Leotax Elite

[xayraa33]

I would like to remove the top cover on my Elite to clean the viewfinder. There are good instructions on the web for an earlier similar model. The difference with the Elite is the lever winder. I'm wondering about any complications that introduces for getting the top off and back on.

Everything else looks like straight forward top removal like a Leica IIIc or early IIIf , the lever wind lever is the hiccup that is different.

You might be able to glean some idea on the wind lever removal and installation from Daitosan, despite his video is in Japanese... at around 50:50 of the video he does put the wind lever back on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLbp3GQ1Vgo

 

[mconnealy]

Everything else looks like straight forward top removal like a Leica IIIc or early IIIf , the lever wind lever is the hiccup that is different.

You might be able to glean some idea on the wind lever removal and installation from Daitosan, despite his video is in Japanese... at around 50:50 of the video he does put the wind lever back on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLbp3GQ1Vgo

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Many thanks; I'll watch the whole thing. The thing I worry about with the lever advance is having the return spring come unwound as they can be tricky to get wound back correctly.

 

[mconnealy]

No direct experience, but it looks like you should be able to simply unscrew the center screw and lift the assembly off. Note the order of components when you remove it. There's a chance the screw may be left-hand thread, so don't apply too much force; if you look at the photos of these cameras above, every single one has a scar on that screw from the tool slipping out under pressure, which makes me think people are trying to turn it the wrong way.

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Yep, mine has that scar. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[xayraa33]

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Many thanks; I'll watch the whole thing. The thing I worry about with the lever advance is having the return spring come unwound as they can be tricky to get wound back correctly.

Yes, I know what you mean...having worked on a Zorki 4K with its lever wind is no picnic as compared to the knob wind Zorki 4....even with that hole to pin the coil spring so it does not unwind on that 4K it still was hard to put together correctly at re-assembly time .

 

[mconnealy]

Yes, I know what you mean...having worked on a Zorki 4K with its lever wind is no picnic as compared to the knob wind Zorki 4....even with that hole to pin the coil spring so it does not unwind on that 4K it still was hard to put together correctly at re-assembly time .

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Yep. The Zorki 4K was exactly what I had in mind regarding the return spring for the lever winder.

The Daito Camera video referenced above seems to show that the Leotax does not present the challenge posed by the Zorki 4K if I'm seeing it right. However, it is a little disconcerting at the very end when he gets confused about the reassembly of the rewind crank and leaves that undone. It would likely be helpful to understand Japanese.

 

[xayraa33]

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Yep. The Zorki 4K was exactly what I had in mind regarding the return spring for the lever winder.

The Daito Camera video referenced above seems to show that the Leotax does not present the challenge posed by the Zorki 4K if I'm seeing it right. However, it is a little disconcerting at the very end when he gets confused about the reassembly of the rewind crank and leaves that undone. It would likely be helpful to understand Japanese.

It would be helpful if some of our Japanese speaking RFF members can translate the parts of the video going by the time stamp selection section for to help you understand what he is saying, I don't know off hand which of our RFF members are fluent in Japanese , maybe others reading this thread do know RFF members who are fluent in Japanese?

If it is not as fiddly as the Zorki 4K for the wind lever removal and it looks like it is less problematic on the Leotax Elite than for the Zorki 4K just by observing that Daito camera video, then that is a good thing.

The Canon L2 RF camera also looks similar in its clean lever wind engineering vs that Zorki 4K coiled spring complication.

http://tunnel13.com/blog/1957-canon-l2-top-plate-removal/