Canon 7 Repair in Europe/Germany ?

[Thomas78]

Hello

I got a Canon 7 with a 1.4/50 lens which is cosmetically nearly as new but shows two problems:

1. Calibration of the viewfinder:

While the viewfindes sems to work very accurate at distances of about 2 m (deviation << 5 cm) it has some problems with infinity.
If you set the rangefinder on an object which is far away (more than 50 m), the scale of the lens shows about 15 m instead of (nearly) infinity.

So I think the rangefinder needs some calibration.

2. The lightmeter

The lightmeter (Selenium) has two different measurement areas and a swith on the back to select them.

If I select the "black" area, it does not seem to work.
If I select the "orange" area, it shows quite good results, but on the black scale and not on the orange one.

Did someone do a mistake when doing the calibration of the lightmeter or is it maybe a compensation for a degrading selenium cell?

Does anyone know what the problem(s) might be and who/which company in Europe (Germany) whould be able to fix the problem?

Is the Canon Service able to do the job (sucessfully) or whould Paepke-Fototechnik in Duesseldorf be a good adress also for Canon rangefinders?

Thanks for your advice!

 

[Frontman]

The rangefinder can be easily calibrated with just a few tools, there is a Canon 7 rangefinder service manual available on the web. As for the light meter, it has probably degraded. The black marks is for normal light conditions, the orange mark is for low light conditions. On occasion the wires from the meter to the switch sometimes become unsoldered, which is something you can check out. I have several of these cameras, but in my experience only 1 in 5 will have a meter which works properly on high and low settings.

 

[johne]

It is possible to get new cells for this meter. They wear out easily. I had Quality Light-Metric Co. 7095 Hollywood, CA 90028, tel. 323 467 2265 replace the meter for me on one camera but that was Nov. 29, 2005. Do not know if still in business.
John

 

[John Shriver]

QLM is definitely still in business, and they are the experts on repairing selenium meters. Cinematographers still use selenium meters for the most part, mostly Sekonic.

 

[Thomas78]

Thank you for the advice!

I think I will make the tool for the rangefinder adjustments (a very thin (app. 0,8 mm thick) wrench) and do the calibration by myself and I will send the camera later to the selenium meter experts.

Does anyone know the exact size of the wrench?
Because of the very cramped condition I have to estimate the size to be somewhere around 5.0 to 5.5 mm.

 

[OlliL]

Thomas, leave Fotomechanik Reinhardt a call.
Going to send my Leica II there and have heard a lot of positive thinks about them.
They usually work on German made cameras, but maybe they can help you out.

 

[Thomas78]

Thank you Oliver!

I contacted them today and they told me that they never serviced a Canon camera because Canon uses (needs?) special tools for their camera service.

 

[sevo]

Did you tell them that it is a ancient Leica Thread Mount collectible? I somewhat doubt that Canon used that special tools back then. For new cameras (up into the late eighties) they are right - on most DSLRs and EF mount cameras you can't even open the shell non-destructively without having set up as a official contract repair shop that is entitled to the official tool set.

In any case, if you choose a German repair shop, be aware that yours will probably be the first Canon 7 they have handled - they are very rare hereabouts. Personally I'd rather send it to the US or Japan where there are repairers that are familiar with them.

 

[Arvay]

You can try this:
Mr Helmut Redl
1080 Wien, Bennogasse 24
tel 43 (0) 1 405 2310
He made some repairings to my Rollei during my short stay in Vienna.
Here's the story:
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86021

 

[Thomas78]

@sevo:

I wrote them that it is a rangefinder camera (to prevent the confusion with a modern SLR or compact camera) and that the rangefinder needs some calibration.

Perhaps you are right since they advised me to contact canon for the service. But I do not think that the "normal" canon service has much experience with such cameras.

Finding someone with experience on the camera seems to be a good idea.

 

[drinkingeye]

hello thomas, I had a few rangefinders (canonet 17 Giii & Minolta 7sii) fixed by
Kamera Spezialwerkstatt, Ralf Hügle, Taubenstraße 6, 06847 Dessau, 0340 / 85 911 22 and I was really satisfied with the quality of his work. cheers, mauro

 

[Thomas78]

Thanks for the contact adresses, Arvay and mauro!

I will let you know about ther replies.

 

[mifo2000]

Hi Thomas,

I had 3 Canons CLA'ed by Will van Manen .
See his website: http://www.kamera-service.info.
Greetings from Southern Germany

Michael

 

[Thomas78]

You can try this:
Mr Helmut Redl
1080 Wien, Bennogasse 24
tel 43 (0) 1 405 2310
He made some repairings to my Rollei during my short stay in Vienna.
Here's the story:
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86021

I wrote Kamera-Service REDL a mail and he wants to take care of the camera.

 

[Arvay]

I wrote Kamera-Service REDL a mail and he wants to take care of the camera.

I thought he would as I have seen lots of vintage cameras at his place.

Не is very nice man.
He doesn't speak English and I do not speak German, but we both understood each other🙂