Voigtlander Bessa RF 6x9 repair

[Fleabilly]

I've looked around the threads but cannot seem to find out any repair information for my voigtlander RF 6x9. The rangefinder is out of alignment, and I need to know basic restoration tips on that camera. I have looked on the internet, but most of the links are dead.

Cheers

 

[GaryLH]

I usually send my folders to Ken Ruth when they need work. Give him a call..

His website..

http://www.baldmtn.com

Gary

 

[ZeissFan]

Are you talking about the recent camera? The original Bessa from the 1930s or the postwar camera?

EDIT: Oh, I see that you are referring to the 6x9 model.

For the older all-black prewar model, I believe that you have to lift the leather covering on the top of the viewfinder in order to remove the screws that secure the top deck.

I should find my own Bessa and give you a better answer.

EDIT II: I think it might be possible to remove the top deck by removing the two screws from inside the film chamber. I will try tomorrow and see if that in fact is true.

I've never had a need to remove the top deck of my Bessa, but I'm curious.

 

[citizen99]

Bessa-RF-top-access by johnnyh4, on Flickr

Carefully prise the soft aluminium DOF disk off with a fine-pointed tool - it is glued to the dished washer underneath via a paper disk.

Remove the screw retaining the dished washer to the thumbwheel assembly.
Carefully prise up the leather at the far end and remove the screw revealed.

Remove the hollow screw to allow removal of the rest of the thumbwheel assembly - making note of all positions ;-) .

This gives a picture showing the adjustments. "Achtung!" here is warning you not to turn the focus closer than the normal minimum distance, after you have removed the stop-washer, as the lensboard rack will come out of it's engagement with the pinion, and it warns that re-assembly is not trivial.

(I had one of these which came with the lens a long way out of focus, yet the rangefinder itself was spot-on. Evidently this had happened to a previous owner, and it had been incorrectly re-assembled. It was not as it left the factory, as the paper disk mounting the depth-of-field disc was missing, just glue had been used.I was able let the rack emerge, turn the pinion a tooth or so as required then re-engage the rack and re-assemble.)

 

[LittleAlex]

Remove the hollow screw to allow removal of the rest of the thumbwheel assembly - making note of all positions ;-) .

Would anybody be so kind as to inform me, in what direction the hollow screw should be untwisted – clockwise, or in the opposite direction?

 

[citizen99]

Would anybody be so kind as to inform me, in what direction the hollow screw should be untwisted – clockwise, or in the opposite direction?

Anti-clockwise 🙂 .

 

[LittleAlex]

Anti-clockwise 🙂 .

My greatest thanks to you!

Week ago I had mistaken the direction for the rack-and-pinion screw-bolt on the back standard of the Soviet rail-mounted 9x12 view camera “Vostok”, and torn the M6 bolt in two pieces. 🙁

So, at the present I started to be very timid in my proceedings.