renguney
Member
Hello, I am making this post for archiving how you would clean and relubricate your viewfinder's parallax/cold shoe mount if you ever get a Russar kit.
If you own a Russar kit and never opened anything apart since you got it... It must be the time to give it a proper clean by now... Please I beg you. It's disgusting inside, believe me.
I have another post about how to disassembly a Russar lens exluding the optical part - further reading here; Russar 20mm F5.6 Serial 3075 - A CLA post about focusing helicoid
Now, as far as I can tell, there is a little bit of a mess about Russar variants in general, you have the early serial ones, 3 digit ones and the 4 digit early ones (mine is a 4 digit early chrome version)
And then the later ones which came with both chrome (not sure) and then black which you can indicline the production date by looking at the first two digits on the serial so for an instance if you have a Black Russar lens with a serial like;
92xxxx
87xxxx
89xxxx
that means a lens produces in 1992, 1987, 1989 and etc.
The lenses, they have different variants, They used a non parallax plastic KMZ viewfinders sometimes, and sometimes they had this big bulky one. But don't get confused if yours look not exactly like the one I have here since even this one has couple of variants...
Well I'm not that rich to get all of the variants but I have even seen a Prototype Russar which didnt had a interchangeable aperture dial (fixed at f10) or a focus helical. (the owner told me he sold it about 2022-2023 for about 1000 usd!)
It was called a Russar 25IM
But enough chitchatting about Russar (never enough but our post is about the viewfinder now.)
Now, your viewfinder should look like this underneath. can vary a little bit but you can do CLA any variant similar with this method
BEWARE -
take pictures at every step, if you find any parts when you take off a part, take more macro detailed pictures or draw small illustrations about how they are oritented (which way etc.)
you should be good.
After taking our first screw
we should see the disgusting old soviet gunk now.
Our first screw just came off, it is extremely distinguishable since it's our only screw with a dome like tip
The way this assembly works is that it is built like a sled, so it moved at an angle which would change the angle of our optical block, that way we can compensate for the parallax. I made some small tests with my Sony A7SII by looking both at the Russar VF and comparing it with the screen image it is actually pretty decent if you wanna take 0.5meter focused pictures.
Yet, compared to other viewfinders it is extremely big.
You will notice two little pressure plates hidden inside two identical hollow compartmens inside the sled once taken apart. they are extremely hard to see for their orientation since they are covered in grimy gunk. Use some wood toothpicks or something to take off the gunk carefully (careful now to now lose them, they do not have any tension though)
take note how they are oriented now. You should be good. They are pressure plates to give a little bit tension for the moving parallax sled.
The upper side of the sled which is connected to the main optical body with three screws. Also covered in gunked up grease. I first cleaned the gunks in big chunks with some toothpicks. Then I simply unscrewed three screws to further disasembly. To my suprise there is nothing more to diassemble here (more on that later) It's literally 3 threaded holes over this part and nothing else.
Some hot soapy water and a hoard of qtips made a good job. Dont rush to your washroom. Get your hot soapy water into a canister and use a toothbrush to clean the parts inside the water on your desk.
I am embaressed to say in my earlier days learning repair I have managed to lost some parts into my drainage pipe... Happily they were not rare equipment so I was not too sad.
hmmm.... 41... Batch 41 parts so different batches would not be assembled back together perhaps. Such a nice way to produce parts soviet people. Who knows... We would never learn.
But even if the soviets made the efford to engrave fricking letters over some parts, they are pretty much not mixable over different batches I am pretty sure.
Some macro shot showing our pressure plates. They are clean now.
I am relubricating the sled parts now. Using Polar bear Camera ''soft'' helical grease. It is what I have and I wont mind. The quality of these greases are not bad. they are usable between -40c and +120c which is fine, you would die out of this range of weather conditions. Don't get grumpy about this and that...
If you listened my recommendations until now, you should have be good even if you had a different variant and even if it was different than this. Good for you if you have taken pictures
Now use it to reassemble the system in reverse order. Even not taking pictures this CLA being hard from 1 to 10 is I think rated 1... Easiest job ever. the most time consuming part is to get rid of the old gunked up greases... which is a boring 10 minutes.
Here you can see it's all finished. looking nice and shiny. Use some qtips dropped with lens cleaning liquid and take your time cleaning the optical parts which is exposed to outside on the front and the rear. If you have found a really disgusting copy (I'm not blaming you)
I suggest you to dampen some cloth with vinegar and wipe the outside of the optical body with it, also wash every other part I show here above with acetone to get rid of the organisms.
More about Russar VF on next entry -
If you own a Russar kit and never opened anything apart since you got it... It must be the time to give it a proper clean by now... Please I beg you. It's disgusting inside, believe me.
I have another post about how to disassembly a Russar lens exluding the optical part - further reading here; Russar 20mm F5.6 Serial 3075 - A CLA post about focusing helicoid
Now, as far as I can tell, there is a little bit of a mess about Russar variants in general, you have the early serial ones, 3 digit ones and the 4 digit early ones (mine is a 4 digit early chrome version)
And then the later ones which came with both chrome (not sure) and then black which you can indicline the production date by looking at the first two digits on the serial so for an instance if you have a Black Russar lens with a serial like;
92xxxx
87xxxx
89xxxx
that means a lens produces in 1992, 1987, 1989 and etc.
The lenses, they have different variants, They used a non parallax plastic KMZ viewfinders sometimes, and sometimes they had this big bulky one. But don't get confused if yours look not exactly like the one I have here since even this one has couple of variants...
Well I'm not that rich to get all of the variants but I have even seen a Prototype Russar which didnt had a interchangeable aperture dial (fixed at f10) or a focus helical. (the owner told me he sold it about 2022-2023 for about 1000 usd!)
It was called a Russar 25IM
But enough chitchatting about Russar (never enough but our post is about the viewfinder now.)
Now, your viewfinder should look like this underneath. can vary a little bit but you can do CLA any variant similar with this method
BEWARE -
take pictures at every step, if you find any parts when you take off a part, take more macro detailed pictures or draw small illustrations about how they are oritented (which way etc.)
you should be good.
After taking our first screw
we should see the disgusting old soviet gunk now.
Our first screw just came off, it is extremely distinguishable since it's our only screw with a dome like tip
The way this assembly works is that it is built like a sled, so it moved at an angle which would change the angle of our optical block, that way we can compensate for the parallax. I made some small tests with my Sony A7SII by looking both at the Russar VF and comparing it with the screen image it is actually pretty decent if you wanna take 0.5meter focused pictures.
Yet, compared to other viewfinders it is extremely big.
You will notice two little pressure plates hidden inside two identical hollow compartmens inside the sled once taken apart. they are extremely hard to see for their orientation since they are covered in grimy gunk. Use some wood toothpicks or something to take off the gunk carefully (careful now to now lose them, they do not have any tension though)
take note how they are oriented now. You should be good. They are pressure plates to give a little bit tension for the moving parallax sled.
The upper side of the sled which is connected to the main optical body with three screws. Also covered in gunked up grease. I first cleaned the gunks in big chunks with some toothpicks. Then I simply unscrewed three screws to further disasembly. To my suprise there is nothing more to diassemble here (more on that later) It's literally 3 threaded holes over this part and nothing else.
Some hot soapy water and a hoard of qtips made a good job. Dont rush to your washroom. Get your hot soapy water into a canister and use a toothbrush to clean the parts inside the water on your desk.
I am embaressed to say in my earlier days learning repair I have managed to lost some parts into my drainage pipe... Happily they were not rare equipment so I was not too sad.
hmmm.... 41... Batch 41 parts so different batches would not be assembled back together perhaps. Such a nice way to produce parts soviet people. Who knows... We would never learn.
But even if the soviets made the efford to engrave fricking letters over some parts, they are pretty much not mixable over different batches I am pretty sure.
Some macro shot showing our pressure plates. They are clean now.
I am relubricating the sled parts now. Using Polar bear Camera ''soft'' helical grease. It is what I have and I wont mind. The quality of these greases are not bad. they are usable between -40c and +120c which is fine, you would die out of this range of weather conditions. Don't get grumpy about this and that...
If you listened my recommendations until now, you should have be good even if you had a different variant and even if it was different than this. Good for you if you have taken pictures
Now use it to reassemble the system in reverse order. Even not taking pictures this CLA being hard from 1 to 10 is I think rated 1... Easiest job ever. the most time consuming part is to get rid of the old gunked up greases... which is a boring 10 minutes.
Here you can see it's all finished. looking nice and shiny. Use some qtips dropped with lens cleaning liquid and take your time cleaning the optical parts which is exposed to outside on the front and the rear. If you have found a really disgusting copy (I'm not blaming you)
I suggest you to dampen some cloth with vinegar and wipe the outside of the optical body with it, also wash every other part I show here above with acetone to get rid of the organisms.
More about Russar VF on next entry -
renguney
Member
Now the sad part. This Viewfinder were not made to be ever ''opened'' again.
I will add some pictures from each angle the viewfinder has.
this is the view from the bottom
The top view, showing F: 2.0cm (F for Focal and 20mm in old cm terminology)
Right side showing the serial number for the viewfinder. Mine is No. 03579
The left view, showing the KMZ logo (Krasnogorsk Factory later became Zenit)
Also a meter alignment marking can be seen for parallax too, from 0.5meter to Infinity (same as Russar lens)
Note about the LOGO; Did you knew that you could tell any soviet lens or camera about which factory they have been made. just find a logo similar to this made on geometrical sytle and search it up on web. There were more than 20 factories making all sorts of equipment back in the day. I find it really cool to look at all different logos
further reading about the factory logos; Soviet Factory Logos by Camerapedia Wiki
View from the back. also a 24x36 lettering can be seen indiclining it's made for 35mm photographic equipment
View from front. Take a look on the optical assembly now. Notice how there are some paint separations. I have some bad news now...
I want you to take a look about this picture now. Notice the ''brownish'' weird glue like substance on a line gap. That is what it looks like it is.
They used some sort of lacquer, or glue like substance to bond the front frame into the chassis so they could ''seal'' the optical block. It's also how Leitz did theirs back in the day. But I bet the soviets used a similar glue method...
This means, we have a high risk damaging the integrity of the (probably bakelite) framing housing if we would try to prying this off.
We could have try heating it off by a hairblower or a hot air station and then using a chisel or something like that prying the framing off by weaking the brownish old glue. But we would still have the risk of damaging the casing.
I am awaring you. The cold shoe part was fairly easy but this is not for the average person to try maybe 8/10 hardness level or even more. Keep in mind that even it's a russian made equipment, these Russar viewfinders go for 150 euro alone... I already. ordered two leitz 21mm viewfinders just for their quality. One was a gift and it was in pieces so I can study the design further a bit.
Well, I might sell this viewfinder unit, or I might as well keep it. I have the original Russar box, and both the lens and viewfinder bakelite protectivee cases with it. Overall everything was quite ''minty'' looking. The viewfinder has couple of black dirt inside but I see clearly looking through it. I am too ''curious'' even can say that I have a 3 year old's curiosity when it comes to vintage camera equipment. So I can't promise you that I wont be trying on taking this apart. Heck I can even try right after I post this... It's just pure joy to me getting hold of these on my repair bench.
Thanks a lot reading this further and I hope you can use it to restore your russar viewfinder if you would ever need it.
Bye for now.
Eren
I will add some pictures from each angle the viewfinder has.
this is the view from the bottom
The top view, showing F: 2.0cm (F for Focal and 20mm in old cm terminology)
Right side showing the serial number for the viewfinder. Mine is No. 03579
The left view, showing the KMZ logo (Krasnogorsk Factory later became Zenit)
Also a meter alignment marking can be seen for parallax too, from 0.5meter to Infinity (same as Russar lens)
Note about the LOGO; Did you knew that you could tell any soviet lens or camera about which factory they have been made. just find a logo similar to this made on geometrical sytle and search it up on web. There were more than 20 factories making all sorts of equipment back in the day. I find it really cool to look at all different logos
further reading about the factory logos; Soviet Factory Logos by Camerapedia Wiki
View from the back. also a 24x36 lettering can be seen indiclining it's made for 35mm photographic equipment
View from front. Take a look on the optical assembly now. Notice how there are some paint separations. I have some bad news now...
I want you to take a look about this picture now. Notice the ''brownish'' weird glue like substance on a line gap. That is what it looks like it is.
They used some sort of lacquer, or glue like substance to bond the front frame into the chassis so they could ''seal'' the optical block. It's also how Leitz did theirs back in the day. But I bet the soviets used a similar glue method...
This means, we have a high risk damaging the integrity of the (probably bakelite) framing housing if we would try to prying this off.
We could have try heating it off by a hairblower or a hot air station and then using a chisel or something like that prying the framing off by weaking the brownish old glue. But we would still have the risk of damaging the casing.
I am awaring you. The cold shoe part was fairly easy but this is not for the average person to try maybe 8/10 hardness level or even more. Keep in mind that even it's a russian made equipment, these Russar viewfinders go for 150 euro alone... I already. ordered two leitz 21mm viewfinders just for their quality. One was a gift and it was in pieces so I can study the design further a bit.
Well, I might sell this viewfinder unit, or I might as well keep it. I have the original Russar box, and both the lens and viewfinder bakelite protectivee cases with it. Overall everything was quite ''minty'' looking. The viewfinder has couple of black dirt inside but I see clearly looking through it. I am too ''curious'' even can say that I have a 3 year old's curiosity when it comes to vintage camera equipment. So I can't promise you that I wont be trying on taking this apart. Heck I can even try right after I post this... It's just pure joy to me getting hold of these on my repair bench.
Thanks a lot reading this further and I hope you can use it to restore your russar viewfinder if you would ever need it.
Bye for now.
Eren
Last edited:
justins7
Well-known
Thanks for all this information and tips. I have the same lens and viewfinder, with a 1992 serial number. I bought them new only a few years after they were made.
I tried unsuccessfully to open the viewfinder since mine is foggy. Unfortunately all I did was succeed in denting and scratching the outer ring. It's tightly glued together.
I love the lens, but I use it with a better viewfinder because of this fogging.
I tried unsuccessfully to open the viewfinder since mine is foggy. Unfortunately all I did was succeed in denting and scratching the outer ring. It's tightly glued together.
I love the lens, but I use it with a better viewfinder because of this fogging.
renguney
Member
Justin, If you would ''donate'' the viewfinder to me for the cause of learning more on the viewfinder. I can make a post about trying to open it up. Examining and doing tests how to open the glued parts. You dont really need to do this although it might help for future people about the viewfinder. Mine is too minty to test these out.