Canon L1 and similar RF assembly

burancap

burancap

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Hi all,

In an unexpected turn of events, a lovely L1 has landed in my lap in a lens purchase. This is my first Canon RF body and well, I quite like it. It is in nice shape, but appears to have a bit of haze in the RF.

I have searched hi and lo, but have had no luck finding an image of the naked RF assembly (top plate removed). I was interested in gauging accessibility for a simple, quick clean.

Might anyone have such a shot or maybe be able to point me in the correct direction? Dis/Assembly instructions and/or images would be a real bonus.

Thanks in advance!
 
The top plate of the L1 doesn't look too hard to get off. I cleaned the viewfinder of a VI-T, which is different, but the only tricky bit is to unscrew the little hotshoe parallax nob. You'll have to remove the flash sync on the side, rangefinder window and lens, film advance, shutter selector and probably the ring around the shutter button, and any other screws you see. The film rewind doesn't need to be unscrewed for the top plate to be taken off. I can't remember if you have to remove the cold shoe, probably do.

these look pretty good (not L1 but should be similar):
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140042
http://www.apug.org/forums/forum147/121665-canon-vit-top-plate-removal-frame-counter-repair.html

nathan
 
This may help you. Though it's for a Canon Vt, the L1 is quite similar:

canon+vt.jpg


Jim B.
 
Thanks so much folks, both posts were informative.

It seems getting in presents no obstacles. The next challenge will be the RF assembly itself and hoping that whatever is in there is first accessible and then actually cleanable!

Being unfamiliar with Canons, are they prone to what I am describing? The camera is 57 years old and in really excellent shape otherwise and there does not appear to be any attempts at ever accessing any of the internals.
 
Mackinaw said:
Here's a shot of a Vt's viewfinder. The L1 should be very similar.

I don't think Canon's are prone to viewfinder haze. I chock this up to the camera's age.

Jim B.
Click to expand...

Oh Jim! Thanks so much!

That clears things up (no pun intended). Being familiar with Leicas I was unable to put together the optomechanical connectivity between 7120 and 7140 ... because there is none per se!

I am confident the issue is likely with the backside of 7140. Haze: I couldn't come up with a better term for what I am seeing. Haze is not the best -it is more like a smudge you would expect on the outside. I dare bring the "F" ungus word into play. I also dare to suggest some sort of separation.

As mentioned, there are no signs of anyone being in there yet -and I can't imagine a tech would leave a smudge behind, but my hopes are for a simple cleaning. Fingers crossed!
 
Nathan & Jim,

Many, many thanks! I just wrapped up the L1 project. I now have a literally new 57 year old L1! While there were still a few "gotchas," all went smoothly thanks to your links and images.

While it is not 100%, it is as close as one could hope for. All surfaces had some degree of what I'll call "environmentals." Furthermore, the inside surfaces of all the rotary turret lenses were compromised. This required a bit more work and disassembly of the turret. Once opened, I found that a felt base was deteriorating. This required removal, painting the exposed base flat black, and cleanings the lenses.

One thing that struck me was what I would consider over-over engineering. Wow, seemed like a lot of design effort went into these. Sometimes perhaps unnecessarily so, but the result is a wonderfully solid, smooth machine. Though a Leica guy, I have a newfound appreciation for these Canons -I especially love the rotary finder.

At any rate, my eyes are weary, my fingers sore. Maybe I'll run a roll through it tomorrow.

Thanks again!
 
burancap said:
Nathan & Jim,

Many, many thanks! I just wrapped up the L1 project. I now have a literally new 57 year old L1! While there were still a few "gotchas," all went smoothly thanks to your links and images.

While it is not 100%, it is as close as one could hope for. All surfaces had some degree of what I'll call "environmentals." Furthermore, the inside surfaces of all the rotary turret lenses were compromised. This required a bit more work and disassembly of the turret. Once opened, I found that a felt base was deteriorating. This required removal, painting the exposed base flat black, and cleanings the lenses.

One thing that struck me was what I would consider over-over engineering. Wow, seemed like a lot of design effort went into these. Sometimes perhaps unnecessarily so, but the result is a wonderfully solid, smooth machine. Though a Leica guy, I have a newfound appreciation for these Canons -I especially love the rotary finder.

At any rate, my eyes are weary, my fingers sore. Maybe I'll run a roll through it tomorrow.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

Great work Jeff!
I've only recently gotten addicted to these old cameras, I'm just amazed at how the amount of engineering that went into them. I'm always surprised that something more than 60 years old can be still working so well!
regards,
nathan
 
Oh thank goodness (I guess I should have asked BEFORE reassembling the top plate) now I'm set. (sounds similar but not as complicated as a FED)

Thanks for the response. great Blog
 
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