Yashica Lynx 5000 Repair Questions

[Dave S.]

I recently purchased a very nice Yashica Lynx 5000 ($29.95 including shipping).

It showed up with a leaking battery which surprisingly wasn't to messy and therefore cleaned up pretty easily. Nevertheless, I decided to remove the bottom plate and give things a thorough look over & clean (used a touch of vinegar here and there).

Next I removed the top plate and cleaned everything I felt comfortable cleaning (none of the diagonal glass per Joe Wolff's suggestion AKA: "yashica-guy"). That said, upon removing the top plate I discovered a few small silvered glass "chunks" that were just rolling around and I quickly discarded them. Unfortunately, after putting everything back together I discovered the meter readout in the viewfinder no longer was illuminated. 😱 I quickly surmised that the "chunks" were the reflecting material used to illuminate the meter readout so I went back in and carefully glued a strip of aluminum foil where the "chunks" had been. Voila! My meter readout is lit up nice and bright again. 😀

The viewfinder / rangefinder is also now brighter and more contrasty after the cleaning - and it's certainly usable. The shutter speeds sound accurate too, except perhaps the very slowest speeds which I think are just a tad on the slow side (no big deal to me).

Nevertheless, I am still wondering about a few issues with this repair and was wondering if anyone had suggestions about the following:

1. Is it possible to clean any of the diagonal glass surfaces to improve the viewfinder / rangefinder brightness and contrast?

2. I'm thinking about trying to insert a little piece of colored filter gel material to help improve the rangefinder contrast (read about this somewhere here on RFF) and was wondering if anyone had a suggestion on what color gel to use to get the best results?

3. The meter seems to work intermittently and I'm wondering how I might remedy that problem (sometimes it takes a few pushes of the button to get it to respond)?

Thanks, Dave S.

P.S. The camera is in beautiful condition and I've gone ahead and started shooting a roll of Kodak Ektar 100 with it and will post results in the near future.

 

[btgc]

1. It IS possible to clean all glass in RF, though do it VERY carefully not to remove silvering from beamsplitter. It DO enhance viewfinder.

2. can not comment

3. If pushing button repeatedly succeeds problem may be in button itself, how does it sound? Generally I wouldn't hang on built-in metering too heavily. There are carbon strip resistors in lens barrel and they don't age well. Metering in my 5000 and 14 work but I prefer external meter and guesstimate. It's faster, too.

 

[Dave S.]

Thanks for your comments btgc. I will attempt to gently clean the RF glass.

The meter button sounds okay (same as my Lynx 14 and Lynx 14e). I agree the meter on these cameras are not to be relied on, but when it does work it seems to be accurate when I compare it with other trusted meters. It would be nice if it worked consistently (if it wasn't to difficult to get working well again) just for my own enjoyment of restoration work.

Thanks again, Dave

 

[Dave S.]

UPDATE: I opened the Lynx 5000 up and cleaned every glass or mirrored surface I could find. I used Q-tips, Giottos Multi Optical Cleaning Solution, and toothpicks wrapped in cotton from the Q-tips for any tight areas. I was very gentle and applied very little pressure to any of the surfaces. After cleaning I blew the areas out with a small bulb blower and even inspected the areas with a magnifying glass to be sure I didn't leave any Q-tip fibers behind. The surfaces looked very clean. I didn't notice any loss of mirroring or other critical materials on the Q-tip cotton or on the surface areas I cleaned.

RESULT: The improvement was definitely noticeable and I'm glad I proceeded with the cleaning. 🙂

NEXT UP: I plan to insert a light blue "gel" filter behind the rangefinder window (blue because it's the highest contrast color with the "yellow" rangefinder patch). Hopefully that will provide an additional boost to the rangefinder contrast.

 

[Dave S.]

Viewfinder/Rangefinder Enhancement

Viewfinder/Rangefinder Enhancement

Today I successfully enhanced the contrast of the viewfinder/rangefinder in my Yashica Lynx 5000. 😀

I inserted a small square of 1/4 Blue gel filter behind the viewfinder window with a much smaller square of Full Blue gel filter centered on the piece of 1/4 Blue gel filter. I used a tiny dab of spray adhesive applied to each corner of the smaller square to attach the smaller square to the bigger one (applied with the end of a safety pin). I used a couple of very small strips of black gaffers tape (paper kind) to hold the combination gel in place.

I'm pretty happy with the results. I've attached some pictures to illustrate the enhancement.

NOTE: The picture taken through the viewfinder doesn't quite capture how well it worked (taken with an iPhone: makes the small square look uncentered [it actually is centered] and doesn't fully capture the improvement in contrast).

Dave

 

[Dave S.]

One more thing: I applied a drop of white vinegar to the meter button and worked the button numerous times and let it sit over night. This has resulted in an improvement in it's responsiveness when pushed. While it hasn't completely fixed the problem, it is working better now.