Please help bring my Lynx 1000 back to life

[Old Fashioned]

Tonight i could barely sleep, as my very first RF camera arrived this morning. Unpacking the parcel i found a zexy leather case and inside my precious lynx1000. But as expected, its not flawless.

I've read every lynx thread here and yashica guy's website, but im still a newbie to this ordeal. So as far as i've learned and inspected this beautiful piece of enginering, this is what i know:

-theoretically it can take photos, it fires at all speeds
-it looks mediumly well preserved
-the exposure meter seems to respond (not sure weather is accurate or not)

Problems:

-the rangefinder works very poorly - and by that i mean you can barely see the highlighted square in the midlle. Its pretty dim and reddish in colour (the little squre). But if i cover the viewfinder, the rangefinder squre becomes as easyliy visible as the frame lines... Focusing apears to be working, if you can make out the very dim overlay. Some of the problem i think goes to inapt diy repairs or something, as the front of the rangefinder glass looks tinkered with or something happened to it - check pics.

-there is no exposure meter/line inside the viewfinder, just a black rectangle protruding from the top

-focusing feels pretty tight, i dont know what the resistance should feel like? its definatelly not gliding like in my friends leica, but its not THAT much worse..

-the shutter speed - aperture coupling doesnt seem to be working as described.. when i move the shutter ring (it too is pretty tight) the aperture ring does nove with it, but it just seems to be stuck so tight that it moves from one end to the other (1.8-22), as it hits the end the shutter dial can keep going, but as turn the in the opposite direction the aperture ring starts turning immediately until again it hits the other end. The aperture ring can be moved indipendantly pretty smoothly tho.

-somethings ratling inside, and the ratchet got stuck a couple of times, but wigling it got it unstuck..


So what should i do now? Does it sound bad? Should i try to fire a roll to see if its actually making photos? Should i try to follow yashica guys instructions, removing the to plate etc, to see if something could be easily fixable (like xwhatsit did)? I would also like to clean it a bit and lube everything up, id love to have a smooth operator that i can use daily.

I thank you in advance for your time!

Best regards,
Alexander

 

[sig]

To remove the top and clean the viewfinder/rangefinder is quite easy. I have done this (after reading the yashica guy), and if I can do it most people can do it. Then you can find the rattling part too.

Make sure the shutter and aperture works before you put in film (by opening the back and looking through the lens, seems like you have done this but just in case)

Seems like the window inside the frosted glass is a bit out of position, when opening you can probably fix that too (however I could be wrong on this one)

All in all it does not sound to bad, a bit of usage might fix the shutter/aperture ring connection. Check the light meter against your digital camera, adjust with iso settings if it is off, or just use sunny 16.

I would also clean the lens, however many people consider that to be dangerous, as in it will destroy the lens.

However I am no expert, so getting an other opinion can be smart.....

 

[xwhatsit]

Hey,

The aperture/shutter coupling sounds correct. The 1000 is not like the 5000 (14 too?) and most of the Minister series in that they are mechanically coupled; the 1000 is designed so the aperture will move together with the shutter ring sort of by friction. If you get a hold of the Lynx 1000 manual (go here: http://www.butkus.org/chinon/yashica/yashica_lynx_1000/yashica_lynx-1000.htm ), it tells you that you should be careful when moving the shutter ring quickly, as the aperture ring might get left behind.

Easiest way to do it is to stick your fingers over both the shutter and aperture rings and move them together.

My rangefinder patch is a little dim too. Probably the half-silvered beam splitter in the rangefinder is losing its reflectivity. Cleaning the insides of the rangefinder/viewfinder mirrors and glass improved things markedly; don't touch the beamsplitter though! Apparently the mirroring rubs off very easily.

The outside of the rangefinder window looks like some kind of nasty stuff got onto the frosted window, removing part of the frosting? I don't know if it'll have an effect on the rangefinder, maybe the extra ambient light inside may cause trouble? Don't know. You could always test this by sticking a piece of masking tape over the top of the rangefinder window with a cutout the `correct' size and place.

My rangefinder had quite a few bits of loose glass/mirrors that had come unglued. Seems they used poor glue on the 1000. The mirror that reflects light past the meter needle and into the viewfinder in particular had come unstuck and gone walking through my advance lever assembly. It broke and stuck it up. Perhaps the same thing has happened to you?

I think you will have to pull the top off. Don't worry, it's not as hard as it seems!

 

[sig]

Sorry did not now that there was a coupling between the aperture/shutter ring. Thanks for making that clear (it is not anything wrong, it is a feature)

And yes take the top off, it is not hard, it is fun. Also have a look in http://mattdentonphoto.com/cameras/electro_inside/index.html (this is an electro) and his other pages

 

[Old Fashioned]

Hey guys, thanks for the encouragement! I tried putting in a roll of film, and as i shot my 3rd photo, the darn advance lever got stuck again. I checked them aperture, and as i turned the ring, the aperture was opening and closing manually.. not too sure if i broke something. Than i wigled it a bit and the aperture jumped shut, but the lever is stil stuck.. so i guess its time to pop the hood. Luckyly my neighbour is an electric guy, he should have most of the tools needed.

One question tho, what do i use the lighter fluid for? Cleaning grease, mold, everything?

 

[xwhatsit]

Hmm! That's interesting! So you could see the aperture opening and closing when you looked through the front of the lens? Sounds like the shutter got stuck open then!

There are two little `irises'. The one closest to the film is the aperture, you can't normally see that though. The one closest to the front of the camera is the shutter, which will only open all the way and close all the way, and it hides the aperture iris from view (unless you're looking through the back of the camera). The shutter doesn't respond to the aperture ring being moved so if you could see an iris opening and closing then the shutter must've been stuck open.

Lighter fluid is good on a lot of things, but what it's really useful for is cleaning sticky shutter and aperture blades. Use only a very little at a time.

 

[FallisPhoto]

Sounds like someone has cleaned the semisilvered mirror, and they shoudn't have done that. Yashica uses aluminum vapor to silver their semisilvered mirrors and when it oxidizes, it will stick to pretty much anything better than it will to that mirror. You can't touch it and even a puff of air can knock it off. You certainly can't clean it, but a lot of people try. There are a variety of things you can do about this;

1. Replace the mirror. Some of the old Polaroid cameras with rangefinders are cheap and their semisilvered mirrors are big enough that you can cut them up and use them in other cameras. They are also made without that damned aluminum vapor, so you can handle them (carefully) without damage.
2. Replace the silvering. This is an experimental idea I thought of a while back and I'm not sure how well it will work because I haven't gotten around to trying it yet. They make this film for car windows though, that is reflective and transmits 50% of the light... I can't see why it wouldn't work.
3. Take a sharpie marker and blacken a small space in the camera's front viewfinder window that is the same size and shape as the rangefinder patch, right in the middle of the window. That blocks the light from entering that part of the viewfinder and so it doesn't compete with the light coming from the remains of the semisilvered mirror. You get, in effect, a split image rangefinder instead of a co-incident one though.

As for the rest of the problems, it sounds like a CLA would take care of them.