Rolleiflex 3.5 MX-EVS reassembly project...

[Joakim Målare]

Hi there,

My Rolleiflex is in a million pieces 🙂. It started with a spotty lens element, but my curiosity made me take it apart completely, "to see how it works". I made sure I had figured out what a mechanism does and how, before removing it. And of course documenting with pictures along the way. Everything has been cleaned, so it's time to put it back together.

A couple of questions regarding alignment follows. See picture.

This is of course an early stage where the focus cams and curves have been lubricated, but I'm thinking about how to take measurements for focus alignment later on, when the lens panel has been mounted. I realise that there are shims between the cams and the panel for making the planes parallell.

Would it suffice to measure as I have pointed out with the arrows? Between the cam to panel mounting points and the rear edge of the body? It seems like the distance from body edge to film plane is the same for all four corners, at the back. So would it be necessary to measure through the lens openings in the body, between the lens panel and the film gate?

The reason I'm asking is that I don't have a set of calipers that can be put through the holes...

Also, there is one part I can't see the use for, the one with a question mark in the picture. It seems to almost touch the swinging arm that reloads the shutter when you turn the crank, but for what reason?

Any advice appreciated!

/ Joakim

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

Hi there,

My Rolleiflex is in a million pieces 🙂. It started with a spotty lens element, but my curiosity made me take it apart completely, "to see how it works". I made sure I had figured out what a mechanism does and how, before removing it. And of course documenting with pictures along the way. Everything has been cleaned, so it's time to put it back together.

A couple of questions regarding alignment follows. See picture.

This is of course an early stage where the focus cams and curves have been lubricated, but I'm thinking about how to take measurements for focus alignment later on, when the lens panel has been mounted. I realise that there are shims between the cams and the panel for making the planes parallell.

Would it suffice to measure as I have pointed out with the arrows? Between the cam to panel mounting points and the rear edge of the body? It seems like the distance from body edge to film plane is the same for all four corners, at the back. So would it be necessary to measure through the lens openings in the body, between the lens panel and the film gate?

The reason I'm asking is that I don't have a set of calipers that can be put through the holes...

Also, there is one part I can't see the use for, the one with a question mark in the picture. It seems to almost touch the swinging arm that reloads the shutter when you turn the crank, but for what reason?

Any advice appreciated!

/ Joakim

Hi,
I've just done a similar process with a Rolleicord and am in the middle of sorting the alignment of a Tele.

The relationship that's critical is that of the film rails to the lens board. They need to be parallel to within .05 millimetre across the corners. In the Rollei Report, former Rollei technician Prochnow recommends using a dial or depth gauge across the board corners to ensure the corners are within tolerance.

Accurate measurements can then be taken of the distance from the film rails to the lens board, which may then be shimmed as necessary until the parallelism is within tolerance. Note that the adjusting shims are placed in between the carriage (where you've arrow ends on the right) and the lens carrier or board. You need to measure past your arrow to the actual lens carrier (which sits ON the shims, of course) or off the mount of the taking lens itself. I used a sheet of flat glass on the lens mount with which to set the level of the lens with the Rolleicord, not ideal but although fiddly it enabled the necessary measurement to be made. I'll try to update my own account of this process tomorrow, it should clarify the above.
Regards
Brett

 

[Joakim Målare]

Thanks for the info, Brett!

0,05 mm, that is the largest precision possible with my analog caliper - phew! I understand your method using the sheet of glass. I don't have a depth gauge, so I'll see if I can get hold of a piece of aluminium or something of perfectly even thickness that I can put on the film rails. That would allow me to take measurements fairly easily against the lens board, when that is mounted. I'll try the glass method over the lens barrel if it turns out not to be adequate already. Looking forward to seeing some pictures on this from you anyway.

I'm glad it doesn't take a lot of disassembling to adjust focus once the camera is back in it's original state (or better, preferably). My wife suggested I could work some more on the camera so that I can use it again. When I told her it might be finished by spring, she said "Whaaat!? Are you serious? You even sent it away for repair - TO ENGLAND!" which I did, prior to this disassembly.

... Well, at least I'm having fun ;-)

Kind regards,
Joakim

 

[Dan Daniel]

The part that you point to with the question mark is the travel adjustment for the shutter cocking mechanism. By loosening the center screw and rotating that cam, you either increase or decrease the travel.

On re-assembly, be certain to test both slow and fast speeds, especially 1/500. It needs the most motion. All other speeds can cock fine while 1/500 won't cock. Also be certain to check with the lens board at both inifinity and at maximum close focus travel, as this affects the cocking action.

This adjustment happens after the wind mechanism is fully reassembled. You access the cam with the focus at infinity, I believe- a hole in the wind mechanism base plate. I can't tell you which way to turn the cam, but a scratch mark before starting and experimenting should make it clear. IF any adjustment is even needed- if you get cocking at 1/500 at near and far focus without a feeling of binding or compression at the far limit of its motion, probably best to not worry. If adjustments are needed, small rotations of the cam are best- go too far and then back off.

By the way, 0.05mm is .002 inch for the metrically challenged. Well within tolerance for a test dial meter or whatever it is called.

And also, your left arrows are NOT pointing to the film rails. The measurement surfaces are the silver strips on the sides of the film frame opening. Don't use the back edge of the body that your arrow points to as a reference point. Even paint thickness and variation is enough to throw you out of spec.

 

[hanskerensky]

Just to add some original F&H information. this photo shows on the left side the set-up as described in the Rolleiflex 3,5F service manual for veryfying the parallelity from the frontlens mount to the corners of the filmgate. As you would need some special calibers made by Rollei not very handy of course !

 

[Dan Daniel]

Just to add some original F&H information. this photo shows on the left side the set-up as described in the Rolleiflex 3,5F service manual for veryfying the parallelity from the frontlens mount to the corners of the filmgate. As you would need some special calibers made by Rollei not very handy of course !

Interesting! Similar to the setup I've made using a piece of marble tile and some metal brackets to hold the dial caliper stable. It appears that Rollei is using the lens mounting tube as their reference point. My setup relies on the front surface of the lens assembly, so looks like my guess is pretty close.

Any more of those great illustrations?

In case you haven't seen this set, from about 1952-4?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/89712270@N05/8161038407/in/set-72157631943218063/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/89712270@N05/sets/72157631943218063/

 

[hanskerensky]

Dan, i have seen that set before. No doubt those photos were part of the Rollei archives as Claus Prochnow used some of them in his "Rollei Report" series of books.

And indeed they use the thread of the frontlens mount as reference point. Included some images of the base for the calibers and the calibers for 3,5 and 2,8 lens mounts :

 

[Joakim Målare]

I apologise for not paying attention to the excellent replies I've been given, many thanks to all of you. I also realise that I am nowhere near as scientific as many of you, but hopefully I have taken enough care to have a fairly good working camera 🙄.

Anyway, the camera is back in one piece! It seems to be working properly, including the shutter cocking at 1/500, all distances! I scribed that part and didn't change it, since I didn't know what it was at the time (and read your answers just now). Just getting all the things back in the proper place and setting focus at least half decent was quite an achievement for me. First time is always the hardest.

I even replaced all the leather with hand cut pieces from a sheet I bought from Micro-Tools. It was a rather lenghty process getting all the shapes right, so I'm thinking about posting a PDF for others about to do the same, with templates at 1:1 that is. If there is any interest?

Thanks for the info everyone! It's time to put this one to the test 😀

/ Joakim

Ps. Somewhere around 3/4 into reassembly I seriously started looking at field cameras. They seem so simple without a million freakin' pieces that you can screw up! 😎