Camera Restoration Coming Along
I'm still see-sawing between halfway decent health and rather crappy health. It seems that this has become my typical winter routine. I seem to get through Christmas feeling "okay" but then I develop the flu or a cold by New Year's Eve and it lingers until Spring. This year has been just like that as I continue to oscillate between mediocre health (occasionally) and rather miserable health (usually) which borders mostly on the miserable end of the spectrum.
I think the most difficult thing about this long-term, lingering 'cold' is that even on the few short-lived relatively good days, I am ready to head back to bed by 9am. The fatigue I am experiencing is absolutely brutal. The next thing worth mentioning is bone and joint pain as well as a general malaise. The pain is brutal too but this is a common complaint throughout the year anyway. Experiencing this pain when feeling lousy in other ways, however, takes a bit more out of you than usual.
Anyway, on those mornings when I happen to feel halfway decently for a few hours, I try to find something small to accomplish. Lately, one of these on-and-off little projects has been the restoration of an antique camera which I have broken down in a bunch of smaller tasks. Breaking projects down into smaller tasks makes it possible to accomplish larger projects over longer periods of time while contending with chronic illness. Accomplishing very slowly is far better than not accomplishing anything at all.
The last time I wrote about this project, I believe I mentioned I was waiting on a new bellows. I'm happy to report that the new bellows arrived last weekend and I actually found some energy to install it into my 70 year old camera over the course of a few mornings in the following week. This old camera restoration project is coming together slowly but surely and the camera is beginning to look like new again...
I have to say that replacing this bellows was no easy task. I've never attempted something like this before so I replayed each step in my mind about a dozen times before actually attempting to accomplish each step. There were many ways I could have made a critical mistake rendering this nice new bellows useless so I approached each step with an abundance of caution. Additionally, finding any sort of documentation online about this antique camera has proven to be an impossible task. I had to find documentation about other antique cameras and then figure out how to apply the info to this specific camera. The good news is that, at this point, I have an antique camera with a nice new bellows that should outlive me!
Although I'm very happy with the results I'm seeing, replacing a bellows on a small camera such as this is something I hope I never need to accomplish again! This was a tedious, smelly, filthy, and frustrating task.
The old bellows didn't want to come loose from the camera body. I soaked the bellows in adhesive remover by liberally brushing on the remover... left it overnight... applied more adhesive remover and then tried to pry it or scrape it free from the camera... no luck. I would then apply more adhesive remover... wait overnight... then go at it again the following day with little to no luck. I think it was the third day when I finally had better success and finally removed the old, dried-up, cracked bellows. Of course, the old bellows cracked into pieces as I tugged on it in my effort to remove it from the adhesive holding it firmly in place on my camera body.
Then came the clean-up. I had to remove all the adhesive residue and remnants of the old bellows. I managed to get all of this accomplished on that third day too so that wasn't too bad. I used quite a few Q-Tips and rubbing alcohol cleaning up the camera body getting it ready for the new bellows.
Now it was time to install the new bellows. This meant fitting it with a front plate made specifically for my lens and then trimming and gluing the bellows to it. My fear was cutting it too much and then needing to order another custom bellows because my nice new bellows was now too small.
It turns out that the front end of this new bellows was probably a hair too small but, after carefully fitting the front plate to the new bellows by squeezing it inside the front pleat, I decided to attach it to the lens frame at the front of the camera before attempting to attach the rear of the bellows to the camera body.
I went back to the old bellows to count the pleats so I could figure out the proper length needed for my particular camera. Each successive pleat as you go back toward the camera body gets larger and I had one too many pleats in this new bellows. That last back pleat was a bit too large for the opening in my camera body otherwise I would have just just left it alone. I managed to squeeze it through to where it needed to be mounted and pulled it through to the next pleat. Then I reluctantly went at it with a pair of cuticle scissors removing the last pleat.
On each side of the body opening, there are two rods for the focusing mechanism (one rod on each side) that run up and down the length of each side right over the flange where the bellows is to be glued to the camera body. There is no room for fingers in this area so I had to make a thin tool to help squeeze the new bellows under these rods so I could get it to sit flat on the camera body flanges. This was the most frustrating part of this bellow replacement. I wasn't sure of what I was doing and I had no room in there for my fingers. I kept thinking that there must be an easier way to accomplish this.
It took about two hours, but I finally glued the rear of the bellows to the camera, smoothed out the glued connection and cut the excess material. Then I needed to clean out the tiny channel around this flange where the film holder must fluidly slide in and out for focus. This was a bit frustrating too. Actually, I had assembled the whole film holder assembly before this channel around the flange was completely cleaned up. When I rotated the focus knob, the film holder was hanging up on some debris in this channel underneath the two rods so I reluctantly disassembled it again to go at clean-up a bit more.
The biggest problem with having to remove this film holder again was that it was extremely difficult to clip into place. There is no room for fingers and very little room to get tiny tools in there. After some practice, however, I found a system that seemed to work every third try or so (after about 50 unsuccessful attempts and many expletives). I finally had it all assembled again and the film holder seemed to be moving fluidly as I turned the focus knob.
After replacing the bellows with my new bellows, I knew I needed to check the rangefinder focusing mechanism to see if it still matches focus on the film plane.
In the photos, above and below, you can see how I tested the camera for focus.
When you look into the viewfinder of this camera, you are not actually looking through the lens. You are looking through a rangefinder mechanism. You need to make sure this rangefinder mechanism matches what is seen on the film plane. If it doesn't match, then there are a couple of tiny screws to access for adjusting the rangefinder.
I mounted the camera on a tripod, connected a cable shutter release and then slid a 6cm x 6cm piece of ground glass into the film holder. I set the lens to Bulb mode, f3.5 (its widest aperture), and then triggered the shutter which kept the aperture open allowing an image to be projected onto the ground glass.
First, I focused using the viewfinder... then checked the image projected onto the ground glass using a magnifying glass... then, like working on a mathematical equation, did the opposite to ensure the same result... I focused using the image projected on the ground glass... then checked to see if it was properly focused in the viewfinder. I did this at minimum focus distance, middle focus distance and at infinity. I believe the rangefinder focus is now properly calibrated. Of course, I won't know for sure how accurate the focus is until I test a roll of film. It is looking good on the ground glass though and that is a good sign.
I had also ordered a new set of light seals for around the hinged back door to the camera. Light tends to leak into the body when these seals dry out with age which causes over-exposed streaks on the film and subsequent prints. The seals are quite inexpensive so it made sense to simply replace these seals whether it was necessary or not. Those seals arrived from Japan today so I will install the new seals in the next few days.
Little by little, this camera restoration project is coming along nicely. This 70 year old camera is beginning to look great and it will be ready for medium format film before long!
PS: It is the following morning and I've managed to replace the light seals this morning. The next task is to clean the entire camera again (it is pretty dirty after trying to remove the old bellows) and then I can run a roll of 120 medium format film through it!
I think the most difficult thing about this long-term, lingering 'cold' is that even on the few short-lived relatively good days, I am ready to head back to bed by 9am. The fatigue I am experiencing is absolutely brutal. The next thing worth mentioning is bone and joint pain as well as a general malaise. The pain is brutal too but this is a common complaint throughout the year anyway. Experiencing this pain when feeling lousy in other ways, however, takes a bit more out of you than usual.
Anyway, on those mornings when I happen to feel halfway decently for a few hours, I try to find something small to accomplish. Lately, one of these on-and-off little projects has been the restoration of an antique camera which I have broken down in a bunch of smaller tasks. Breaking projects down into smaller tasks makes it possible to accomplish larger projects over longer periods of time while contending with chronic illness. Accomplishing very slowly is far better than not accomplishing anything at all.
The last time I wrote about this project, I believe I mentioned I was waiting on a new bellows. I'm happy to report that the new bellows arrived last weekend and I actually found some energy to install it into my 70 year old camera over the course of a few mornings in the following week. This old camera restoration project is coming together slowly but surely and the camera is beginning to look like new again...
Rather than having a traditional black bellows made, I opted for a non-traditional bronze color. This color actually looks quite nice and this color goes well with the brown leather half-case I have for this camera.
I have to say that replacing this bellows was no easy task. I've never attempted something like this before so I replayed each step in my mind about a dozen times before actually attempting to accomplish each step. There were many ways I could have made a critical mistake rendering this nice new bellows useless so I approached each step with an abundance of caution. Additionally, finding any sort of documentation online about this antique camera has proven to be an impossible task. I had to find documentation about other antique cameras and then figure out how to apply the info to this specific camera. The good news is that, at this point, I have an antique camera with a nice new bellows that should outlive me!
Although I'm very happy with the results I'm seeing, replacing a bellows on a small camera such as this is something I hope I never need to accomplish again! This was a tedious, smelly, filthy, and frustrating task.
The old bellows didn't want to come loose from the camera body. I soaked the bellows in adhesive remover by liberally brushing on the remover... left it overnight... applied more adhesive remover and then tried to pry it or scrape it free from the camera... no luck. I would then apply more adhesive remover... wait overnight... then go at it again the following day with little to no luck. I think it was the third day when I finally had better success and finally removed the old, dried-up, cracked bellows. Of course, the old bellows cracked into pieces as I tugged on it in my effort to remove it from the adhesive holding it firmly in place on my camera body.
Then came the clean-up. I had to remove all the adhesive residue and remnants of the old bellows. I managed to get all of this accomplished on that third day too so that wasn't too bad. I used quite a few Q-Tips and rubbing alcohol cleaning up the camera body getting it ready for the new bellows.
Now it was time to install the new bellows. This meant fitting it with a front plate made specifically for my lens and then trimming and gluing the bellows to it. My fear was cutting it too much and then needing to order another custom bellows because my nice new bellows was now too small.
It turns out that the front end of this new bellows was probably a hair too small but, after carefully fitting the front plate to the new bellows by squeezing it inside the front pleat, I decided to attach it to the lens frame at the front of the camera before attempting to attach the rear of the bellows to the camera body.
I went back to the old bellows to count the pleats so I could figure out the proper length needed for my particular camera. Each successive pleat as you go back toward the camera body gets larger and I had one too many pleats in this new bellows. That last back pleat was a bit too large for the opening in my camera body otherwise I would have just just left it alone. I managed to squeeze it through to where it needed to be mounted and pulled it through to the next pleat. Then I reluctantly went at it with a pair of cuticle scissors removing the last pleat.
On each side of the body opening, there are two rods for the focusing mechanism (one rod on each side) that run up and down the length of each side right over the flange where the bellows is to be glued to the camera body. There is no room for fingers in this area so I had to make a thin tool to help squeeze the new bellows under these rods so I could get it to sit flat on the camera body flanges. This was the most frustrating part of this bellow replacement. I wasn't sure of what I was doing and I had no room in there for my fingers. I kept thinking that there must be an easier way to accomplish this.
It took about two hours, but I finally glued the rear of the bellows to the camera, smoothed out the glued connection and cut the excess material. Then I needed to clean out the tiny channel around this flange where the film holder must fluidly slide in and out for focus. This was a bit frustrating too. Actually, I had assembled the whole film holder assembly before this channel around the flange was completely cleaned up. When I rotated the focus knob, the film holder was hanging up on some debris in this channel underneath the two rods so I reluctantly disassembled it again to go at clean-up a bit more.
The biggest problem with having to remove this film holder again was that it was extremely difficult to clip into place. There is no room for fingers and very little room to get tiny tools in there. After some practice, however, I found a system that seemed to work every third try or so (after about 50 unsuccessful attempts and many expletives). I finally had it all assembled again and the film holder seemed to be moving fluidly as I turned the focus knob.
After replacing the bellows with my new bellows, I knew I needed to check the rangefinder focusing mechanism to see if it still matches focus on the film plane.
In the photos, above and below, you can see how I tested the camera for focus.
When you look into the viewfinder of this camera, you are not actually looking through the lens. You are looking through a rangefinder mechanism. You need to make sure this rangefinder mechanism matches what is seen on the film plane. If it doesn't match, then there are a couple of tiny screws to access for adjusting the rangefinder.
I mounted the camera on a tripod, connected a cable shutter release and then slid a 6cm x 6cm piece of ground glass into the film holder. I set the lens to Bulb mode, f3.5 (its widest aperture), and then triggered the shutter which kept the aperture open allowing an image to be projected onto the ground glass.
First, I focused using the viewfinder... then checked the image projected onto the ground glass using a magnifying glass... then, like working on a mathematical equation, did the opposite to ensure the same result... I focused using the image projected on the ground glass... then checked to see if it was properly focused in the viewfinder. I did this at minimum focus distance, middle focus distance and at infinity. I believe the rangefinder focus is now properly calibrated. Of course, I won't know for sure how accurate the focus is until I test a roll of film. It is looking good on the ground glass though and that is a good sign.
I had also ordered a new set of light seals for around the hinged back door to the camera. Light tends to leak into the body when these seals dry out with age which causes over-exposed streaks on the film and subsequent prints. The seals are quite inexpensive so it made sense to simply replace these seals whether it was necessary or not. Those seals arrived from Japan today so I will install the new seals in the next few days.
Little by little, this camera restoration project is coming along nicely. This 70 year old camera is beginning to look great and it will be ready for medium format film before long!
PS: It is the following morning and I've managed to replace the light seals this morning. The next task is to clean the entire camera again (it is pretty dirty after trying to remove the old bellows) and then I can run a roll of 120 medium format film through it!
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