broken TLR mirror replacement

[culturesponge]

hello
had bad luck with an oversees purchase that arrived today, my Alsaphot Bioflex 1 TLR camera arrived from France with a broken mirror from poor packaging. huge shame as the camera is/was near mint & likely the mirror was pretty good.

does anyone here have experience of TLR mirror replacement & some idea how much it might cost.... and who might be best to undertake the repair?

thanks
alex

 

[agi]

You can try the mirrors from US Camera. Made specifically for Rollei's & Yashica's but maybe it can fit your camera?

Rollei - http://www.uscamera.com/04265.00.0usc.htm
Yashica - http://www.uscamera.com/yashicatlr1005.htm

Good luck.

 

[Dan Daniel]

Most mirrors are self-indexing, meaning that the mounting system will put them at the proper 45 degree angle. You'll need to study the mounting system and see if this is the case for your camera.

Most repair people who work on TLRs will have replacement mirrors. There are also various Ebay sellers, and US Camera mentioned above. Precise dimensions aren't critical. I have put Yashica mirrors in Minolta AUtocords again and again even though the Yashica mirrors are a bit thinner at the top and bottom. The US Camera Yashica mirrors also work well for older Rolleiflexes and Rolleicords. Again you'll need to study your camera to see which dimensions are important.

I've even taken the mirror from an old Polaroid camera, cracked it into rough shape, and hot-glued it in place on one TLR (a Rolleiflex 2.8A tessar, oh the sacrilege) and it worked fine.

 

[Chris101]

I bought a mirror from Edmund Scientific, and cut off the corners to make it trapezoidal. A bit of tape on the back and it worked perfectly for may years (until the shutter spring broke.)

 

[Frontman]

The eBay mirrors are fine. I have bought and installed a couple of them without any problems. Only a single screwdriver was necessary.

 

[culturesponge]

hello
massive thanks for your replies, tapped out my message yesterday still a tad numb with shock ... situation is perhaps not so bad & might even be an opportunity to optimize brightness inside the viewfinder - glass shards everywhere though!

have purchased items from Edmund Scientific before, but first need to try to find out what size mirror is needed, perhaps with cardboard cut to fit the space previously occupied by mirror.

thanks
alex

 

[hanskerensky]

If not obtainable you could allways make one by cutting a mirror coming out of of Polaroid camera :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29504544@N08/4394427509/

 

[culturesponge]

thank you Hans, always very helpful.

largest Polaroid mirrors are from the later SX 70 series, often less desirable, broken, untested SX cameras are not so expensive on the bay.

have found a source for custom sized new TLR mirrors, a stateside seller on the bay who lists a few different TLR mirrors already (pm me if you need contact email). needed 69x54x34mm @ 1.3mm thick for a replacement for Alsaphot Bioflex. had a couple of mirrors cut today without any probs + very reasonable 1st class postage.

best regards
alex

 

[Dante_Stella]

Two notes:

1. Pretty much all 600-series cameras have big mirrors in them. The ones with the flip-up flash can be had for a couple of bucks.

2. Check your focusing screen against your film plane when you are done. These are front-surface mirrors, and you may need to compensate focus to account for a different-thickness mirror.

Other than that, no magic.

Dante