Camera Talk

I'm working on someone's Contax IIIa. Nice camera and has one of the smoothest helicals that I've come across. The rangefinder contrast is poor, and I cannot correct that (without placing some type of film on one of the prisms). I'm currently in reassembly. The later models used two arms - one to lock the helical when changing lenses, and the second for infinity lock (which worked in concert with the helical lock). Earlier models used a single arm.

With this model, you have to reinsert simultaneously both arms, the helical and the swinging wedge prism assembly. That's a lot. Plus, there are washers for each arm and tension springs.

After I take care of this, then I'm going to find out why the meter doesn't work. It might be a contact issue, or maybe the selenium cell is dead. The meter needle assembly is fine.

Just got the helical lock reassembled. The trick is to first put the finger lock into place and then loosely place the swinging wedge prism into place with just the yellow screw loosely in place. Then slide the lens lock and helical into the body. A bit of wiggle here and there, and it's good to go. You'll notice the horizontal scratch marks on the geared wheel and the piece next to it. This was to indicate rangefinder calibration. Because that assembly had been tightened into place, I pulled away from the helical and rotated until the two marks aligned. I'll confirm later and make any micro adjustments, if needed.

Then I just had to pull the two tension springs into place.

Oh wonderful, lots of little Zeiss screws all over the place. Glad I'm not working on one of those.

PF

I had hard time with the first versions when the arm for disable infinity lock didn't want to be mounted correctly