Gear Porn

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Asahi Pentax Spotmatic SP
Steinheil München Culminar VL f:4.5/135 mm
and Mismet the Cat​
 
I keep thinking of getting another one of those, but I'm not good at working on cameras. I had a Pen F Gothic that I had a lot of fun running film through a few years ago, until the shutter died. I ended up selling it for parts, and never got another.
 
This one had a stuck shutter as well when I got it. I recall I had to put it through the ultrasonic cleaner a few times before it fired reliably again on the slow speeds.
They're fun, but it take ages to fill up a roll ;)
Oh, I'd be interested in hearing about the fix for this. Don't suppose you took any pics of the disassembly/reassembly?

I have a Pen F that has a stuck shutter - just froze on testing the wind/shutter-button. I took the top plate off and looked only but got freaked out by the clock-work nature of the innards - it seems really really complicated inside these. I was hoping a bit of gentle prodding would reset it but I suspect its something in the guts of the mechanism that is stuck (or maybe a rod/spring is just broken).
 
I'm afraid I only have some recent photos of the cleaning of the reflex housing here
(Don't forget the PEN-F has a double-stroke film advance. Crank twice to free the shutter button )


Meanwhile:
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Restored Dallmeyer Reflex (rebadged Thornton Pickard Ruby Reflex from around 1930). New shutter curtains, new First Surface Mirror, new focusing ground glass.
 
I'm afraid I only have some recent photos of the cleaning of the reflex housing here
(Don't forget the PEN-F has a double-stroke film advance. Crank twice to free the shutter button )
Cheers - you got much further into it than I did. Wow.
Yes, the wind lever is stuck solid - not sure if that is the symptom or the cause of not being able to push the shutter button. Will need to bite the bullet and dig into it deeper I guess.
 
This is not really the topic to deal with it, but if you take the bottom off, there's a bar running down the middle that links the mirror mechanism and the shutter timing gears. It might help nudging that thing a bit,
or dropping a very small drop of lighter fluid in there, don't let it get into the prism or it'll dissolve the foam dust seals and mirror bumper! Don't ask me how I know ;) )
 
Andrew's "Lo-Fi" thread has got me thinking of film again after a hiatus of several years. Both of these beauties are operational, although neither has a functioning light meter. Not a problem. I have a roll of film that's been sitting in my refrigerator door for several years. Time to pull out one of these. If I go with the Rollei, I need to find my instructions and brush up. I remember there was something funky about its operation, where one could cause damage if operations were done in the wrong order, but my memory is fuzzy as to the particulars.

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Andrew's "Lo-Fi" thread has got me thinking of film again after a hiatus of several years. Both of these beauties are operational, although neither has a functioning light meter. Not a problem. I have a roll of film that's been sitting in my refrigerator door for several years. Time to pull out one of these. If I go with the Rollei, I need to find my instructions and brush up. I remember there was something funky about its operation, where one could cause damage if operations were done in the wrong order, but my memory is fuzzy as to the particulars.

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Very cool, Tony.

I have a Rollei 35, too, and there is one thing you have to remember: the lens has 2 positions, retracted (as it appears in the photo) - and then you slide it out all the way and it sort of 'clicks' into place - and then the camera is ready to take pictures. (There's a focus scale on the lens which you have to guesstimate, although the depth of field scales help, and you also need to set the ISO and the aperture and shutter speed manually, but that's not a big deal. My Rollei 35 has a rough but generally accurate built-in light-meter and there is a tiny window scale on which you can align aperture and shutter speed, depending on ISO and lighting conditions; quite crude but usable. I'm not certain if yours has one or if certain models did and others not.) But---

And it's a big BUT - the tricky part which you have to do correctly (or you might risk damaging the delicate gearing mechanisms inside the camera) has to do with how you 'slide' the lens back into the camera into its 'retracted' position: in order to do this, you must FIRST advance the film lever. (Even if there is no film in the camera!) By 'advancing' the film lever - you are also aligning the internal mechanism which allows you simply to slide the lens back into its retracted position. (You might have to 'declick' it by rotating it a fraction before sliding it back in, too.)

IF you fail to advance the film lever first - and then you attempt to 'retract' the lens into its internal position - it's possible you might damage the camera or its internal mechanism.

Once you try it a few times (and I'll repeat: you don't actually need to have film inside the camera to 'advance' the film advance lever), you'll get the hang of it - and almost assuredly, it will become part of your 'muscle memory' and you'll never forget to do it in the future.

I carried my Rollei 35 everywhere for years as my only take-everywhere film camera - and got quite a number of very cool photos with it. Seeing yours makes me realize I'd like to use mine again, too :)
 
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