Contax IIa/IIIa CLA recommendations

Sorry if I ask the same question asked some time ago, but I'm looking for a selenium cell for my IIIA...I heard that the company which made them in the UK is now out of business, Henry from vintage Contax doesn't (legitemely) want to sell them separately from the total CLA (that might take three years) so I don't where to look...
 
Hello,

I've heard that a Swiss repairman, Mr. Claudio Fabio, located not far from Zürich could be able to susbstitute exhausted selenium cells.

You could try to contact him and ask if he could do that on your Contax-IIIa.

Best wishes,

E.L.
 
JohnM said:
I have purchased a Contax IIIa which while it is in usable condition, could really use a CLA.

Now, I understand that Harry Sherer is considered the cream of the crop in terms of Contax technicians, but his waiting list is measured in years and that's a little longer than I would like to wait. (I may put this camera on the waiting list and have it CLA'd elsewhere in the interim - who knows.)

Does anyone have any experience having older Contax repaired/serviced in the US? Someone mentioned to me that CameraQuest or Essex may do it - other recommendations?
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Don't automatically discount Henry Sherer because of his legendary waiting list. Sometimes he gets cancellations at the last moment. I've got two Contax II's overhauled by him and they are wonderful machines and still very viable thanks to him. My first one just happened to get right to his repair desk because I happened to contact him when he had a last minute cancellation.

Before my photography and journalism career took off, I used skills the Navy taught me in camera repair to overhaul Nikon F's and F2's for a Washington D.C. Camera Repairman. I still work on some cameras myself. But as Henry will tell you, the Contax Shutter is as different from anything else as the the Mazda Wankel Rotary Engine was from your standard piston driven variety.

I would never attempt a Contax shutter without a lot more training. They are just that different.

His words -- this shutter is a marvel of engineering -- yet it's a dead offshoot of the collective camera shutter DNA chain.

Reach out to him and ask -- it can't hurt. The fact he'll warranty these cameras for a YEAR after the overhaul is unlike anything.

When he overhauled my #2 body, he wrote me an email telling me this body was "Jena Contax" and explained it to me what that meant and that I should insure it for at least $2000. And sent me documentation to that effect.

I'm not sure if the IIIa's shutter is similar, but I'd ask him -- he gives me an education every time I send him an email.
 
Essex is out of business. KEH repair is hit and miss; they contract many shoes repairman to fix camera. Their repair is third rated.

I am not sure HS is still working on CONTAX, his waiting list move to nowhere since 2013. It seems he does 1 or less camera per month, so the waiting list is about more than 30 years if you at the bottom of the list.
 
Contax technician in Australia

Contax technician in Australia

Hello, new in this forum :)

Could anyone recommend Contax technician/specialist in Australia? Any suggestion in Asia region will also helpful. My Contax IIa works quite well but may need CLA considering the failure of shutter curtain to close properly at speed lower than 1/500.

Cheers,
 
Hello,

i would like to add another Contax technician to the list: last week i sent in my jammed Contax II to Michael Prügel of https://www.kameraservice-ostkreuz.de/ in Berlin. Five days later i got a phone call and an SMS telling me the repair would cost EUR 310, as the shutter and the rewind mechanism were broken and asking whether i wanted to do it. Of course I did. So i am now expecting back my Contax in about two to three weeks. I have already used the services of this shop some years ago for another camera, and it came out great and quick.

On this list are some more shops (all in Germany, Austria or CH), some of which will probably work on Contaxes too: http://www.4photos.de/camera-diy/kamerareparatur.html

Don´t know which of them speaks English, but worth a try, i reckon. Anyway, contacting any one of them to me makes much more sense than waiting a year on Henry Scherer (who seems brilliant at marketing himself...).

Use those babies!

Cheers,

Leon
 
Does anyone have any current recommendations for where to get a Contax IIa/IIIa affordably and more timely serviced or CLA'd? Henry Scherer is a years-long wait, Eddy Smolov has retired, Wolf Umbach is out of business, Essex is gone, Ken Ruth has retired...

I've emailed Jerry Sorin but haven't heard back, and am waiting on a response from Radu Lesaru of 3R Camera. Mark Hansen is doing this sort of work but he suggested that he typically gets $350–400 for a CLA, which is more than I can swing at the moment. Don at DAG will do a CLA as well for $285, but I haven't heard his name mentioned much in connection with Contax rangefinders. Anyone have any experience using him for their Contaxes (I've used him for other work and he did a great job; I didn't mind the 3-month turnaround either)?
 
astrobuoy said:
Don at DAG will do a CLA as well for $285, but I haven't heard his name mentioned much in connection with Contax rangefinders. Anyone have any experience using him for their Contaxes (I've used him for other work and he did a great job; I didn't mind the 3-month turnaround either)?
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I've had Don do multiple Leica M's, Barnack's and Nikon rangefinders over the years and he has always done excellent work and stood behind his repairs. Didn't know he did Contax cameras, but I guess they can't be that much different from the other rangefinders he services.

Best,
-Tim
 
Thanks, Tim. I've also had a good experience with Don. I was just wondering, as I'd read in an older thread on RFF that the Contax RFs are fairly specialized and not all that easy to work on, so I wasn't sure. I'm also unsure where $285 for a CLA sits on the price scale for work on Contax RFs, but with so little to compare to it's hard to know.
 
Hatchetman said:
There is a IIa on Ebay supposedly serviced by Radu Lesaru in NYC. That's all I know. Might be a lead.
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Radu is more famously known for working on ALPAs. If I remember correctly (and I may not) he was trained by ALPA. I figure anyone that can specialize in repairing ALPAs can repair most anything -:)
 
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