Anyone familiar with meter prism finder for an Exakta RTL 1000?

[Tim Murphy]

Dear Board,

I bought an Exakta RTL 1000 off of eBay. Don't ask why, I just wanted it 😉. It was advertised as working, and technically it is working correctly, but at a level of about 95%.

The camera works fine in manual mode. Everything works as it is supposed to work. The problem is that I should have paid more attention to pictures of the camera, and I would have noticed that the small tab on the right rear corner of the finder was missing. It's the tab that allows you to change the ASA setting. It is stuck on ASA 50 and while it meters with reasonable accuracy compared to every other meter I own when set at ASA 50 I'd like to use other film speeds in the camera.

Does anyone know a work-around other than mathing in my head to allow me to change the ASA setting on the camera. The missing switch is part of a clutch type of mechanism which allows changing the ASA when the switch engages the ASA dial.

Can anyone help a brother out here?

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Harrisburg PA 🙂

 

[santino]

Is it possible to use something else to press and release the clutch? There is probably a hole, right?

Congrats on the camera, it has a bad reputation but for no good reason (it is not a Nikon F, just an ambitioned amateur camera).

 

[johnf04]

This is the user manual page for film sensitivity.

 

[Tim Murphy]

View attachment 4884978View attachment 4884978
This is the user manual page for film sensitivity.

Dear John,

I have the manual and understand how it's supposed to work. Your pictures displayed on a computer monitor are much better than my crumpled copy written auf Deutsch though. The problem with my camera is that the pesky button that allows the film speed setting ring to rotate is missing. I'll try fiddling with it using something like a toothpick or a needle to see if I can find a way to get it to rotate off of ASA 50. If I can somehow get the setting to 200, I'll be good for 99% of my film shooting as I only ever seem to use 100, 200, or 400 ASA. 😉

Thank you,

Tim Murphy

Harrisburg PA 🙂