Vintage Camera Repairs - Work In Progress & New Arrivals

[@conrad4094]

Good to see the lineup at the moment and to get a few updates. You made my EXA look rather resplendent there 🤩 I quite fancy one of those Rollei SLRs . They have an imposing look to them and there are some very highly regarded lenses for them

[@GrumpyTim]

Your EXA is a little beauty Conrad, I'm really impressed with how it looks. I'd never really paid the Rollei SLRs much attention, but I saw that one complete with a decent lens and slightly battered leather case, so I grabbed it - it really does feel nice, and they don't appear to have gained stratospheric prices yet.

[@conrad4094]

@@GrumpyTim I need to get in on the action with those too… I also have a weird German camera to suggest you … the Pentina . I have a Pentina E, it’s strange thing but i love it . On the subject of the EXA, I love Ihagee Cameras particularly the EXA and Exaktas with the waist level finders . I actually feel joy using them sometimes

[@GrumpyTim]

I've just looked up the Pentina E, a weird looking thing, but I find it's the weird ones that bring me the most joy. How do you get on with the waist level viewfinders? I haven't used them enough to get totally familiar with the back to front image, but that's only because I tend to take a different camera every time I go out, strangely I find the TLR easier to use than a waist level SLR because the screen is that much bigger. I'm sure I could even master using them in portrait if I practised enough!

[@Gannett2011]

Ooh, yes to the Rolleiflex! I had, for too short a time, a lovely Rolleiflex TLR with waist level viewfinder. Sold it for silly money when I was a poor student and regret it to this day!

[@GrumpyTim]

Easily done John, it's not always that easy to predict which things you're likely to miss sometime in the future - maybe one day you'll find one at a boot sale for £10 and snap it up.......

[@Gannett2011]

Nice work! I love how you are keeping these vintage models alive. I've recently started down my own retrophotopgraphy rabbit hole, early 2000s digital cameras. I remember getting my first in 2000 and had quite a few over the years before my smartphone was a more convenient option. I have 4 older cameras now, and love to shoot and process the images for that 2000s digital aesthetic. I only wish I had your skill in camera repair! Keep up the good work!

[@GrumpyTim]

Cheers John, it definitely is a rabbit hole, and I often have to take pity on a distressed and battered camera that's in need of a little TLC!!! I think the early digitals are gaining in popularity, definitely another fun thing to collect, and many shot perfectly good images at the time (and still do) - none of my workhorse digitals are the "latest thing" because they're still doing the job I bought them to do all those years ago.

[@ohjajohh]

Wow, I'm jealous of all those great lenses :) Very nice collection you got there!

[@GrumpyTim]

Cheers ohjajohh, I tend to pick things up when I see them for a good price (or at least that's the plan), if I ever go searching for something specific it always seems to be too expensive. I'm looking forward to trying that Zeiss Planar 50mm f1.4, it looks like it could be a nice lens - I'd quite fancy getting an adaptor to try it on a digital camera, but I'm not sure if I want to spend the money on that.....

[@gatsbye53]

Great video, glad I came across your channel!

[@GrumpyTim]

Cheers gatsbye53, glad you liked the video.

[@BensWorkshop]

You have a lot of cameras! I also have a Yashica though mine is the YashicaMatt 124G. The last camera was interesting for its social history.

[@GrumpyTim]

It's a slippery slope Ben, one camera leads to another camera, that leads to another one and so on!!! I knew you had the YashicaMat, I remember you doing a video on it - I just saw mine on a stall and kind of fell in love with it. As you say, it's really interesting to see that bit on the bottom of the EXA camera, I think I first heard about it on some of the Praktica cameras.

[@BensWorkshop]

@@GrumpyTim A bit of rebellion. I like it.

[@GrumpyTim]

Oh yes indeed.

[@BensWorkshop]

@@GrumpyTim Incidentally the thing I like about the Yashica I have (which ha a working light meter) is that it is great for taking candid photographs as people do not know you are taking one.

[@GrumpyTim]

I nearly took such a shot today, but I still didn't pluck up the courage to click the shutter - maybe next time!!!!!

[@enginelover1]

wow quite a nice collection. I am curious now how a camera like those with out battery transfer the image its seeing on to the film. Going to try and see what I can find on the internet about that.

[@GrumpyTim]

Hi Joseph, it's all magic!!!! Very basically, for black and white film, a clear plastic is coated with a light sensitive coating in a dark factory or enclosed machine. The plastic with the coating is then rolled into a light proof canister with the end of the film poking out, and shipped off to the photographer. The film is loaded into the camera in daylight and the little bit at the end gets exposed to the light but what's left in the canister remains un exposed. Then as each image is taken, the film is advanced 1 space at a time onto another spool in the camera. When you take each shot, the camera lens focuses the image it captures onto the light sensitive film only for a very brief time (unless you're doing night time photography), and the brightest parts of the image burn into the light sensitive material more than the darker parts of the image. When the film is finished, it's rewound completely back into the light proof canister and sent to a lab for processing (or you can do it at home). The film is then removed from the canister in an unlit room and spooled into a light proof container that can have chemicals poured into it - those chemicals do their magic and once complete you have a set of negative images left on the film, by this stage it is no longer light sensitive so you can actually look at it in daylight. To make traditional prints, you put your film with the negative images into an enlarger, which is basically a light and a lens that projects a bigger image onto another piece of light sensitive material, which is then dunked in chemicals to create a positive image and that's your photo done. That's probably the worst explanation ever, and I'm sure you'll find far better descriptions online. Shoot Film Like A Boss has a great KZbin channel, and he's often doing darkroom work in his shed, so you'll be able to see the process a bit better than I can explain.

[@enginelover1]

@@GrumpyTim wow that's quite a process. I apricate your timing writing this comment for me.

[@jimmyjames2303]

Great videos, Tim. Thank you. I'm now subscribed. Helicoid grease, now here's the question... What are you using and why? Thanks!

[@GrumpyTim]

Cheers Jimmy, much appreciated. Helicoid grease, now there's a thing - the stuff I use is Polar Bear Camera helicoid lube, soft - they did various different grades and ideally I should have bought several different types, but I'm tight, so I just make do with the one. It's about right for most of the metal double helicoid lenses (ie, where the front of the lens doesn't rotate as you focus the lens), but it's a bit on the light side for some of the single helicoid lenses. It just looks to me like some sort of synthetic grease, and I'd bet you could substitute many other greases that would work just as well. Lots of old lenses used all kinds of mineral greases, many of which become solid when they get old and dry out, theoretically a modern synthetic grease should last longer but only time will tell. The only real worry is how the grease degrades because it can be the deposits from degrading grease that end up on the internal lens elements causing haze.

[@maltelindstrom928]

Are you going to make a video on how to repair the slow-speed timer on the exacta reflex?

[@GrumpyTim]

Hi Malte, I wasn't particularly planning to make a video, I don't know when I'll get round to looking at that camera - if I remember I'll try to make a video about the slow speed timer when I eventually get round to looking at the camera.

[@maltelindstrom928]

Thank you. I ask this Mainly because i have one myself that works perfectly accept for the timer. If it takes a while before your video comes out do you know where i can find a guide on how to do it?

[@GrumpyTim]

Hi Malte, I haven't found a whole lot of information about those models - I don't think there was much available at Learn Camera Repair. Just checking that it was the RTL1000 which I showed in my video that you're asking about - I might see if I can pop the covers off next week and take a quick look, at least to see if it looks like a simple or tricky job. On some cameras the slow shutter section is really easy to remove, clean and lubricate, whereas on others it's a bit of a nightmare. By the time the RTL1000 came out there was a lot of shared technology with the Praktica cameras so it may well be similar to a Praktica MTL3 and stuff around that time - the shutter and film take up drum look the same on both cameras.

[@maltelindstrom928]

@@GrumpyTim No i am asking about the wirgin edixa reflex which you did a video on about 7 months ago. In that video you said the slow shutter mechanism was by far the easiest to work on of any camera. It was located on the bottom just under a lever. You didn't go in to much more detail than that in the video so it can't really be used as a guide.

[@GrumpyTim]

Hi Malte, sorry about the confusion, you said the Exakta reflex in your original question and I just assumed you were meaning the Exakta that I featured in this video. I was put off doing repair guides by some of the keyboard warriors that luck within KZbin who just like to tell you that you're not doing it right and spoil it for everyone else, so these days I tend to just show a little bit of the work I've done without making a full tutorial. Maybe I'll look at another Edixa Reflex that I have, and see if it has similar problems to fix, and possibly make a video of that repair.