Minolta Autocord

[Jack Conrad]

I've been working on this Autocord. It had a frozen shutter, locked up self timer and a completely jammed
shutter button, not to mention a stiff focus.

All that has been repaired. I was very impressed by the construction of this camera. Quite nice.

However, I just found that the rear lens group inner element had been badly scratched/gouged by someone. 😡 I may not have bothered spending all that time on the camera if I had thought to look since the front lens group looked so nice... argh!

Anyway, on the off chance, I thought I'd ask if anyone around here might have a rear lens group for one of these TLR's... that I might purchase? Pretty please? Anyone with a dead Autocord? Just that little old rear lens group?

During...😱

After...🙂

 

[popstar]

Impressive work Jack. I love my Autocord so really respect what you're trying to do here.

It may be too obvious, but have you tried emailing Karl Bryan? He's in Oregon and does a ton of Autocord CLAs. He may have a spare he could provide you. His new email address (as of earlier this year) is karl.kathy@frontier.com.

Good luck with the repairs!

 

[Jack Conrad]

Thanks Steve. I will email Karl.

 

[nikon_sam]

Jack...
Good luck on finding the parts needed to finish this project...hope it all works out for you...

 

[Jack Conrad]

I just received a very rapid and cordial email response from Karl, the camera repair technician, if anyone is interested. It says,

"Hi Jack, you will need both lens groups because they are matched at the factory and lens cells/groups are not interchangeable. My experience in replacing only a rear lens group has been the focal length of the new lens (old front group and new rear group) increases 83-87mm, typically way beyond what the focus rack can operate to. You also need to make sure that the cell spacing (distance front and rear groups are spaced within the shutter is adequate for sharp focus. This type of work requires a good collimator.
Best recommendation is to locate a parts camera.

regards, Carl."

I guess I'm sort of the mind of Miroslav Tichý, who said,
"First of all, you have to have a bad camera." He also says in the film about his life, "If you want to be famous, you must do something more badly than anybody in the entire world." 🙂

Fortunately, this particular Autocord isn't actually mine. It was basically a broken junker that I volunteered to check out and fix if I could, as much for the practice and experience as anything, but after quite a few hours of frustrations and successes left me feeling rather emotionally attached.

I have till Saturday to determine what I'm gonna do.
Return it with condolences or go all Dr. Frankenstein and buy it and attempt to bring ze Autocord back to life again. Bwahahahahahaha! 😀

 

[Jack Conrad]

I'm pretty sure I could collimate the lens to be as sharp as this... 😱

 

[RichyD]

Hi Jack
I have an Autocord where the shutter jammed and was going to sell it for parts or repair. Trouble is I'm in UK and postage likely to be quite expensive. The lens is fine and took sharp pics. Maybe I could just send the lens. Email me direct and I'll work out a price and postage options if you are interested.