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D. Dee
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 11:20 am: | 
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Hi. I have a Balda Hapo 66 that I really love to use. THe problem is that the previous owner was apparently a heavy smoker, and the viewfinder has a brownish haze over it, which dims the viewfinder.
Is there any way to clean this? Also, is the top plate of the camera a pain to remove/replace? I have a feeling some of the smoke is inside the camera as well.
Thnaks! |
Winfried
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 11:33 am: |
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AFAIK the Hapo66 is rangefinderless and was made by Dacora. The top plate should be easy to remove. Some of the old folders have left-handed screws on the advance button.
Otherwise, all hazy viewfinders I have seen were crytal clear after a good run of cleaning. I found that moistened lens (or eye glass) cleaning paper works best on old viewfinder lenses - much better than wiping them with lighter fluid. Take the viewfinder lenses completely off their mount if possible.
The Hapo66E, btw, was a completely different camera, made by Balda. It has some kind of rudimentary frame counter and the advance button is easy to take off but a pain to reassemble. |
Arthur
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - 11:26 am: |
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The Balda-made Hapo 66E uses an uncoupled built-in rangefinder. Actually, the frame counter on the 66E is far from 'rudimentary', it was a quite advanced if complex mechanical design for its day, was well-built of sturdy metal parts, and operates flawlessly on my 41-year old example. Much better than fogging one's film with the old-fashioned red window opening... |
Winfried
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 12:16 am: |
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How do you operate the frame counter? I once had a Hapo66E. I still had to use the red window for proper frame spacing and could use the frame counter for indicating frame number on top of the camera. I don't know whether I had reassembled it correctly but I could not see any components measuring or indicating the length of each frame. |
Glen
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 12:33 pm: |
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"How do you operate the frame counter?"
It operates in conjunction with the film advance knob. After opening the bellows and loading film, rotate film advance knob clockwise until it stops, then rewind COUNTER-clockwise until it stops, until you see in the red window that the film has advanced to frame #1. You don't need the red window after this point and can close the little metal shutter over it.
After you are on '1' in the red window, cock shutter & take photo. Rotate the film advance knob clockwise until it stops. Then rotate the same knob counter-clockwise until it stops. Film counter should now read '2'. Cock shutter, take photo, etc. When shooting is complete and film is unloaded, moving the small serrated lever to the left of the eyepiece will reset the counter to '1'. So there is no need to use the red window once the film is on frame 1 - the mechanical film advance provides perfectly correct spacing for 11 more 6x6cm photos.
BTW, Jurgen Kreckel re-built my Hapo 66E and it's a great camera with an excellent lens, you can see one of my photos on his gallery at: www.certo6.com/gallery.html . He is an expert on these rebranded Porst Baldas. |
Winfried
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 02:04 pm: |
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I see... I figured out the sequence of operating the advance button, and at a certain position the frame counter would jump to the next number. But I did not notice that it stops then. Maybe I did not re-assemble it correctly, or it was jammed right from the start. For the one or two rolls I shot with it I checked with the red window and used the frame counter rather as frame indicator only. |
