Yashica Contax RTS III Repair Needed

<p>I have an RTSIII with a viewfinder issue. There is a blue illuminated splotch in the display of the Aperture at the bottom of the viewfinder which partially obscures the current aperture. I'm not sure what part needs service or replacement. Is it still possible to get this sort of thing serviced these days?</p>

<p>Anyone tried KEH's service center? I'm tempted there because I live near them.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

This model hopefully is new enough that they can still work on it... check with..!! http://www.kyoceraimaging.com/customer.htm

<p>Thanks, I've sent them an email. I would honestly never have thought to try Kyocera given how long it's been.</p>

This is an old thread, but it's MY thread and I want to be sure to explain what happened. My local Tech was an ex Yashica/Contax repair technician but he didn't have the parts. He ultimately contacted a friend in Japan with connections to the group that made these originally and it turned out that there was at least one copy of the part there that I needed. We sent it to Japan and a couple of months later it came back fixed. Took it out today as it happens. Everything was AOK.

Wow... I love happy endings... I'm sure the return to Japan and back was not cheap...but it was probably worth it to you!!

I thought so. It's such a nice camera. Just really heavy. Those first generation of electronic cameras were always going to be a problem to keep in repair, especially in their current obsolete state. Parts run out eventually. Just used it the other day.

I just bought one from KEH and I love it. I hope it lasts a super long time!

The weak point is, as I said, the viewfinder electronics. It was even worse with the RTS I and II. My specific problem with my RTS III was extra stuff lit up in the viewfinder. It was still useable, just annoying. The RTS I and II were much worse. Their meter read incorrectly depending on what aperture was selected. My tech says that on the I especially, the electronics are really jammed in there very tightly.

 

Trouble is that I find the way the controls are designed to be just so amazingly good. I'm tempted to buy another RTS I today, just for how good it feels to use (and for the lower weight). I feel the same way about the Leica Ms, but THOSE stay working reliably decade after decade. It might be interesting to watch the M5 though since that was the first M with electronics, or possibly the M8 since that was the first digital.

 

Just love that control layout though! They're wonderful to use.

I have a similar problem. I bought Contax RTS III and everything was OK. It worked just fine. One day a viewfinder issue appeared. It was dim and then the camera stopped working at all. It would be nice to repair it because it's in a really nice condition but I have no idea where to do it. I would be appreciate If you can give me any advice.

My own path to repair is not unusable. My former Yashica tech can no longer find parts for any of these boys. He *might* be prepared to do the repair if he had the parts but to do that you'd need a donor camera, and even then, it would have to be a donor camera without that flaw. If I were still trying to repair my RTS III I would probably prowl eBay and KEH looking for broken RTS IIIs which were working enough to see if it had a viewfinder issue and if not, trying to buy them and send them to the repair guy hoping it would have the part. Trouble is, most of them seem to fail with either metering or viewfinder or both issues. On the positive side they aren't going for the $1000 plus they were when I bought mine so each parts machine you would buy would at least be cheaper.