Franka Solida III 120 film Folding Camera [ A Repair Story ]

This is the second video about the Franka Solida III camera. In this video, I tell you how it was to repair the prontor-S shutter, to clean the lens and so on. In general, the Franka Solida III seems to be a robust camera with some nice potential. I hope I repaired it well enough for the next video. In the next video, i plan on giving the Franka Solida 3 a test shoot. So make sure not to miss the upcoming video of this nice folding 120 film camera.
If you would like to see a deeper review about the Franka Solida iii, make sure to let me know in the comments.
get a Franka Solida here: ebay.us/Ds6bCR
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[@tacoontanadechsittipat5540]

I must try.

[@gordievsky4895]

Did you filmed the whole repair? I have a similar camera that'd like to disassemble to clean

[@RetroPixel_analog]

Hi, no sadly i did not. I filmed for about 1.5 hours (mainly the cleaning) until i realized all the other problems. Then i aborted filming since i myself are not too experienced with repairing old cameras. Also i could find no useful tutorial for that camera and lens. So my only way was to figure it out by myself. And i would also recommend you to do the same. Dont be affraied just start repairing. These kind of cameras is not too complicated to dis- and reasamble since most of the mechanism is in the shutter. My tip, take a picture of each step you do, so if you cant remember where a part was, you just have to look at the picture. But maybe you are lucky and there is a video for your camera already on youtube. For your shutter use a sesrch engine, there are lots of service manuals out there. There was no useful one for me but for the most common shutters (compur, seiko... ) there are plenty. Greetings.

[@leanderthal2689]

@@RetroPixel_analog hi. I've just bought a Franka Solida III and the double exposure lock is stuck so you can't press the shutter release button. Can you tell me how do you get the winding knob out of the camera to disassemble the top of the camera? I've taken the little screw out of the top of the winder but I can't remove the knob. It's driving me crazy, I can't figure it out and I'm fearful of breaking it. Thank you kindly.

[@deador9192]

Mine came with everything functional, except the lens had fungus inside and out. The following is what I did to disassemble the lens, after a couple of mistakes which I thought I ruined the camera. 1) Warning: do not remove the ring nut inside the film chamber as your first move. It will mess up your mental health for days, in not weeks, boohoo. And when you do, the paper washer will likely be ripped. After many years, it just became one with the metal frame. 2) Properly start by locating and loosening the three, miniscule, screws. Operative word is loosen, not remove. These screws are around the focus ring. 3) Before you pull off the focus ring, make sure to mark its exact relationship of the ring with the lens body, so when you put it back, the focal distance will not change., i.e., infinity will be infinity, and 3 meters will be 3 meters, etc. I recommend that you put the focal distance at the minimum, that is, 1 meter, right up to the stopping bolt. 4) Once you remove the focus ring, check for grease covered area. clean as necessary. Do not remove all the grease, because it protects the thread and keeps the slight resistance to twisting motion. Mine had no problem, so I just cleaned the grease on the focus ring. 5) The fungus is easily removed with peroxide. I use foam ear plug wrapped in lens cleaning cloth to rub off any residue. Then clean with 99% isopropyl alcohol. 6) While cleaning the inner element, the grease will eventually get on your finger or other cleaning tool, and transfer to the glass. Get zippo lighter fluid to dissolve it. 7) I had to remove the rear lens element, because it was covered with fungus. 8) If you need to remove the lens assy, do note that you might have to destroy the paper washer in the course of loosening the ring nut that holds the lens assy to the frame. 9) Put everything together, yet re-installing the ring nut requires some trick. Place some rubber plates over the front of the lens and close it, so they will provide the tension, while you screw on the ring nut. You will know what I mean, when you get to this point. 10) After this, you will be a happy dog! My thanks to Retro for inspiration to fix the Solida III.