Repairing selenium meter in Contax IIIa?

S

squirrel$$$bandit

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A fellow RFF'er had some Contax lenses I wanted, but he was only selling as part of a set, which includes a functional IIIa with broken meter. I was thinking I might just sell the camera, but perhaps I should try fixing the meter and having Eddy CLA the shutter, and having both a IIa and IIIa in my small collection.

Searches of this forum turn up references to this repair being "easy," but nobody provides a tutorial. I'm curious, have any of you replaced the selenium element in this camera? Is it difficult? Can the parts be accessed without disassmbling the entire camera? Forgive me if this is a much-discussed topic, but I can't seem to find any answers...FWIW, I am fairly experienced with electronics, soldering, and the like.
 
I'm sorry I don't know how to open the Contax IIIa light meter at all, but I can tell you there is a company that offers custom cut selenium cells.
I've seen them linked on this forum a few times, can't remember the link out of the top of my head.

In theory the system is not difficult to understand, the cell is connected with two electrodes to the meter, either soldered on or just clamped together and replacing it should not be too hard.

You've probably already found my topic on my attempted Metraphot repair. If you can find a solar-cell that fits and a variable transistor you can fix it without a new selenium cell.

Good luck
 
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