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Agfa Insolette


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<p>Hello,<br>

I have an old Agfa Insolette I that I recently dusted off and took renewed interest in. It feels compact (relatively speaking), it is light and it takes 120 film - yay! However as it is apparently the case with most of these old timers, the zooming ring is frozen. I tried and tried but nada...My question is if anyone has had any experiencing fixing this kind of problem? I found plenty of repair options online, but frankly I am not ready to drop that kind of money for this camera just yet - it is the cheaper Agnar option. Bellows seem fine, there are no light leaks, I ran a roll through it and everything seemed fine other than the focus - it is stuck at 4ft:)...If it were at infinity then I could have lived with it..Any tips?</p>

 

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<p>Try a hair dryer on it for a a constant heating for 10-15 minutes, this should soften the cursed Agfa lube which turns into glue as years pass. Be prepared to use brute force to rotate the focusing ring, such as plumbers pliers with some sort of soft material in between their jaws so you won't damage the rotating ring when applying the pressure. If it moves keep on twisting it back and fourth so the solidified grease breaks the bond. After that, remove the focusing set screw, unscrew the front element of the lens and carefully wipe the threads with lighter fluid until any residue of the old grease is gone. Re lube with non mineral based grease. Remember to set focusing properly to infinity when rescrewing the lens, you can do this by using ground glass on the film plane(or scotch magic tape), setting the shutter to "B" and and screw in the front element until infinity is in focus. Put the focus screw back in and you are in business.</p>
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<blockquote>

<p>Agfa Insolette? zooming ring?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I take it you mean an Isolette? Can you tell us which model? A picture? </p>

<p>The "zooming ring"? you mean the focus ring?<br>

Perhaps a drop of lighter fluid (naphtha), but be careful not to flood it too much.</p>

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<p>Those Agfa folders. So insolent.</p>

<p>I blame the bored employees who thought it would be funny to assemble them using green epoxy instead of grease. They put the same green epoxy in my HW-55 target air rifle, which after a couple of decades in storage spat out hard green particles rather than .177 wadcutters, which did not win me any 10 meter matches. Who ever said Germans have no sense of humor? Certainly not I.</p>

<p>Removing the dreaded green cement takes patience, not brute force. I used a combination of heat from a hair dryer, followed by overnight soaks in a solvent (probably naptha, maybe acetone, tho' it's been several years and I don't recall). Naturally you don't want to apply heat from a source that might ignite a flammable or combustible solvent, so let the solvent dry overnight or over a period of a few days.</p>

<p>As the green goo softens you can pick it out using a toothpick. A little at a time. Very little at a time.</p>

<p>Remember - patience, not brute force. It took about a week to soften and remove the stuff but I didn't have to resort to pliers, vise grips, oil filter wrenches, plastic explosives or gentle application of the ball peen hammer and colorful language I learned in the Navy.</p>

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<p>I had the same problem with my first Isolette. I thought it was focussing until I realised that the knurled ring was just spinning and the lens was not moving. The little grub screws had worn loose with previous efforts to focus. It just takes a little patience (quite a lot actually, but I don't want to be discouraging). I used lighter fuel poured into openings and crevices (it is not a good idea to play with fireworks and matches when doing this), and eventually it began to work loose. Disassembling is then quite easy, but if you do take lens elements out, make a note of which way they face. Both the male and female threads will need thorough cleaning. I used little wooden cocktail stills to prise the solidified grease out of the threads, and made sure they were totally clean, using cotton tips dipped in methylated spirits. I could have used vodka but I had other plans for that.</p>

<p>To regrease them, I bought a tube of silicone grease from an electronics components shop, and applied tiny spots with a clean cocktail stick at suitable spacings, then worked the threads together to spread the grease evenly. It only requires a tiny amount to do the trick, and I estimate that the tube of grease I bought will last about three hundred years. Depending on how much disassembly you've done, you may need to recalibrate the focus. Be aware that the lens threads may be multi-start, so take note of the orientation of the lens at the point where it comes free from the threads.</p>

<p> </p>

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I tried the gentle method advocated by Lex and Alex for many weeks, but on all of my Agfas have always been forced to resort in the end to Ralf's brute force method. Maybe I am just the owl who can't wait to get to the center of the Tootsie Pop and you will have success if you keep licking. The force method does work, though.
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<p>I didn't read all the posts, but I took the lens out of the camera. Then I put two hose clamps on the two parts that are supposed to move. It was then put into an oven set to 250 degrees F. With heavy gloves I took it out every few minutes and tried to unscrew it. At about 225 F. it started to move. After unscrewing the lens I put it in lighter fluid for 24 hours and then carefully cleaned the threads, and re-lubed with then thinnest oil I could find, thinner than 3 in 1. </p>
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  • 9 years later...

Hello:.

 

Old thread, but it makes more sense to me to ask a question here I think is relevant here than start a new thread.

 

I recently got a 1937 (?) Agfa Jsolette (black plastic top) with Jgestar lens. I got the the front cell free with a hair dryer. It had no visible green lube solids, so I guess someone else had cleaned it out but not replaced lube.

 

Bellows is better than other Agfa's I've had, perhaps old enough to be pre-synthetic...

 

The focus ring set screws are too chewed up to re-tighten.

 

Does anyone have any advice regarding replacement set screws, or at least identifying the thread requirement?

 

I sometimes resort to digital calipers and counting threads under a microscope, but these are so tiny I think I'd be talking myself into believing whatever I rationalized my measurements to indicate.

 

I just now realized my question is about' old threads'.

 

Thank you

 

Murray

Murray
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Hahaaa.. the pun with the threads... I think there are some standards for these "grub" screws..although I don't know ....I have considered this problem too. I have a focus ring that needs same.. my thought was to inquire at a watch repair shop. Do you know one? Just an idea.. there is also the option to buy one for parts. They are verdammt small!!
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