, I came up with a trick for eliminating the annoying play in the back door latch mechanism. By carefully squeezing the door locking pin with a proper sized vise-grip, it is possible to "ovalize" it so that it fits more tightly in the latch. This has to be done with care, in progressive stages, so as not to shear off the pin, but the result is a nice, tight door latching action. Be sure to squeeze the pin so as to elongate it in the horizontal plane, and check the fit after every squeeze.
I have found door bounce to be one of the most annoying camera flaws to correct, since only a few cameras provide an adjustment for the door latch mechanism. Now I hope there is one less classic camera for which door bounce is a problem. |
Richard Creviston
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 15, 2006 - 02:58 pm: |
|
Haig couldn't the same thing be accomplished by installing a thicker foam seal? Jon Goodman has excellent affordable seal kits and very comprehensive instruction sheet on determing the proper thickness of a replacement seal.
[email protected]
The instruction sheets included with the kit are worth as much as the superior foam strips which are enough to reseal several cameras with various thickness requirements.
Jon is a regular contributor to this forum and supplies some very helpful info. Richard. |
Richard Creviston
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 15, 2006 - 03:09 pm: |
|
P.S. to the previous post:
That address should read [email protected] with underscore between Jon and Goodman.
Richard |
Haig Hovaness
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 15, 2006 - 04:17 pm: |
|
I tried putting an extra foam strip on the edge where the door latches, but it didn't work. The back of the camera acts as a sounding board, so even half a millimeter of play will produce a nasty click-click sound when gripping and releasing the camera.
Replacing the seals on this camera is an ordeal, since Konica used foam of various thicknesses all around the camera back. The door bounce issue is just another headache, but one that I have finally solved. |
Richard Creviston
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 15, 2006 - 05:59 pm: |
|
Haig; Glad to hear that you have solved the problem. This is yet another example of thinking outside the box which could never have been found in a repair manual. Referring to previous posts regarding wiki, this is a classic example of the various paths which may lead to a solution of a vexing problem.
By the way Jon Goodman's instruction sheet which is include in his package of seals with variying thicknesses, describes in detail how to determine what thickness of seal is needed in various places on the camera. I have no connection with Jon Goodman in case this sounds like a commercial but he has provided a quality product at a very reasonable cost.
Richard. |
Haig Hovaness
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 15, 2006 - 08:35 pm: |
|
Jon is definitely the camera refurb light seal master. I intend to use his modelling clay trick to determine the seal thicknesses for the Konica C35. Konica used three kinds of material for the back seals on this camera.
One reason you see C35's on eBay for $10-$20 is that it takes about one or two hours to renew the light seals. Konica used an especially tenacious adhesive backing that takes a lot of cleaning to remove. |
Jon Goodman
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 16, 2006 - 12:40 pm: |
|
Thanks, guys! The C35 (and all other variants or similar models...Chinon EE, GAF EE-Matic, Point Five, and on and on) all used a very tricky light seal design. Haig is absolutely correct. For reasons unknown, they made this a challenge by using different thicknesses of foam. I was preparing to write re-sealing instructions for the C35 when I sold mine as a parts camera. Hopefully I'll find another soon and can do that. Neat little camera, and it does good work.
Jon |
