I had acquired yet another rangefinder camera with a leaf shutter that wasn’t working. I had been spoiled by a couple of successes with old German rangefinder cameras, but my latest German camera— a King Regula Cita III, see previous blog—was proving harder to get down to the shutter than I expected.
I had tried the corner of a “found” hotel room key—shaped like a credit card—to unscrew the front element. The lens ring had two notches 180º across from each other. I just used the edge of the card—which almost filled the notch—to drive the ring at a 45º angle. Once the ring started to turn I could spin the ring out with finger pressure. A single unmounted lens fell out. There were more lenses behind the front element. Instead of being a front focussing triplet it was a triplet where the entire lens moves in and out to focus.
I left the camera to mull on a solution. Meanwhile every day I walk the streets of my small town and pick up any small item I find. In one week I found at least four rubber items that belong in cars.
Two of them seemed about what I might need to get deeper into the shutter.
I had tried the corner of a “found” hotel room key—shaped like a credit card—to unscrew the front element. The lens ring had two notches 180º across from each other. I just used the edge of the card—which almost filled the notch—to drive the ring at a 45º angle. Once the ring started to turn I could spin the ring out with finger pressure. A single unmounted lens fell out. There were more lenses behind the front element. Instead of being a front focussing triplet it was a triplet where the entire lens moves in and out to focus.
I left the camera to mull on a solution. Meanwhile every day I walk the streets of my small town and pick up any small item I find. In one week I found at least four rubber items that belong in cars.
Much to my amazement, the rubber ring I had found fit exactly into the space between the knurled rings. I could then grasp the ring and rotate the rubber ring counter-clock-wise until the lens cell unscrewed.
Once the lens was out I could unscrew a second metal retaining ring (Caution:The ring is locked in place with a slotted screw head that first has to be rotated out of its socket. It is also sharp. I cut the tip of one finger. Be careful!) and several more rings came off the front exposing the shutter innards. Despite poking and prodding and using plenty of lighter fluid the shutter stayed inoperative.
But what I did do was get in and get out without any signs I had even tried. I will take that as a win!
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