Camera Talk

I’m looking to buy an Contax iia and refurbishing it. I have worked on lenses before but I have never completely dismantled a camera and kept track of so many parts.

I thought I would take an old cookie sheet with a lip all the way around it and line it some felt lining I have. Will one cookie sheet be enough or should I prepare a second one as well?

How do you layout your parts when taking apart a complete camera?
Karen

Going to leave that one to Alex. The last time I took apart a camera, I stalled out when the (reassembled) shutter didn't work quite right in the slow speeds and never got the silly thing back together!

That said, I'd guess a cookie sheet would be fine, size-wise, but you should definitely take lots of photos of the process as you go, in case it takes longer than you expect.

Robert

Uhm... I disagree with the cookie sheet. You need something stable, I mean something that won't move if you accidentally bump the table and also you need a surface that is no slippery.
I use cutting mats with a old yoga mat under so it doesn't move from the table, cutting mat is a flat surface and screws and things can move if you bump the table but no much. Few months ago I used soldering mats, A3 is a good size, it has bezels where the pieces can't roll over and many small "pockets" to put all pieces as you dismantle the camera. It sticks on the table easily, I dontuse it because for showing the photos of the process the colors are usually bright and it doesn't look so good.

As you say, my two cents.

kmcsmart wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 15, 2023 2:19 pm

I’m looking to buy an Contax iia and refurbishing it. I have worked on lenses before but I have never completely dismantled a camera and kept track of so many parts.

I thought I would take an old cookie sheet with a lip all the way around it and line it some felt lining I have. Will one cookie sheet be enough or should I prepare a second one as well?

How do you layout your parts when taking apart a complete camera?
Karen

the Contaxes are notorious for requiring experiences repair-people to work on
Plus they are poorly documented and many variations exist.
I'd recommend you start with simpler cameras, to get comfortable before tackling such kraken

The few times I tried, I used either a plastic shallow box with a lot of divisions (probably intended for keeping nuts and screws of different sizes), or a plastic tray with wells, for chocolates or eggs. In each small well I deposited parts, in the order of disassembly.

+1 on trying a simpler camera first before tackling a Contax, but maybe you are already highly skilled with small, complex mechanisms.

alexvaras wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 17, 2023 7:41 am

Uhm... I disagree with the cookie sheet. You need something stable, I mean something that won't move if you accidentally bump the table and also you need a surface that is no slippery.
I use cutting mats with a old yoga mat under so it doesn't move from the table, cutting mat is a flat surface and screws and things can move if you bump the table but no much. Few months ago I used soldering mats, A3 is a good size, it has bezels where the pieces can't roll over and many small "pockets" to put all pieces as you dismantle the camera. It sticks on the table easily, I dontuse it because for showing the photos of the process the colors are usually bright and it doesn't look so good.

As you say, my two cents.

Thanks, I just bought myself a soldering mat. That will be perfect as a work surface and I can store parts in little tray and chocolate boxes like @julio1fer suggested.

Thanks for the advice to be cautious with a complex camera. I have built a couple of car engines and restored vintage woodworking machinery but I will need too develop some skills for handling super tiny pieces. At least I won’t have to figure how to lift things off the ground to take them apart . Mike said he would give me some tips and help me if I got stuck. I’ve already found his webpage/post with some details.

This is a little off topic but here’s some pictures from my latest project, rebuilding a 600 pound, 60 year old drill press. It’s a beauty. One of the nicest drill presses ever made with a rising head and table, and a foot feed that controls the quill for hands free drilling. If you look closely you will see a Time-O-Lite darkroom foot switch sitting on the base of the drill press. This foot switch turns the drill press on and off giving me hands free start and stop. The drill press is a 3 phase machine so I use a variable frequency drive (VFD) to create 3 phase power from my shops single phase source. The VFD is controlled with milliamps of current allowing me to chose any on off switch for the drill press regardless of the machines motor current. It means I can add super cool steampunk like electric controls to all my old machines.

A contax II is usually expensive, get a couple of Kievs as surrogates.
Kievs are basically a Soviet copy of the Contax and they will be a smaller investment to allow you to play with them, and if it doesnt work is a lot less net loss.
I'd start with a few leaf shutters and smaller cameras (ANsco super regent, etc) that will allow you to play with less investment

A Contax II is relatively easy to work with. A IIa can be a nightmare. Accurate high shutter speeds are not always possible to get

OTHO, I must say the pleasure of handling IIa and IIIa's is unparalleled, at least for me.

I've used office drawer trays before for holding parts, but settled on plastic jar caps of various sizes as I could gather them up and place them in a box if I needed to switch what I was working on, and they take up less space. I also have a worktable that was originally a slide projector equipped study bench for college students. Very sturdy and not prone to moving if I bumped it. The plastic caps are also great for cleaning parts with Ronsonol lighter fluid.

Good job on that drill press. Camera repair is quite similar, you just have to scale down the tools and use of force.

PF