drmatthes
Zeiss Addict
Two further links for Austria, Contax mentioned by both
Two further links for Austria, Contax mentioned by both
https://www.kamera-service.at/
Kamera Service Helmut Redl
Bennogasse 24
A-1080 Wien
Austria
Phone +43 1 405 23 10
[email protected]
https://www.kamerawerkstatt.at/unsere-leistungen/service-analog/
Kamera Service M. Beck
Schmalzhofgasse 1a
A-1060 Wien
Austria
Phone +43 1 5978349
[email protected]
Two further links for Austria, Contax mentioned by both
https://www.kamera-service.at/
Kamera Service Helmut Redl
Bennogasse 24
A-1080 Wien
Austria
Phone +43 1 405 23 10
[email protected]
https://www.kamerawerkstatt.at/unsere-leistungen/service-analog/
Kamera Service M. Beck
Schmalzhofgasse 1a
A-1060 Wien
Austria
Phone +43 1 5978349
[email protected]
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drmatthes
Zeiss Addict
Contax repair links for Switzerland
Contax repair links for Switzerland
http://www.kameraservice.ch/
Foto & Optik Service Richard Treml
Haldenstrasse 22
CH-8362 Balterswil
Switzerland
Phone +41 71 971 25 46
Fax +41 71 971 28 46
[email protected]
http://www.camera-service.ch/kamera-marken.html
Classic Camera Repair Claudio Fabio
Plattenstrasse 5
CH-8810 Horgen
Switzerland
Phone +41 44 720 73 91
[email protected]
(at least some modern CY models)
Contax repair links for Switzerland
http://www.kameraservice.ch/
Foto & Optik Service Richard Treml
Haldenstrasse 22
CH-8362 Balterswil
Switzerland
Phone +41 71 971 25 46
Fax +41 71 971 28 46
[email protected]
http://www.camera-service.ch/kamera-marken.html
Classic Camera Repair Claudio Fabio
Plattenstrasse 5
CH-8810 Horgen
Switzerland
Phone +41 44 720 73 91
[email protected]
(at least some modern CY models)
Last edited:
drmatthes
Zeiss Addict
ZI Contax RF repair in Russia
ZI Contax RF repair in Russia
For Russia, we have
OKVintageCamera
Oleg Khalyavin
POB 23
Yoshkar-Ola
RUSSIA 424000
Phone +79625888491
https://okvintagecamera.com/ocart/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=144
Quote: SPECIAL OFFER! Save your Contax!
This offer for these guys who read many about Contax repair, opened own camera, spent lot of time for trying and got no success. This offer works if you send me Contax II, III shutter unit only (without body parts) - [59 Euros plus 10 Euros postal return.]
ZI Contax RF repair in Russia
For Russia, we have
OKVintageCamera
Oleg Khalyavin
POB 23
Yoshkar-Ola
RUSSIA 424000
Phone +79625888491
https://okvintagecamera.com/ocart/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=144
Quote: SPECIAL OFFER! Save your Contax!
This offer for these guys who read many about Contax repair, opened own camera, spent lot of time for trying and got no success. This offer works if you send me Contax II, III shutter unit only (without body parts) - [59 Euros plus 10 Euros postal return.]
drmatthes
Zeiss Addict
Contax TVS and G2 repair in Poland
Contax TVS and G2 repair in Poland
https://www.fotonaprawa.pl/uslugi/naprawa/aparaty-i-obiektywy-analogowe/contax
with two shops in Warszawa and in Kraków (on bottom of linked page)
Contax TVS and G2 repair in Poland
https://www.fotonaprawa.pl/uslugi/naprawa/aparaty-i-obiektywy-analogowe/contax
with two shops in Warszawa and in Kraków (on bottom of linked page)
Contaflex Super Repair Tips
Contaflex Super Repair Tips
One thing which makes the Super a bit more tedious to re-assemble is its use of the aperture setting wheel on the body. You can throw the shutter back on the body any way you like, but you won't be able to select all the different combinations of shutter and aperture if the timing is wrong. And the light meter calibration will be lost. There's a sliding ring that rotates around the shutter under the shutter speed control ring. This has a coupling gear in it that meshes with teeth on the shutter and aperture rings. It's what drives the Exposure Value cross coupling of shutter and aperture.
If one proceeds to pull the shutter out without noting the exact positions of all of the following, the timing from aperture dial to setting rings will be lost:
Aperture setting dial rotational orientation (it goes around the clock more than once);
ASA setting;
Shutter speed setting;
Aperture ring setting;
Rotating gear ring tooth mesh with shutter and aperture rings.
One point I find slightly irritating about the design of the original Super is that Zeiss decided to design a coupling system that limits the combination of shutter and aperture you are able to set, to the measuring range of the light meter. What I mean by this is that it is, indeed, possible to set any combination from 30 seconds and f/2.8 right through to 1/500 & f/22 (from "B" to 30s you are actually getting "Bulb", not Eg a timed 30s, it's just the required EV for the aperture). However—if you have your ASA set to Eg 25, the gearing won't permit you to set 1/500 & f/22. At ASA 25, the meter measurement range won't stretch to that. Conversely, with ASA 400 set, Eg. B & f/2.8 cannot be selected together. The Contarex Cyclops used a similar approach but Zeiss were nice enough to add a green setting on the ASA that lets you set any combination at any time.
I have laboured this point because whilst it will be necessary to set an appropriate ASA if you want to rotate the rings to 30s & f/2.8—with, say, ASA 6 or perhaps 12 the mesh of the rings should let you do that. Similarly, with a high ASA 1/500 & f/22 can both be set together.
If you are fortunate enough to be working on a Super that's never been disassembled since Zeiss made it I reckon that's half the battle won. You can photograph the orientation of the items I mentioned above and just replicate this on re-installation of the shutter.
Sadly, more of the Supers I've seen, than not, have been assembled by people with the timing off. Meaning it's trial and error to find a gear timing that actually lets you access the full range of ring coupling and gets the meter reading right!
I find the best way to set a Super (that's actually correctly put together in the first place) is to set the ASA to the lowest number, the shutter to 30s, aperture to f/2.8 and then (if you don't need to do a full strip down) temporarily tape the aperture dial firmly in place to guard against accidentally altering it.
You can then begin to disassemble the front of the shutter including the rings, (painstakingly noting their precise positions, and the mesh of the coupling ring gear) and take the shutter out.
You'll want the focus right at the infinity stop and immediately need to mark the helicals to each other, or measure the inner ring installed height precisely, on removing the shutter, to keep the lens infinity focus correct on re-assembly.
If somebody has already stuffed your gear timing up it takes longer. From scratch, (with the shutter out) rotating the aperture dial anti-clockwise as far as it will go, then, coming clockwise 1/4–1/2 turn will get that in the general ballpark. With the rotating coupling ring clockwise as far as it can go, the shutter on 30s and aperture on f/2.8 you'll be getting close. Expect to have to pull the shutter off a couple of times to fine tune the aperture dial a tooth or so but you'll be in the right zone. The meter will be off, but when the basic timing is good, by removing the ASA discs from the aperture dial at Eg ASA 100, you can rotate the meter shaft and centre the needle for a good sunny 16 before re-fitting the discs at ASA 100.
There is enough play in the gear mesh that Eg closing down the aperture to get your needle zeroed can give an exposure that's half a stop different than if you were to zero the needle by opening up. It's because of the gear lash.
I try to set the meter shaft so that when ASA 100 is on its detent, the effects of the gear lash are split 1/4 each way of the aperture mark (as opposed to Eg bang on if you are stopping down and 1/2 stop off if you open up—or vice versa). You can then easily live with the gear lash effect even with transparency.
Contaflex Super Repair Tips
The problem with the camera should basically be confined to the shutter. It has evaporated lubricant residue. This is the same basic problem any other period camera with a Synchro-Compur will have. A Contaflex simply manifests it a bit differently, because its shutter must open for viewing before exposure, and its aperture blades are auto stop down.
One thing which makes the Super a bit more tedious to re-assemble is its use of the aperture setting wheel on the body. You can throw the shutter back on the body any way you like, but you won't be able to select all the different combinations of shutter and aperture if the timing is wrong. And the light meter calibration will be lost. There's a sliding ring that rotates around the shutter under the shutter speed control ring. This has a coupling gear in it that meshes with teeth on the shutter and aperture rings. It's what drives the Exposure Value cross coupling of shutter and aperture.
If one proceeds to pull the shutter out without noting the exact positions of all of the following, the timing from aperture dial to setting rings will be lost:
Aperture setting dial rotational orientation (it goes around the clock more than once);
ASA setting;
Shutter speed setting;
Aperture ring setting;
Rotating gear ring tooth mesh with shutter and aperture rings.
One point I find slightly irritating about the design of the original Super is that Zeiss decided to design a coupling system that limits the combination of shutter and aperture you are able to set, to the measuring range of the light meter. What I mean by this is that it is, indeed, possible to set any combination from 30 seconds and f/2.8 right through to 1/500 & f/22 (from "B" to 30s you are actually getting "Bulb", not Eg a timed 30s, it's just the required EV for the aperture). However—if you have your ASA set to Eg 25, the gearing won't permit you to set 1/500 & f/22. At ASA 25, the meter measurement range won't stretch to that. Conversely, with ASA 400 set, Eg. B & f/2.8 cannot be selected together. The Contarex Cyclops used a similar approach but Zeiss were nice enough to add a green setting on the ASA that lets you set any combination at any time.
I have laboured this point because whilst it will be necessary to set an appropriate ASA if you want to rotate the rings to 30s & f/2.8—with, say, ASA 6 or perhaps 12 the mesh of the rings should let you do that. Similarly, with a high ASA 1/500 & f/22 can both be set together.
If you are fortunate enough to be working on a Super that's never been disassembled since Zeiss made it I reckon that's half the battle won. You can photograph the orientation of the items I mentioned above and just replicate this on re-installation of the shutter.
Sadly, more of the Supers I've seen, than not, have been assembled by people with the timing off. Meaning it's trial and error to find a gear timing that actually lets you access the full range of ring coupling and gets the meter reading right!
I find the best way to set a Super (that's actually correctly put together in the first place) is to set the ASA to the lowest number, the shutter to 30s, aperture to f/2.8 and then (if you don't need to do a full strip down) temporarily tape the aperture dial firmly in place to guard against accidentally altering it.
You can then begin to disassemble the front of the shutter including the rings, (painstakingly noting their precise positions, and the mesh of the coupling ring gear) and take the shutter out.
You'll want the focus right at the infinity stop and immediately need to mark the helicals to each other, or measure the inner ring installed height precisely, on removing the shutter, to keep the lens infinity focus correct on re-assembly.
If somebody has already stuffed your gear timing up it takes longer. From scratch, (with the shutter out) rotating the aperture dial anti-clockwise as far as it will go, then, coming clockwise 1/4–1/2 turn will get that in the general ballpark. With the rotating coupling ring clockwise as far as it can go, the shutter on 30s and aperture on f/2.8 you'll be getting close. Expect to have to pull the shutter off a couple of times to fine tune the aperture dial a tooth or so but you'll be in the right zone. The meter will be off, but when the basic timing is good, by removing the ASA discs from the aperture dial at Eg ASA 100, you can rotate the meter shaft and centre the needle for a good sunny 16 before re-fitting the discs at ASA 100.
There is enough play in the gear mesh that Eg closing down the aperture to get your needle zeroed can give an exposure that's half a stop different than if you were to zero the needle by opening up. It's because of the gear lash.
I try to set the meter shaft so that when ASA 100 is on its detent, the effects of the gear lash are split 1/4 each way of the aperture mark (as opposed to Eg bang on if you are stopping down and 1/2 stop off if you open up—or vice versa). You can then easily live with the gear lash effect even with transparency.
Pál_K
Cameras. I has it.
Thank you for your detailed and meticulous information and suggestions - I appreciate it!
Definitely I will do as you suggest regarding the ISO and shutter speed, aperture settings. I expected that to be a complication to the repair process.
There is a sticker inside the film chamber which suggests the camera had been worked on at some point prior to when I bought it. However, the exposure settings and the meter seemed to be appropriate - at least in daylight.
It’s a nice camera and I have good lenses for it, so I’m looking forward to a very careful disassembly, lubrication, and reassembly.
drmatthes
Zeiss Addict
ZI Contax RF repair in the Ukraine
ZI Contax RF repair in the Ukraine
From a seller in Kiev, Ukraine (I have purchased an excellently CLA'd / serviced Contax II "Kiev" clone in his online shop), I have received his contact in the Ukraine who he says also services the original pre-WW2 Contax II and its post-WW2 (Jena) model:
Vladimir
e-Mail: [email protected]
Phone +38063-8232205
ZI Contax RF repair in the Ukraine
From a seller in Kiev, Ukraine (I have purchased an excellently CLA'd / serviced Contax II "Kiev" clone in his online shop), I have received his contact in the Ukraine who he says also services the original pre-WW2 Contax II and its post-WW2 (Jena) model:
Vladimir
e-Mail: [email protected]
Phone +38063-8232205
No probs. Glad to help. The basic idea is to peg all the rings on the shutter as far as they will go, then prevent the aperture dial from shifting and losing the timing relationship between them all. From memory the minimum ASA is 6 I think. If the settings I suggest don't quite fall in place, the ASA dial may move a click or two beyond the lowest number, don't be afraid to bottom that out to line things up. If the coupling gear on the rotating ring is on the last tooth clockwise in its rack you are likely OK.
With all that care it's still not so hard to find your settings a tooth or so out the first time. But as long as you're close, it's not so bad. Unlike trying to work it all out from scratch...
If you run into problems myself and I'm sure others will try to help.