Shafovaloff1
Well-known
Since I am almost always trying to figure out how something works so I can fix something I try to imagine how it was designed and manufactured. So, I remembered I had copied some information from Rick Oleson on how the ribbons are affixed to the clutches of the Contax II so there is little, if any difference between the acceleration of the two curtains. That explains my observation that the Contax I and II at least have the parallel sides on the images seen on the CTR. Also, I am no longer worried so much about the thickness of the ribbons (by my calculation 0.12 mm on the Contax I) as I like the idea that the two curtains are matched to move together as part of the operational design. In his design of the SLR, Rectaflex, Corsi provided for matched acceleration of the curtains by making the take-up spool for the first curtain and the end ribbon spool take-ups for the second curtain as spirals to account for the thickness of the ribbon and the curtain material. I am not so familiar with Leica design but did not see such a thing in their early design in what I have done replacing the curtains in the Barnack type copies, Nicca and Leotax. LIke touching up a paint job the more I look the more I see I miss. However, at some point I was concerned with the depth of the take-up end spools on the Contax I and realized that there was an acceleration possible from the winding up of the spools at either end. Also, the piece of leather on the Contax I running the length of the spool seemed to me to be there to aid any lost acceleration during the end of shutter curtain movement. That leather is beveled but how or why that adjustment is made I still would like to know, ok a shutter brake or damper function too. However I remember seeing that the Contax IIa had a curtain bounce problem that had a design fix.
I was wondering about cleaning the prism on the Contax I until going through some posts I saw that Leitz silvered prism ends to reflect but Zeiss relied on physics...so cleaning the end of the prism resulted in a nicer reflection! Where was I to get that information but here, so thanks again for your help and patience.
Tom Shafovaloff
I was wondering about cleaning the prism on the Contax I until going through some posts I saw that Leitz silvered prism ends to reflect but Zeiss relied on physics...so cleaning the end of the prism resulted in a nicer reflection! Where was I to get that information but here, so thanks again for your help and patience.
Tom Shafovaloff
