where to buy: hotshoe plate for Contax G1

[Thomas Turnbull]

I have an otherwise good Contax G1 body with a 21mm Biogen lens and finder which I use for B/W street or situational photography. The problem is that the hotshoe plate that's supposed to sit on the floor of the hotshoe and cover up some of the electrical contacts is missing.

The foot of the 21mm external finder has also been mostly broken off on the right side.

I've been advised not to put anything at all into the hotshoe until it's been put right, so I'm looking to you for suggestions as to where I might be able to find these parts or get them fixed. In the meantime, I'm working on my hip shots!

thanks in advance,

Thomas Turnbull

 

[uhligfd]

Missing on the hotshoe of the G1 camera or missing from the external viewfinder foot?

Have you contacted TOCAD who repair G Contaxes? If you are in the US. So, where are you?

 

[Thomas Turnbull]

Missing on the hotshoe of the G1 camera or missing from the external viewfinder foot?

The flat plate that slides in to form the floor of the hotshoe itself is missing.

Most of the right side of the foot of the external viewfinder has been broken away. The front edge is okay but there's only about a millimeter back from there remaining on the right side of the foot.

Have you contacted TOCAD who repair G Contaxes? If you are in the US. So, where are you?

No. I thought I'd see if there were other options first. Have you had experience with TOCAD? Do you think that'd be my best bet?

I live in the US, in the Western State of Montana.

 

[Bob Michaels]

I would permanently mount the finder to the body. Just use about an ounce of JB Weld and make a nice fillet after roughing up the surface of what was left of the finder foot and cleaning all the remnants of the hot shoe. Sure it would not look pretty but it would work great. If you don't know what JB Weld is, ask at an auto parts store.

I have an otherwise good Contax G1 body with a 21mm Biogen lens and finder which I use for B/W street or situational photography. The problem is that the hotshoe plate that's supposed to sit on the floor of the hotshoe and cover up some of the electrical contacts is missing.

The foot of the 21mm external finder has also been mostly broken off on the right side.

I've been advised not to put anything at all into the hotshoe until it's been put right, so I'm looking to you for suggestions as to where I might be able to find these parts or get them fixed. In the meantime, I'm working on my hip shots!

thanks in advance,

Thomas Turnbull

 

[Thomas Turnbull]

Amazing!

Thanks —*I doubt if I'd ever have come up with that on my own!

Cheers,

Thomas

 

[lewis44]

I had a G2 some time ago and sent it to Tocad for a CLA. I was happy with the work they did. They are about the only game in town for the G's

 

[BTMarcais]

TOCAD usually will get back to you pretty quick, and the prices for parts/repairs are not too bad from what I recall. I had to get a new rubber eyepiece for my G2 a couple years back- there was a guy selling them on ebay for something like 50$... TOCAD asked for I think 15$ including shipping...
-Brian

 

[uhligfd]

If you mount the vf-foot permanently to the G body as suggested, mount it far enough to the left of the hot shoe, or you will squish your no=se on the backwards protruding viewfinder.

I use one of the VC double hot shoes to move my finder to the left from the G hotshoe.

And i still do not understand what is missing. sorry. Is the G hotshoe usable for flash syncing?, for example? An image might help here .....

 

[helen.HH]

Yea Thomas..... RFF always has all the BEST Answers

Best to You - H 🙂

 

[Al Kaplan]

My 21mm finder has a broken plastic foot too. Unfortunately my Bessa L won't work with my M bayonet Siuper Angulon and I am NOT about to epoxy the finder in the shoe of an nice clean M3 Leica body. C'mon Bob! Ideas! Ideas that'll get the finder aboard the Leica without crapping up the shoe with epoxy. (Yes, I do have a few cameras that don't look like crap!)

 

[wayneb]

I have a G1 that is missing a piece of metal in the hotshoe which seems to disrupt contact with the flash and also not create enough grip to hold viewfinders.

To solve the second issue I wedge a folded up piece of packing tape when inserting the finder, which keeps it firmly in place.

 

[Thomas Turnbull]

Al,

you could grind off the thin lower left and right part of the finder and have someone cut an alumium plate in the correct dimensions for you which you can epoxy to the shoe. If you like it to look clean you could buy some matte black camera paint from Microtools and paint it **after** you've glued it to the socket.

Good idea! I might consider that when I've come back from vacation — in the meantime, my Ricoh 21/28 finder left over from a GRD will work because

TaaDaah! Tocad searched through their "overcrowded surplus warehouse" (to quote Bob & Ray) and found me a used "Shoe Plate Spring," which is what I was trying to describe in my original post, so I'm all set to use that fabulous 21mm Biogen!

Yeah, Tocad! (Actually, Yeah Sally Wall, head of their customer service section, who went the extra mile for me — Thanks, Sally!

thanks to all of you who suggested Tocad, and to you, Bob, for getting us thinking about epoxy.

Pictures in a month or I'm back to lurking forever!

Thomas