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Reiner
Tinkerer
Username: Reiner
Post Number: 104
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 27, 2010 - 12:48 pm: | 
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I have just aquired a Ricoh 35 L in excellent condition. Everything but the aperture was working. It was a bit greasy and it did not open fully. I removed the rear lens element and cleaned the aperture with lighter fluid and Q-Tipps. Now it is moving smooth and easy.
However, the camera has a 1:2,0/48mm lens but when the ring is set to 2 the opening is significantly smaller, perhaps 2,8. When the ring is set to 16 the opening seems to be roughly ok. So far I never experienced a problem like this.
Is there somebody who can tell how to adjust the aperture opening? The shutter type is not indicated. From the age of the camera it could be a Copal-SV but somewhere I found they had Citizens. |
Harryrag
Tinkerer
Username: Harryrag
Post Number: 179
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 27, 2010 - 02:34 pm: |
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Reiner, years ago I restored two of those cameras from scratch, both were in derelict state, and I faintly recall that I was faced with the same problem. Unfortunately I have not made any sketches, but I will have a look at the cameras tomorrow afternoon.
I know that the shutter is the same as in the Taron Marquis, it definitely is a Citizen MVL.
The R 35 L is a predecessor of the 520, at least the lens seems to be identical: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~rd2h-ari/RICOH_LIST2.htm |
Harryrag
Tinkerer
Username: Harryrag
Post Number: 181
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 27, 2010 - 03:17 pm: |
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Correction: one of the shutters is a Seikosha SVL. |
Reiner
Tinkerer
Username: Reiner
Post Number: 105
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 27, 2010 - 03:23 pm: |
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Thank you for the input. It seems that the 35 L and the 520 M are the same cameras. The only difference: the 35 L has a bottom wind lever and a rewind knob whereas the 520 M has a wind lever on top and a standard rewind lever. Both cameras are dated 1962. Perhaps they were sold in parallel or one shortly after the other.
I must have a disassembled Taron Auto EE somewhere. It has a Citizen shutter too. I should search for it tomorrow. |
Reiner
Tinkerer
Username: Reiner
Post Number: 106
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 27, 2010 - 03:25 pm: |
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Whow,
our messages have crossed. So I assume that the Ricoh has a Seikosha SVL. I know for shure that Taron used Citizens. Unfortunately I do not have any vacant Seikosha of this age. |
Harryrag
Tinkerer
Username: Harryrag
Post Number: 182
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 28, 2010 - 03:23 am: |
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I have not routed out that Ricoh, as I am sorting last summer's slides (believe it or not, yes, I am that fast), so there is only time for short message in between. There are two versions of the 520, a selenium metered and a CdS type, awfully hard to find, so I own none of them. I missed one in Canada, and that was two years ago, another one has not shown up yet.
Internally, bottom winders are usually completely differently constructed. If you take yours apart, be careful, there is a tiny steel ball plus coilspring under the round plate of the wind lever. The wind mechanism is usually screwed up after long or thuggish use, and it is a pain to get it realigned. |
Harryrag
Tinkerer
Username: Harryrag
Post Number: 183
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 28, 2010 - 05:11 am: |
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Hi, it's me again, sooner than I thought.
I think I know again why I, like you, thought the aperture did not open to the max. This is because I inspected it with the rear lens group plus its ring nut off. In that state it seems as if the aperture is not fully open, because the blades are still visible, but with the lens completely assembled the opening of the blades is wide enough to just match with the rim of the lens cell. If you look in from the film chamber while the shutter is open on B, the difference between f:2 and f:2.8 is distinctly visible when turning the aperture ring. When opening the aperture to the full, the blades stop right at f:2, more than maximum opening is not possible. |
Harryrag
Tinkerer
Username: Harryrag
Post Number: 184
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 28, 2010 - 05:35 am: |
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PS: on the outer rim of the chrome front ring facing downwards it says "Seikosha-SLV". There is a description of the Seikosha SLV here: http://www.daniel.mitchell.name/cameras/index.php?page=seikosha
I do not know of a way to adjust the blades, and I cannot remember any long holes with setscrews or anything similar altough I was very deep inside the shutter. I still know that the shutter failed every now and then after the repair because I had overtightened the serrated retaining nut of the shutter lid under the front element. |
Waynemel
Tinkerer
Username: Waynemel
Post Number: 72
Registered: 08-2009
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 28, 2010 - 08:07 am: |
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I have a 520m cds and I remember thinking I had a problem with the maximum aperture as well. Having looked at it though, I think it is operating properly. Harryrag is correct, with the rear lens off, it appears as if the aperture is not nearly opening enough.
I have looked at my camera again, and when looking through the front element, at f2, I can still see the blades (this is not usually the case on other camreas). There is however a distinct difference between f2 and f2.8. When I compare the size of the aperture openings with cameras with the same focal length lens, it looks correct. This may just be a unique characteristic of this lens and shutter combination.
Just for the record, there are no markings on my camera showing the shutter model. |
Reiner
Tinkerer
Username: Reiner
Post Number: 107
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 02, 2010 - 02:40 pm: |
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Thank you for your valuable inputs. Nevertheless I fear that there is something wrong with my Ricoh 35 L. I took the rear lens group off and there is a ring of the aperture visible. I know that from some Retina folders where it is quite ok. But in this case it seems to be too much.
When I look through the front element at f2 there is still a wide aperture ring visible. It is some millimeters wide. The lens opening is considerably narrowed by the aperture. The opening is by far not as wide as it is on a known good camera at f2/50mm. When stopped down to 16 the hole is nearly half in diameter as that of the compared camera at f16/50mm. So even that seems to be too small. I took the front lens group out and measured the diameter of the aperture at f2. It is app. 20mm which would correspond to an opening of f2.4. I do not think that this is ok.
I am very short in time now but I shall try to paste an image within the next days.
By the way: I found an indication Seikosha SVL at the lower side of the lens' filter ring. In a parallel process I am also sorting the slides of last summer. |
Reiner
Tinkerer
Username: Reiner
Post Number: 108
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2010 - 01:01 pm: |
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This is the aperture at f2 (full opening) seen from the front through the lens.
This is the aperture at f2 seen from the film chamber and the rear element was removed
This is the aperture at f2 seen from the front but with the front lens unit removed.
I think it is not normal that the visible ring of the aperture is so wide at full opening. Is it? |
David_nebenzahl
Tinkerer
Username: David_nebenzahl
Post Number: 199
Registered: 12-2009
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2010 - 05:51 pm: |
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It does look like it's not fully opened as it should be.
Pardon my guessing, as I don't know the innards of this camera, but it looks as if maybe the aperture operating ring is off by one "notch"; maybe it needs reassembly? I know this is possible with other cameras. |
Waynemel
Tinkerer
Username: Waynemel
Post Number: 75
Registered: 08-2009
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2010 - 06:15 pm: |
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Thanks for the photo.
It definitely does look like the aperture is not opening enough. David is probably right...you will need to open up the aperture and re-adjust. |
Reiner
Tinkerer
Username: Reiner
Post Number: 109
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 05, 2010 - 11:08 am: |
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Thank you both for your inputs. I think you are right. Is it better to attack the shutter / aperture from behind - from the aperture side - or from the front side? In the first case I fear that the lens unit has to be separated form the camera body which could be nightmare. |
Harryrag
Tinkerer
Username: Harryrag
Post Number: 189
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 05, 2010 - 03:28 pm: |
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The blades should definitely open a good deal more. A repair or closer inspection of the mechanism makes more sense from behind, leverage sits under the shutter, between the shutter housung and the carrier plate. Repair or function control it is easier with this front plate separated from the body, as far as I recall dismantling the camera follows the usual routine, with the exception mentioned in my post above. |
Reiner
Tinkerer
Username: Reiner
Post Number: 111
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - 12:56 pm: |
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I thank you all for the support. I have decided to postpone the repair of this camera. It is externally like new and I shall keep it like that for some time. I have several cameras which are half assembled/disassembled. I shall do some other repairs before I return to this one. |
Harryrag
Tinkerer
Username: Harryrag
Post Number: 207
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 13, 2010 - 05:33 am: |
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Hi again, R., I have just encountered an aperture problem in one of my Konica Auto S2s which I had pulled out for a different reason; while testing its functions I discovered that in auto the aperture did not close down to f16, but stopped smewhere at perhaps f8. I had to take the camera apart almost completey, befor I found the reason: the fixing screw of the innermost semicircular arm driving the aperture pin on the backside of the shutter had loosened a bit, after correcting the arm's position and retightening the screw everything was fine again. This gave me the idea that correcting the aperture towards opening wider on your Ricoh is somehow similar, unfortunately I cannot be more specific, as I do not recall any details. It has been a while since I was inside one of the 35Ls, but I faintly recall some similar setup, although the S2's shutter is a Copal-SVA. |
