New Super Ikonta 531/2 -- a few questions

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Dave
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Greetings all,

I have to preface this by saying I may have the best wife anywhere. Not only does she tolerate my camera-collecting, but check this out: She was at an antiques shop last week when she spied an old camera. She proactively rang me at the office and, through 20 minutes of question-and-answer (hey, we lack camera-phones, ironically) I determined she was looking at a Super Ikonta 531/2. It was priced USD 80 and by her account, in very good condition. Before I could figure out a story to spin on why I should have it, she then proposed, unprompted, that she buy it for me. I count myself very lucky indeed!

Coming home, I found that the camera was in fine nick, with bellows supple, nary a Zeiss bump, almost no brassing, only moderately yellowed Albada finder, and the rangefinder accurate, at least by comparing the resulting dialed-in distance on the lens to that of a modern SLR lens pointed at the same target.

Right, to the questions. The camera's only major downside is considerable haze (I hope not fungus) in the lens. I haven't had a chance to run a test roll through (been working long hours -- argh!), but of course I will do first, and if the images are fine despite the haze, I shan't futz with it. But if it comes to a need to clean the interior surfaces, has anyone documented the steps to disassemble the Tessar 105/3.8 on one of these? I found posts here and here re: the 532/16 or Super Ikonta B, on which I could probably base my efforts if I had to, but seemingly no similar write-up re: the 531/2. (Maybe it's my Googling skills.)

And finally: the release button pops up the viewfinder, but does not cause the baseboard (main camera door) to open. I have to pull on the camera foot to pull the door open, which surely is wrong and in the long run will probably end up with the foot coming off in my hand one day. Has anyone any experience in adjusting the baseboard latch for a problem such as this? I'm hesitant to go in and start slightly bending latches and catches willy-nilly in an attempt to fix this.

Thanks for any advice.
--Dave
 
Anyone? Come on chaps, 100+ views and no tips on what to expect when I dig into this Tessar? 🙂 And I will indeed have to do it. Test roll shows (such as below) that the haze does quite affect image quality. Seems like I've got a light-leak too; I've little idea what would be doing that unless simple red-window mismanagement, as everything looks tight.
--Dave

 
Bellows pinhole maybe? Have you tried going to the darkroom and shining a torch inside the opened camera? if there are pinholes, you will locate the leaks. It may be that some foam or seal in the inside of the camera, or under the top cover, has deteriorated. Hard to say what you can expect from this side of the planet ;-)

There are three tiny screws in the focussing ring. You need to loose them (better not to remove them completely, since they are tiny they may get lost) and then you have access to the front groups. Make sure to mark the infinity stop and the point where the thread is "free" from the shutter mount, in order to remount the lenses in the same exact position.

Focus recollimation is a bit tricky on this camera.

About the door opening issue, maybe the latch is a bit bent or something like that...
 
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Thanks and yes I do need to recheck for pinholes with the torch test. I did that before and found no problem, but maybe I missed one. By the way, finally, pics below. First the instrument overall (quick snap, not glamour shot); in great condition and this is why I want to get it working again. Second, attempting to show what's in this lens. The more I look at it, the more I think maybe fungus. I'm not a great expert in what fungus can look like besides the spidery pattern. Do chime in if anyone is more sure.
--Dave



 
I've got a recently acquired 530/2 and also have a similar light leak... which I have yet to isolate.
I've got the back all taped up for the next test roll and am crossing my fingers that it'll do the trick.

0f8c7aec.jpg
 
Thanks Ilya. I hope to get into it this weekend. What I still can't figure out is whether I'm compelled to remove the rangefinder arm and split prisms etc., if I'm trying to remove only the front element. I guess I'll find out when I get in there. Obviously I'd like to leave in place the RF and not have to disassemble, reassemble, and recalibrate all it fiddly bits, if I can possibly to avoid it. It appears that much of the Scheiß is on the back of the front element, so I'm cautiously optimistic that I might not have to go in further than that.
--Dave

IlyaB said:
The Moskva-5 procedure seems to be closer to what is required :

http://www3.telus.net/public/rpnchbck/Moskva5.html


Ilya
Click to expand...
 
On the Moskva you can remove the front element by simple taking off the retaining ring. No need to mess with the rangefinder arm.

To check for light leaks in the bellows, I use a small ceramic light socket with a low wattage bulb connected to a simple lamp cord. Plug it in, place the camera with its back open over the bulb, and turn out the lights. Any pin-holes in the bellows will be obvious.

I patch leaks in the bellows with a mixture of water based wood glue and lamp black.
 
Hi all: Thanks for all encouragement. This weekend I finally got inside the lens, my first time working on anything this complex. I had the front element off, and found some haze on the back of that. Then a great deal of schmutz was on the (now-exposed) front of the middle element. That came off readily, no futzing with the RF. The rear doublet, easily unscrewable, had a bit of cloudiness. With the rear doublet off and the shutter held open on 'B' by a cable release (which requires that the bellows be extended), I cleaned the back of the middle element from the back of the camera with long-stick cotton swabs. Yes, that's cheating, but I didn't want to disassemble the shutter to reach that element the proper way from the front. So all surfaces are good; there are a lot of old cleaning marks that can't be helped, but the Tessar is now far clearer than it had been. Everything went back together right, I think (still need to test).

I found the elusive pinhole in the bellows; it's in the top-left corner (as viewed from back of camera) under a strut, so I missed it last time. My pics (as at post 2 above) show white flare at the top-right, so I'd expect the pinhole to be at bottom-left, but top-left might be plausible; with the chromed strut right outside the pinhole, it could be reflecting light in at practically any angle. Off to the art store for black fabric paint or similar to fix that before I can do the next test roll.

--Dave
 
Yatta!!

Yatta!!

New test roll after lens cleaning and bellows-painting seems to indicate all is well. (Below, the white crescent artifact in the tree is due to a crimp or kink on the negative in that location, due to my mishandling in the processing. ARGHH! say I to that, but I don't mind; the light leak is gone!) I am surely going to love this camera; it runs rings round my old Voigtlander Bessa RF usability-wise.
--Dave

 
Looks just great.

I have a Ikonta 520/16 with a Tessar lens which has some haze in the inner lens modules where I cannot get into. I'll get it serviced by a professional one of these days.
 
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