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Arnoldharris
Tinkerer
Username: Arnoldharris
Post Number: 32
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 10:56 am: | 
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Having recently done much of what I could do to make a number of recalcitrant Voigtlander Vitessa-T shutters, film advance and shutter release mechanisms work properly; I have turned some attention to the problem of smacked-up lens shutter barrels. I have a number of these that came with Vitessa-Ts that I bought on eBay; and I have begun to appreciate that shutters dropped four feet or more onto to hard and unyielding surfaces on the ground are one of the key shortcomings of the detachable lens principle of camera design.
So I have begun unscrewing the front components on a number of Color-Skopar 1:2.8/50mm (normal) lenses, in order to see what can be saved and what cannot.
From what I can see, the chromed front barrels with their smashed filter mounting threads are a single formed piece of metal. From this, I have two questions.
First, how can I remove the black lens identification ring -- the one with the white block letter printing arranged around the circumference -- from the chromed ring with the bashed threads? And that means removing these rings without damaging them cosmetically. (Their only function is to look nice, and tell you at a glance what kind of lens you have in the camera.)
Second, is it possible that the badly damaged and otherwise useless chromed ring might be a generic part that could be ordered from some German factory?
Also. lenses for the Vitessa-T (Color-Skopar, Skoparet, Dynaret, Super-Dynaret) are increasingly difficult to find. On the other hand, their counterparts for the later Bessamatics seem almost ubiquitous.
If so, I wonder if I could use lens front barrel units from those Bessamatic lens to replace the damaged barrels on the Vitessa-T lenses.
And that's one of the reasons I want to find out how to remove the lens identification rings without damaging them, so I can swap them from one lens to the other.
Note that none of these swaps would involve changing lens elements, their focal lengths, etc.
By the way. Some Bessamatic lenses I own will not only will fit the Vitessa-T camera bodies, but the backs of these lenses have the crescent-shaped cutouts to dock with the rangefinder shafts that run axially through one side of the Vitessa-T shutters. In other words, I can use them as rangefinder lenses on the Vitessa-T and as SLR lenses on the Bessamatics. Go figure.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI |
Glenn
Tinkerer
Username: Glenn
Post Number: 316
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 12:13 pm: |
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The best way to save the ident rings, is to turn off the damaged chrome ring in a lathe. I have done this a number of times with great success (not on your lens types), just protecting the front element with masking tape. I have also turned up new threaded rings that slip over the remains of the original ring/barrel, and secured with Loctite. You can use stainless steel or alloy for the new bit. I know this needs a lathe, but I am sure that you could find a local model engineer, who could help.
I cannot help on the camera specific questions |
Arnoldharris
Tinkerer
Username: Arnoldharris
Post Number: 33
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, April 12, 2008 - 07:44 am: |
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Glenn, per your suggestion about machining off the smacked and now-useless threaded part of the chrome outer barrels. Machining and precision cutting 40.5mm metric threads inside replacement barrel extensions is sort of outside my line of expertise.
Therefore, are there any suitable manufactured barrels with inside threading that can be slipped over the remains of the original barrel, in such a way as not to interfere with the retraction of the front lens element into the lens body, per the camera and lens design?
What about step-down adapters that enable use of 40.5mm filters on cameras with larger diameter lens barrels?
I'm sort of groping for ideas here.
Also, does anybody know how to remove the identification ring from the lens front barrel without damaging it, in case the only answer is to swap a front lens element from a 50mm Color-Skopar X lens? Were these rings cemented into place, or attached in some other manner? I would hate to ruin one of them just to find out how they were original mounted onto the chrome barrel.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI |
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