I agree in principle. But I have three Contaflexes. So, yes, some love. One, Super BC, has a strange problem, so far unsolved:
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/ghost-image-with-contaflex.154829/
The second one, a Super, works fine.
The third one, a Contaflex II, has a shutter that does not open; just a short click, the same at all shutter speeds.
@ Brett. Could you please point me to a starting point; an outline of dis-assembly; things to know, like little springs that jump on the floor? I am not going to pay for professional repairs. I am moderately proficient in camera repair. I would start with the Contaflex II, since the front-cell focusing presumably leads to a simpler construction. My initial idea would be to dis-assemble the optics and flush the mechanical parts with naphta; I know that is not the fully professional way, but if it works...
Hi Bernard,
There is a copy of the Zeiss service manual for the Contaflex I to IV available via the web. It used to be hosted at the KY Photo site (now, gone the way of the thylacine) who were the former hosts of the Classic Camera Repair Forum some years ago. If you don't have it, please let me know.
On the topic of the CCRF archives, as I am sure you will be aware that is now hosted right
here at RFF in read-only archive form. There are a fair few discussions about various Contaflex models in the archive. Unfortunately the "search function that appears on the pages is no longer functional now the content is read-only and the discussions are divided into several years. But I have found that if you open the various index pages, you can use the find in page function browsers have, to filter through the hits for whatever camera or key word you're looking for. Not perfect but it's not too tedious.
I've done an awful lot of work on most of the different Tessar models over the past eight to ten years. But my problem is I'm better at working on cameras than I am at documenting and illustrating the process. I should try harder at the latter: occasionally I look at a type of camera I've fixed previously, and have to try to remember how I did it last time...I have commented here and there over the years, photonet has a few posts from me about fixing them, a couple of detailed posts at APUG or whatever it is called, now, in years gone by? I think you may have replied to one or two of those possibly. There's some commentary about dealing with the some of the various models by me,
here.
Thankfully others are much more organised when it comes to documenting camera disassembly. Phil did an excellent job of photographing a Contaflex II he was asked to sort out a few years ago. You can find that
here.
Re: your Super BC.
I recall the discussion you mentioned about the Super BC. I still think the shutter blades are opening too soon (capping plate not shut fully) or sticking a bit and not closing fully after exposure promptly. I have seen various unit focus types do precisely this. Thinking about it the former may be much less likely because, although you might get odd looking fogging across negative frames if the capping plate is not quite seating fully, it will still be occluding the film gate so drastically that anything like a normally recorded image simply won't be possible. When I acquired my first ever lens shutter SLR (a Bessamatic I still have) a previous owner had jammed a pinkie into the capping plate. As a result it wouldn't seat fully and, not knowing much at all about these unusual German SLRs, I only worked this out when my roll of C-41 had been developed. So I am rather familiar with what that would look like (that was an easy fix once I knew it wasn't shutting correctly).
On the other hand, if the shutter blades are contaminated, a particular example can manifest this in several ways. If they are quite stuck together because of an abundance of evaporated lubricant fraction, you might get the behaviour you mention your II is displaying: the release is pressed and the mirror and capping plate will cycle but no exposure occurs because the blades are stuck fast.
If they are not particularly dirty they might run off more or less OK at faster speeds but not at the escapement pallet times or intermediate speeds. Or not, these are not hard and fast rules, merely my observations after close examination of many examples over some years. But the shutter blades can be lethargic to both open and close. I've seen them snap shut after exposure, but not fully, with a small pinhole opening between the blade tips because they're gooed up with years of evaporated lubricant residue.
Now if the above was occurring with your Super BC bear in mind the lens is going to be still open to the film. The capping plate will shield the film from exposure but this won't descend by itself. The camera has to be advanced to activate the capping plate and mirror again, right? Your example pics were tripod based I believe. No matter how smoothly you wind it, the camera position has to alter fractionally as you do. Might explain the ghost image. Meanwhile the shutter blades will be open only a millimetre or two, in this position they'd effectively act as an aperture, hence the secondary image would be offset from the proper, or "normal" exposure due to activating the wind lever, and also, fainter, because it would be recorded at an effective f/32 or f/45 (approximately). Without the benefit of physically examining it I'm afraid it's the best I can come up with, sorry.
The 45mm front focus Contaflex I and II are both easier and harder to work on in certain respects.
For instance if you take the shutter right out of a unit focus type, you can lose the infinity calibration of the lens because the three screws that retain the lens/shutter to the body (accessed from within the film gate) lock the back of the shutter firmly against the brass helicals. Take the shutter out and rotate the helicals, and you're in strife. It's not really that bad of course. The focus will be off, but by adjusting the relative position of the inner helical relative to the outer one and reinstalling the shutter, using the usual methods (ground glass, backsighting etc) you can dial it back in. Not hard. Merely potentially very tedious to get it spot on again by trial and error.
With experience you can avoid this issue of course, simply by leaving the focus ring set strictly at infinity (it has to be, to get those three retaining screws far enough back towards the film gate to get your driver onto them readily in the first place). If you then mark the helicals against each other at infinity immediately the shutter is pulled, subsequently accidentally upsetting the orientation doesn't really matter. Actually, the unit focus models sometimes present with a little play or wobble in the lens/shutter, or might even be hard to focus: this is due to dried grease and the absence of its damping effect on the helical threads. You might well want to separate the helicals anyway, to clean the threads and pack them with fresh grease. Not only will the focus be smoother and nicer to use, but the wobble will either drastically reduce or disappear entirely (depending on thread condition). Alternatively, you can take a height reading of the helicals with a depth gauge (or verniers, in a pinch). Simply restoring this installed height at infinity should see the calibration preserved with the shutter re-installed.
Once nice point is the focus ring infinity position is locked into place via some grub screws. So, unlike a typical helical threaded discrete SLR lens, you can screw up the helical height but the focusing ring thread will always be good for infinity at its stop. Ie set the ring to infinity and tweak the inner helical until infinity looks right: no trying to get the minimum focus of the focus ring coming in with the helicals at the right time, as you can enjoy looking for with Eg certain old CZJ lenses...
On the other hand, the front cell focus types have less parts, but the way Zeiss fixed the front cell into place really was...annoying. You have three small grub or locking screws that fix the serrated focus grip to the cell itself. The infinity stop is part of the grip. Hence...the relationship between the lens cell and its grip, dictate exactly where the lens will focus at infinity. First thing you have to do with one of those is mark the rotational position of the cell relative to the grip at infinity.
That done you can extract the screws that lock the grip to the cell (well to its lens mounting cup). But hang on...these are hidden underneath the distance scale ring behind the serrations of the grip. That's not so bad. A couple (I think) of easily reached very small slotted screws will free that up to rotate freely around the back of the grip. Then, you have to poke a one mm driver through the now open holes for the scale retaining screws and, by feel, find the heads of the screws that actually fasten the grip to the lens mount.
The mount is threaded externally into the inner diameter of the centre lens mount, multiple start. You'll need to note which threads mate with which there, too. With this accomplished, finally you can remove the front lens piece, and move onto extracting the centre cell for access to the shutter.
None of this is especially *hard* to do, merely inconvenient, BUT if the camera in question has been stored in a location conducive to corrosion, you had better hope those grip retaining screws are not corroded into the ring. Because not being able to really see them, if they burr their heads you'll be drilling them out almost blind, by feel. Noice.
Incorrect speeds with the unit focus models can nearly always be traced back to issues within the shutter itself. They're connected to the body via a short drive shaft that from memory is either splined (early) or keyed(?) (later). That is not particularly problematic, if you think it may be, winding and firing the body with the shutter out will isolate any faults with that from the shutter itself, this is quite safe to do (clean the mirror and focus screen before the shutter goes back in and check the foam for the mirror, it's probably crumbling, it is where most of the annoying spots that get up into the top of the screen, come from).
On the other hand the drive system to the I and II models is completely different. And if you have a *real* early Contaflex I (no timer, ten aperture blades, external filter thread etc) it's different *again* (which is why you have to graft an entire lens/shutter front mounting plate into one of those, if you want to install a donor shutter from a later build I or II).
With the I and II (not the real early original, or Contaflex I version circa 1953) there are large, toothed drive rings rotating behind the shutter which mesh with their counterparts at the back of the shutter. Phil's images linked above probably illustrate those. Even if the shutter itself is cleaned and firing perfectly out of the body, these rings will probably need to be cleaned and lubed because, if they stick, the whole plot won't run correctly. They all have to be positioned so that the shutter will drop in and mesh with everything, just so. Don't be in too much of a hurry to fire off a I or II body without its shutter, until you have had a good look at the parts underneath it when it comes out, and have your head around how they all hook up. And note the shutter and aperture settings before the shutter comes out, too. There is probably a particular combination of settings that are easier, or even, perhaps, essential, to mate it all up happily (Ie B/f22; B/2.8; 1/500/22; 1/500/2.8; one of those). But it's been too long since I've done a I or II. I can't recall offhand.
There is a bunch of other stuff. Tensioning the aperture stop down spring. Cleaning the shutter itself. But as Phil can attest inside the housing it's largely garden-variety Synchro Compur. The reflex bits that hold the blades open for viewing, and then, snap the aperture blades shut on release, all hook in from the back. Inside the casing itself, it is very familiar. (Which is why they tend to run happily again after cleaning them and their drive system, they are very much an ordinary SC, with a couple of extra tricks underneath them).
That ought to give you a bit to start off with. If you get into strife: time is always at a premium but I'll try to assist.
Cheers
Brett
