SandyG
Member
While trying to fix a Black Body Hi-Matic E with a bad rear lens, I got a donor camera thinking the lenses were all the same. Nope, one had a take apart style for the rear lens assembly the other was like a one piece version. So rather than experiment to see if it would work, I decided to try to fix the bad wiring in the silver donor camera.
The camera shutter control and related all seemed to work OK, but the 'Electo-Control' bulb didn't like to show battery, under/over exposure. So cracked it open and checked the mini-light bulb and it's good. My old Tripplett VOM has a 10 ohm range that has enough voltage to light the bulb when checking, and it did. It also has the sharpest points on the test leads so worked like a champ.
On to the bottom of the camera. No it gets a bit ugly, yes, corrosion. And what looks like a disconnected wire, and a bit of the green hard goo.
Got to the garage, and cleaned with a small brush and got the green layer off, but no way it will solder. I tried some old school rosin added to help, nope. Got the razor knife and started carefully scraping, and finally got it clean enough to solder but seems the small black wire was so damaged it was like no metal left as a conductor inside. Made a small jumper and saw another even smaller micro-wire disconnected from the ground. I hit that up too. But I think one more might be off and can't get to it without pulling the lens assembly 🙁
The camera had minimal signs of corrosion, but a little seems to go a long way with these, and I think the Mercury batteries do a special number on the solder and related connections vs. alkaline. The crust was a worthy foe.
Just some pics, camera works but no light, likely use it for spare parts on the Black one as I think the film door is the same and in nicer shape, stuff like that.
The camera shutter control and related all seemed to work OK, but the 'Electo-Control' bulb didn't like to show battery, under/over exposure. So cracked it open and checked the mini-light bulb and it's good. My old Tripplett VOM has a 10 ohm range that has enough voltage to light the bulb when checking, and it did. It also has the sharpest points on the test leads so worked like a champ.
On to the bottom of the camera. No it gets a bit ugly, yes, corrosion. And what looks like a disconnected wire, and a bit of the green hard goo.
Got to the garage, and cleaned with a small brush and got the green layer off, but no way it will solder. I tried some old school rosin added to help, nope. Got the razor knife and started carefully scraping, and finally got it clean enough to solder but seems the small black wire was so damaged it was like no metal left as a conductor inside. Made a small jumper and saw another even smaller micro-wire disconnected from the ground. I hit that up too. But I think one more might be off and can't get to it without pulling the lens assembly 🙁
The camera had minimal signs of corrosion, but a little seems to go a long way with these, and I think the Mercury batteries do a special number on the solder and related connections vs. alkaline. The crust was a worthy foe.
Just some pics, camera works but no light, likely use it for spare parts on the Black one as I think the film door is the same and in nicer shape, stuff like that.
