I persuaded a rare Rittreck Six SLR to work perfectly again for a friend recently. It's the precursor to the better known Norita SLRs manufactured by Musashino Kōki. A lovely camera capable of good results when it 's working. But the architecture of the mechanism is frankly, a bit silly. Instead of integrating the shutter cocking and film transport, the wind gear is on the advance lever side of the body under the top cover. The film counter which controls the frame spacing and engages the film transport, is on the opposite side of the body, also at the top. The counter mechanism connects to the wind lever via linkages which run down one side of the body (via the counter reset lever in the door), across the bottom of the body, and up the wind side—via a clutched film roller, and then another roller clutch under the wind lever.
Yes, it all works, when adjusted properly. But Musashino Kōki quality control was
not to JCII standard. The nearly new, barely used example I worked on had haphazard frame spacing due to incorrect adjustment of the various linkages and levers they rotate. At various points during repair, I had the shutter cocking, without any film advance—or film advancing, but no cocking. It's such a Goldilocks mechanism. Everything has to be just right or she won't go. You only have to look to Eg the way a Rolleiflex has film advance, spacing and cocking, all (with the exception of sensor rollers) integrated in one location at the right side of the body—to realise, how much more logical keeping these interdependent systems proximate, is.
The Rittreck's 80mm Rittron f/2 is a fine performer but as it left the factory focussed substantially past infinity. I calculated a 0.25mm shim was needed to push the optics out far enough to stop it at infinity. After hand making a suitable shim from a sheet of 0.25mm steel focus at all distances was verified correct. On arrival the shutter curtains were badly adjusted, too. Massive tapering across the gate at higher speeds due to the second curtain being drastically under tensioned. I adjusted this to moderate the slit increase until it was commensurate only with the curtain acceleration. The Noritas have a patchy reputation for reliability. If Norita quality control was anything like Musashino Kōki's, little wonder.
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A few other honourable mentions
Timing the shutter and aperture differential of a first model Contaflex Super to the setting wheel correctly is somewhat of a PITA. Particularly getting it all spot on with the meter correctly coupled and accurate, as well. You can drop the parts in almost any way—and some of the exposure combinations will be available—but not all of them. Any time I find one that's been worked on since Zeiss originally assembled it, I routinely assume the tooth mesh is incorrect. I'm yet to be mistaken. Other Contaflex models are generally not quite as annoying to re-assemble. However the silly way Zeiss hid the screws for the focus grip underneath its distance scale in the first two models deserves a mention.
Voigtländer's Bessamatic is a delightful and effective SLR with good lenses. Arguably the most ergonomic of all the lens shutter SLRs. But needing to pull most of the camera apart, just to reach the Synchro-Compur shutter for servicing, is onerous. Even a Contaflex is much much less involved.
The Minolta SRT101 is a superb, well made and generally reliable 35mm SLR. I have several examples and rate them highly. But those pulley strings that control the tell tale circle in the viewfinder for the meter. Yes, it works, but does not match the quality of the rest of the design and is a pain in the fundament to replace.
The Ace is one of the less well-known rangefinders made by Olympus (and the only one they ever produced with interchangeable lenses). Gorgeous viewfinder with parallax corrected framelines for its three focal lengths, and such a compact design. Horizontal rangefinder patch adjustment is achieved via a simple screw adjuster connected to the push rod from a cam behind the lens. Which...is located underneath the optic module. Necessitating the removal of the whole viewfinder/rangefinder assembly, every time you make a fine adjustment to the patch.
Of course, the module has just enough play in its mounting screws that it can alter its seat, fractionally, whenever it's removed and refitted. Good stuff.
(By the way, you'll never get the adjustment perfect—just get it as close as you can—then jink the whole module around in its screws, until it's spot on. Not ideal, but, after removing and refitting one 30 times or so—no exaggeration—it's the only way you'll ever get the patch bang on, and, yes, I'm fussy when it comes to patch calibration).
