Advice sought on cosina ct - 1

Hi

I've been gifted a cosina ct- 1 with four lenses (a sigma 35 - 80 DL plastic thing that's got sticky rubber; an alfo 135; a pentax 100; and a chinon 50). The lenses are riddled with fungus, but possibly still usable. The camera is in good order, dusty, but cleaned up nicely. The shutter seems accurate to my ear and eye (the tv test) and with an LR 44 battery, the meter seems passably accurate. The foam seals however, are junk, and decayed. I've cleaned them out. Does anyone know where I can get replacements. The foam was on the rear film compartment door, and along the front top of the prism inside the lens mount, which probably also acted as a mirror damper. I could get a local teckie to do it for me, but the camera is pretty much not worth spending too much on. Still, if it goes, and I can get the foam and do it myself, it would be good to use it.

 

So, any advice on where to get replacement foam would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regards, Arthur (apiarist1)

What is this 'riddled with fungus, but possibly still usable' ? Sounds like you have made up your mind?

Arthur, have a look here:

 

HOW TO REPLACE LIGHT SEALS WITHOUT USING FOAM STRIPS, MOVIE CAMERA STYLE

 

I personally use black knitting wool for the film door grooves, fixed witth silicone glue, and sticky back black felt for the hinge seal and mirror bumper. I've done dozens of cameras, with no reported problems.

Hi James

There's patchy fungus, so I'd expect there to be a loss of contrast and possibly some flare, but they focus well (except the sigma, which is incredibly sloppy), no oil on the blades, and the apertures are smooth.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, John. I'll give it a try. Where do you get sticky back felt - I suspect a craft store?

 

Regards, Arthur (apiarist1)

Hi

I've been gifted a cosina ct- 1 ... The foam seals however, are junk, and decayed. I've cleaned them out. Does anyone know where I can get replacements. The foam was on the rear film compartment door, and along the front top of the prism inside the lens mount, which probably also acted as a mirror damper. I could get a local teckie to do it for me, but the camera is pretty much not worth spending too much on. Still, if it goes, and I can get the foam and do it myself, it would be good to use it.

So, any advice on where to get replacement foam would be greatly appreciated.

 

Here is an eBay auction for the foam:

 

Cosina CT1 Super Uscamera Custom Light Seal Kit New - Free Shipping. | eBay

 

The auction has about one day left, then it'll no doubt be relisted if you miss it now.

Thanks Vincent, while the method suggested by John (and the link he gives) looks an easy do, I think I'll try the foam seals. But I've archived the link John gave (I have other older cameras for which foam seals are unavailable).

 

Regards, Arthur (apiarist1)

It's rarely worth paying out much for cleaning such lenses. If you can get a bit of experience cleaning some yourself, without harming something particularly valuable; benefit.

Sometimes it's only one accessible surface affected. Cleaning zooms; my personal horror.....

It's rarely worth paying out much for cleaning such lenses. If you can get a bit of experience cleaning some yourself, without harming something particularly valuable; benefit.

Sometimes it's only one accessible surface affected. Cleaning zooms; my personal horror.....

 

ABSOLUTELY

 

Trying to find somebody to clean a fungused zoom lens was how I got started on eBay.

 

The American military used to sell a lot of equipment (like armored cars at my local SAC base. One of the missed opportunities of my teen years. SOB!) for next to nothing because it was "beyond serviceable repair". Unless you're taking about Zeiss, Leica, and such-like lenses, you will almost always find it cheaper to replace than to repair/clean/

Thanks,

 

I did a google and found a helpful link on dismantling the chinon lens, which actually turned out to be really easy. Got it reasonably clean using the ammonia hydrogen peroxide idea on another posting I trawled. I was prepared to pay someone to clean the pentax. I'm not going to bother about the sigma - it's plastic. And I'll try the Alfo when I can work out how to get the front element off. Thanks everyone for the assistance and ideas.

 

The viewfinder is aged and hazy, but useable, so I'm not going to delve into removing the top. The seals should arrive in the next week - when it's done I'll share some shots.

 

Regards, Arthur (apiarist1)

Well, a bit late, but thanks to Vincent Peri for the link to new foam seals - they arrived and were installed. And to others who gave advice. I've cleaned up the Chinon lens, which is a bit plasticky, and the Pentax 100mm lens, which is more substantial. The camera came with a Jessop flash, which systematically overexposed and gave bleached highlights. The camera was taken out to dinner this last saturday to our local, er, rural bowling club (that's a club where old men pretend to know what they're doing and roll balls down a manicured green; but really, just want to get pissed as newts).

 

So the camera and lens:

 

 

 

And herewith some of the denizens of the 'bowling' club. All with auto flash, about f5.6, and FP4 developed in Ilfosol. Touched up in Photoshop for the glaring burnt out highlights

 

 

Two patrons

 

 

 

The bartendress. A robust woman of some significant capacity. I've seen her deal abruptly, and successfully, with intoxicated front row forwards.

 

 

 

 

A player

 

 

Well, the claret did flow freely

 

 

 

Another patron. He's at least sober.

 

I was really pleased getting this camera back to going. And thanks for the help. It's not a flash camera, but works. And Vincent Peri, your link was a godsend. JDvW, yes, it's possible, and at times easy, to do it yourself. I did my first run on the chinon lens, which eventually sorted, but gave me great experience. The pentax is sorted - it's not the flashest portrait lens, but I may get a reverse adapter - I think it would probably work well as a macro.

 

Regards, Arthur (apiarist1)

They look quite nice, to me. Some look a little light, but nothing I'd worry about. And, lawn bowling?!? I thought that was from another age. Do people still do that?