Recently rehabbed Ansco Speedex Special R...

[Scott --]

Hi, all -

My last camera purchase was a beater Speedex Special R. I was looking for a camera to work on, have had Special R's in the past, and found one on eBay. I thought I'd overpaid for it at the time; now I'm happy enough that I don't care.

The camera arrived looking thusly:

The focus and rangefinder were, as expected, glued in place with the congealed Agfa lube. The bellows were mostly shot, and the brightwork had a ton of corrosion on it.

As I usually do, I removed all the offending lube from the lens threads and rangefinder mechanism, and replaced it with some Teflon grease. The shutter got a good cleaning, and it (including the self timer) is running great now. The metal cleaned up better than expected with a soak in new formula CLR - apparently the "corrosion" was 50+ years of sweat and scum. And I have a friend making bellows for Isolettes; he supplied me with a new one for the Speedex.

After all was said and done:

The camera works wonderfully now, and the Apotar shines:

I have it loaded with 400H right now. Can't wait to see how the Apotar handles color!

Thanks for looking.
Scott

 

[fbf]

wow, that almost looks like a new camera... great job. The pictures look great too.

 

[xayraa33]

Nice work Scott, it was worth all the trouble to revive that beauty.

 

[JeffGreene]

Hi, all -

My last camera purchase was a beater Speedex Special R. I was looking for a camera to work on, have had Special R's in the past, and found one on eBay. I thought I'd overpaid for it at the time; now I'm happy enough that I don't care.

The camera arrived looking thusly:




The focus and rangefinder were, as expected, glued in place with the congealed Agfa lube. The bellows were mostly shot, and the brightwork had a ton of corrosion on it.

As I usually do, I removed all the offending lube from the lens threads and rangefinder mechanism, and replaced it with some Teflon grease. The shutter got a good cleaning, and it (including the self timer) is running great now. The metal cleaned up better than expected with a soak in new formula CLR - apparently the "corrosion" was 50+ years of sweat and scum. And I have a friend making bellows for Isolettes; he supplied me with a new one for the Speedex.

After all was said and done:


The camera works wonderfully now, and the Apotar shines:

I have it loaded with 400H right now. Can't wait to see how the Apotar handles color!

Thanks for looking.
Scott

Lovely tonality! Thank you! Please post the color photos when you get the chance

 

[oftheherd]

All I can say is wow. Actually wow twice. One for the camera restore, the other for the photos.

 

[bmattock]

Impressive! Well done and congratulations.

 

[Vince Lupo]

Very nice results - both the camera and the photos!

 

[hanskerensky]

Very good job and sparkling results ! Congratulations !

 

[Solinar]

You did well with the Speedex Special R.

The old wood and stone looks wonderful in your images, as does the sky behind the barn.

 

[Scott --]

Thanks, everyone! I'll admit that I'd really like a coupled rangefinder, but at 1/10 the cost of a Super Speedex, I figure I can make do... 😀

Scott

 

[xayraa33]

It is odd that this model of camera was on my mind yesterday for some unknown reason.

 

[mrwestphal]

Congrats Scott! great job on the camera and it looks like it's working like new!

 

[citizen99]

Beautiful work and beautiful results - and so nice to see a good camera refurbished 🙂

 

[GaryLH]

You did a great job of restoring the camera and the pictures from it proved the work was well worth it. Nice pictures and camera🙂