Aperture stuck on Zeiss Ikon Contessamat SBE. What to do?

[SubduedExcitement]

Just purchased a "bench tested" old rangefinder online but apparently the camera shop never checked the aperture. The ring moves freely but the blades don't move at all. It's a Carl Zeiss Tessar 2.8/50. I should note it's not the Carl Zeiss Jena 2.8/50, at least as far as I can tell.

What would this repair cost if sent to a pro?

I see three screws ostensibly holding on the lens from the inside of the camera body. Could I remove them, take out a little glass with a spanner and put some denatured alcohol on the aperture blades? I'm honestly terrified to take the lens off, and wonder how easy a job it is, and if there are any online tutorials. Thanks!

 

[sevo]

It's a Carl Zeiss Tessar 2.8/50. I should note it's not the Carl Zeiss Jena 2.8/50, at least as far as I can tell.

Anything else would be extremely surprising, as that is a mid sixties West German, Stuttgart, camera - they stopped buying lenses from Zeiss Jena (GDR) around ten to fifteen years prior to that...

What would this repair cost if sent to a pro?

I see three screws ostensibly holding on the lens from the inside of the camera body. Could I remove them, take out a little glass with a spanner and put some denatured alcohol on the aperture blades? I'm honestly terrified to take the lens off, and wonder how easy a job it is, and if there are any online tutorials. Thanks!

Few, if any, pro servicemen touch these electric sixties consumer cameras, as the effort to fix them is generally above the value of the camera and the risk of breaking the camera fatally is high, so you'll probably have to try on your own. I don't remember off-hand whether it has aperture or time automation - but in either case, the couplings inside the lens barrel will be extremely complex and fragile.

 

[ath]

Are you sure you don't confuse shutter and aperture blades?
These lens assemblys usually open up from the front; the three screws probably just detach the whole block from the body.
I second sevo - if it is really broken return it if possible. Or open it and get some repair experience (but probably not a working camera).

 

[SubduedExcitement]

It's most definitely the aperture. The shutter works well.

 

[mbisc]

Few, if any, pro servicemen touch these electric sixties consumer cameras, as the effort to fix them is generally above the value of the camera and the risk of breaking the camera fatally is high, so you'll probably have to try on your own.

Could the OP post a picture of the camera -- there was a glut of cameras with Contessa-something in the name, but I don't think this one is electric, except for a built-in selenium meter, that has no impact on the rest of the camera if it stopped working...

 

[sevo]

Could the OP post a picture of the camera -- there was a glut of cameras with Contessa-something in the name, but I don't think this one is electric, except for a built-in selenium meter, that has no impact on the rest of the camera if it stopped working...

Nope, the "mat" in Contessamat means it is automatic. There is a manual at the Butkus site, it has aperture automation (with manual override). As a guess, the override coupling there might have come stuck in uncoupled position.

 

[SubduedExcitement]

http://imgur.com/85mob Here's the picture, thanks.

 

[mbisc]

http://imgur.com/85mob Here's the picture, thanks.

Thanks - yes, that camera is not all-automatic (despite what Sevo said) -- it has the match-needle light meter (selenium) window on top, and (unfortunately) the front-cell focusing mechanism (but at least with a coupled rangefinder) -- anyone who can do Prontor shutters should be able to help you on this. There is a lot of "stuff" in the lens/shutter housing, so I personally wouldn't open this up unless you really know what to expect.

Not much help on the servicing front, but for more details on this (and other lines) from the defunct Zeiss Ikon line, check out Barringer & Small 's excellent book "Zeiss Compendium"

Beautiful camera, BTW, and once you get it fixed, you will be very pleased with the results!

 

[sevo]

Thanks - yes, that camera is not all-automatic (despite what Sevo said) -- it has the match-needle light meter (selenium) window on top,

The camera is not all automatic, but shutter priority automatic with a manual mode. On top, it has a needle pointing to an aperture scale - no match needle meter proper. In automatic mode (selected by turning the aperture ring past fully open to "A") this shows the automatically selected aperture. In manual, it will display the proper aperture for the chosen speed - it does not follow the current f-stop setting of the lens, you have to read out and transfer the displayed value.

anyone who can do Prontor shutters should be able to help you on this.

Beware - it has a (semi-electric) Prontor-matic 500 SL shutter. The only guy I knew who was familiar with that generation of shutters retired almost a decade ago. The Contessamat represented rather a dead end in camera design - no-battery selenium driven high quality automatic cameras - hence that shutter (and its entire family) remained very rare.

 

[Mark Schretlen]

I've had a Contessamat SBE for about 20 years. It's a very nice camera and is pleasant to shoot with. One of the things that I like about it is that it can be shot with a half-press AE lock. If your problem is related to the this simple AE lock (coupled to the shutter release), it may not be that difficult to "unstick" it. I've never had to open mine up, but from the problem as you've described it, this is the first place I'd look.