From bad to worse: Canon IIIA shutter curtain leaky as a basket

vicmortelmans

vicmortelmans

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Hi,

Once I was a happy Zorki 1 shooter. Then I thought: I should have a good portrait lens, so I obtained a beautiful Canon Serenar 85 f/2. But it didn't fit on my Zorki, because of the different rangefinder cam. Then I thought: It is time to get a new M39 body with some more build quality than the Zorki, but not too expensive, so I bought a $195 Canon IIIA (from Pacific Rim).

The description mentioned "SHUTTER CURTAIN IS DRY, AND HAS A WRINKLE AND A POSSIBLE PATCH (OR SOMETHING DRIED ON THE CURTAIN)", and this should have alarmed me, but whatever, the curtain is as leaky as a basket.

I made a test roll to check all speeds and they seem OK (as far as I can judge through the curtain light leaks), also the cosmetics are very nice, so I'd like to have this camera operational, but it will need a new curtain (or very drastic patching).

Any experience in who can do this (preferably somewhere in Europe?) and what it'll cost?

Groeten,
Vic
 
This was posted on a pnet thread about holes in an M3 curtain:

Well to throw in my two cents... The fact that there isn't a mirror in the way of the rubberized cloth or silk curtain material with many rangefinder cameras, allows for a pin hole to be possibly cooked through the curtain by the sun if the lens is at infinity and no lens cap was on at that unfortunate time. (It seems that the planets would have to align for this to happen, but I saw it often in my camera repair shop.

A simple and cheap fix if you can locate the pin hole & isn't really hazardous to the shutter because the alternative is a complete tear down anyway. Here it is;

Get a hole punch and find a piece of discarded curtain material maybe at a local repair shop and punch a patch out. Get some rubberized contact cement and apply it to the little home made patch. Next press the patch to the affected area (On the lens mount side) carefully pinching it tightly with your fingers. One finger in the film plane area where you load film and the other finger in the "mouth" of the lens mount. Don't smear the cement or be sloppy, make it nice and almost undetectable. A rebalancing of the curtain travel times were in order but you can get by with out it. The CTT's are relatively low velocity by today's standards. I.e. Leica M's slow 16ms vs. an R9 at the lightening speed of 2ms.

Good luck and look closely at both curtains with a high intensity lamp.

Tape isn't a proper fix due to the possibility of peeling off in to the camera. Not good, your technician will curse your name for hours as he tracks down all remnants of that sticky adhesive. Gus
Click to expand...

Here's the thread, if you're wondering.
 
The outlined process might work OK on an M3, but the Canon IIIA does not have a swing-open film door in the back, so there is no way to clamp the patch with your fingers. I suppose that one could shove a piece of stiff cardboard or something into the film gate area that you could press firmly against the curatin when applying the patch.

Worth a try at least, considering the alternative is shutter replacement, as stated earlier
 
To find a European Repairman...

To find a European Repairman...

for Canon RF's in Western Europe would also be of great interest for me!
Got a nice IV SB.....speeds are OK, lens is great but the curtains are a very holey matter. So please get the answers coming.
Best Rgegards Des
 
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