Any Contax (or former) repairmen here?

2wenty

2wenty

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May 13, 2013
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Hey guys,

Looking for someone that works or has worked on Contax T2's, or if you know someone can you refer me to them.

I have a T2 that the flash wasn't working on. I bought a new NOS flash and put it in yesterday. Once I had the flash in I put the battery in and tested it before putting it back together and it worked, everything was fine.

Once I put the body work back on something was wrong. The lens wouldnt extend. Its like the lens was out of sync with the on/off wheel.

There was a lot of sand in the camera (I bought it cheap because it was abused). I took the sub and main circuit boards apart at the bottom to free up the front cover. I cleared all the sand out of the gears on the front and put it back. Same thing, the lens wasn't extending correctly. Took it apart again to see if maybe there was something up with the top gear with magnet was not engaging.

At this point the main and sub connections were fried, too much soldering. I made like 8 trace jumps (prob harder than doing surgery) with no microscope, took about 5-6 hours, got it to come on and still the same problem. Some of the trace jumps broke from messing with it too much and the camera is junk now.

I really want to find out what the problem could have been. I dont want the camera to die for no reason. At least if I can learn the lesson here of what went wrong Ill be okay with it.

If anything Ill look for a junk T2 and merge the parts into a working camera again. Id just like to figure out what that was incase I put new main and sub boards back in and its the same thing all over again.

Also if anyone has a repair manual can you please help me out.

Super bummed. Should of just left the camera with the burned out flash.

Thanks
 
Not much help but there use to be.
A chap from the UK who was the "DAG of the Contax" and occasionally sold refurb`d ones.
I bought a 139 off him years ago.
Fairly sure that I`ve lost the contact details but I`ll have a look.
 
Thanks so much guys. Email sent.

Im guessing people aren't going to be too free with their knowledge on this since its their business. Im just looking to learn for myself not looking to post it freely or start a repair business.
 
2wenty said:
Thanks Peter.

Seems like its easier to find the holy grail then a T2 repair manual.
Click to expand...

When Contax service stopped they recalled the service documentation and parts and apparently, destroyed them. So manuals are extremely scarce and there are few to no parts.

Perhaps Julian at https://contaxrepairs.com/ could help you if you have a donor camera, but he says specifically that he does not work on the T2.

Good luck,

Marty
 
Freakscene said:
When Contax service stopped they recalled the service documentation and parts and apparently, destroyed them. So manuals are extremely scarce and there are few to no parts.
Click to expand...


Wow.


WHY??? What good reason would there be for this? Sounds like a nasty divorce, not a disbanding manufacturing operation.
 
Freakscene said:
When Contax service stopped they recalled the service documentation and parts and apparently, destroyed them. So manuals are extremely scarce and there are few to no parts.

Perhaps Julian at https://contaxrepairs.com/ could help you if you have a donor camera, but he says specifically that he does not work on the T2.

Good luck,

Marty
Click to expand...

Tired him but he said the manual wouldn't help with my problem, even though it would.

If I replace the main and sub boards with new I need to know if the lens/focus (and maybe shutter) needs to be calibrated. I don't want to go through all the hassle of putting them in and I don't have the info for calibration. I have other Contax camera manuals and knowing how crazy they are I guessing it needs to be calibrated.

It pretty much what I thought. The people that have the manuals are guarding the like crazy. Im not even asking for free, Ill pay for a copy. I understand they are just protecting their business. I just want to fix my camera without paying a crazy amount of money. Im not gonna upload it online.

Thanks Black, sent message to PPP.
 
Dan Daniel said:
Wow.


WHY??? What good reason would there be for this? Sounds like a nasty divorce, not a disbanding manufacturing operation.
Click to expand...

From the perspective of the companies involved - Zeiss and Kyocera, including their optical arm Tomioka, it might make sense for protecting manufacturing and design information, and was no doubt built into the contracts with external providers who did their service and repair work. From the perspective of a user it makes no difference, it’s just rubbish.

Marty
 
Dan Daniel said:
Wow.


WHY??? What good reason would there be for this? Sounds like a nasty divorce, not a disbanding manufacturing operation.
Click to expand...
Wow, I recall having listened this when I called TOCAD (USA appointed service operations after Kyocera ended photo division from 2005-2015). Managed to buy some spares from them in the meantime, but on my last call (oct 2015, when my S2 failed) they told me the same story.
What company can go through such a hassle of bringing back all parts from 5 continents back into Japan (that costs $$$$) and spend even more money in destroying them?
This is one of the nastiest divorces in the history of photography and certainly not a way to keep your customers happy. .

As for that sorry T2, I saw in evilbay UK one dealer that had some circuit boards and main switches for the T2, sold with no warranty
item no 143452439351
He has also some other interesting bits for T2
Hope that helps
best regards
 
So besides Peter from contax139.co.uk, to me the leading authority in 139s and derivatives (he fixed my S2 after having been improperly repaired twice at a big cost both in Spain and in Germany)
Julian at contaxrepairs.com
nippon photo clinic in the US
And in Japan it seems there are some specialists left, photo repair suwa (but I think they don't speak english, there's only japanese all over the place in their website)
http://www.repairservice-suwa.com/ripeasabisu_zou_fang/toppupeji.html
Best regards
 
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