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Winfried
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 06, 2004 - 12:10 pm: | 
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Today I picked up my recently acquired Kowa SET, the first (not really the first, but the first working) SLR I ever bought. Cosmetically it looks quite nice except for some scratches on the advance crank.
As you might expect from a cheap ebay deal, this camera is NOT flawless, but the very honest seller mentioned all this in his description.
1. The meter is approx. 1 step off, but it is working linear over the range I could check it at room light. My first guess is that there should be some adjustment resistors under the top cover, is this right?
2. Slow speeds (1/15 and above) are running very reluctantly if they run at all. It's the first time I have a leaf-shutter SLR, and I don't want to destroy anything when trying to get to the speed escapement. Any hints and Do Nots?
Thanks in advance. |
Winfried
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 06, 2004 - 12:35 pm: |
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And one more question: do these aux. lenses fit the lens of the Kowa SET?
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2985201885 |
Jon Goodman
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 06, 2004 - 03:38 pm: |
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I think those auxillary lenses might fit...as I recall, they screw onto the filter threads. I want to say they were 49mm, if that helps. The Kowa is difficult to repair, much like the Topcon UNI or worse, possibly. As I recall, there are variable resistors for the meter (or at least there was one), but I promised myself never to try to repair the linkage, timing or shutter of these a few years ago. |
Winfried
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 07, 2004 - 05:24 am: |
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In the meantime I managed to open the shutter and clean the speed escapement. The Kowa SET is built much more like a viewfinder camera - the front assembly comes off with the aperture dials and the 'lens mount' (actually this camera is very close to a design with interchangeable lenses) and gives access to the leaf shutter which rests on the body.
The linkage between shutter/aperture dial and the galvanometer is done via some gears (not via resistor tracks like in the RicohTLS I tried to repair), very similar to the coupling of the aperture dial on the Konica Auto-S. Cross-coupling of aperture and speed setting is done via a nifty lever system - I found very similar in the lens mount of the Braun Super PaxetteIII rangefinder camera.
I just had the focussing screen cleaned by an optician but I think reassembly does not pose severe problems except for adjusting the mechanical meter linkage of which most is done. The meter can be fine-tuned by turning the galvanometer body against its seat. |
rick oleson
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 08, 2004 - 12:10 am: |
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I have had good experiences repairing the SETR and SETR2; I have not worked on an SET. On my SETR2, I think I tinkered with some resistors under the top cover to correct a meter error. I'll be happy to look through my sketches on it if you would like me to....
I've never worked on a topcon, but i like the kowa design better than the retina, voigtlander of contaflex reflexes.
rick  = |
Winfried
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 08, 2004 - 03:13 am: |
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As mentioned, the coupling of the meter to the aperture/speed dial setting on the SET is purely mechanical. The shaft of the meter base is spring-loaded, so of course it returned to zero position when I opened the body and thus dis-linked the gears. But it is not too difficult to do a coarse adjustment by lifting the edge of the front assembly close to the meter gears and turn it until it shows roughly exact values (this adjustment has to be rather coarse since the gears have a small number of teeth). The meter base can be fine adjusted in a range of +/- 2 f-stops approx.
Up to now, I can't say anything bad about the Kowa design. I did not work on the mirror box etc but what I saw was designed and manufactured nicely. |
John B
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 05:40 pm: |
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Where can I see some close ups of the Kowa SET R2 lens/camera bayonet coupling? The lens on mine fits loosly. There is almost no tension to the
lens release lever/tab. Is this a match needle uncoupled meter? Is the shutter lever supposed to be exactly perpendicular to the mount? Mine shows a slight tilt towards the released position.
Thanks,
John |
