Konica Auto s3 disaster - what was left

This is it folks.

A really good parts cam, like i said.<div></div>

Way to go...start 2 threads when one would have sufficed.

Did you attempt a CLA yourself?

my guess is that there are some screws on the inside of the camera that you were looking for.

Camera repair is best left for professionals; it's been said here many times. It's very easy to turn a nice camera into a piece of junk.

Ouch. My condolences.

Never mind the naysayers. If you don't mess something up along the way, then how will you learn what not to do? I've managed to fix a few problems with a few different cameras, but I've also been lucky. Just don't try that on a Leica.

;-)

Er... you didn't try to use that adjustable wrench did you?

I was going to try to take the filter retainer off the inside of the bent filter holder but no luck.

 

The objective was to tighten the whole lens barrel as it was just a little jiggly- nothing that i couldn't have tolerated.

 

Personally, and i can say this without any qualms, i knew the risks

but didn't care if things were wrecked.

 

I'm sorry guys and gals, the camera just simply DID NOT impress me with the first set of photos! Heresay!, heresay! blasphemy! I can here it now. Who cares and lighten up folks!

Simple truth. These sharks on Ebay that quote the " tessar type lens"

and go on and on like it is the Leica of P&s's are like some used car salesmen i've run into.

It may be a good camera and lens but it certainly is not THAT good!!

Besides, it cost me practically nill for the camera so what did i care?

Where i live these things are popping up like dead flies on barn windows.

 

I DO have the cleanest view and rangefinder windows you'll

ever find though!! hahaahah!!

I just put the tools around it for a comical effect.

 

I have to say that i did actually benefit from the experience.

I also learned to go very slowly ( no, i am not kidding)

when removing/unscrewing camera parts. The positioning and shape of the tiny screws/parts can be critical to easily getting everything back together.

 

The actual rangefinder itself- the split prism- i did not touch after removing the top. I just cleaned the accessible glass very softly with a Q-Tip wrapped in some tissue and some ordinary glass cleaner.

It was fun and a great learning experience.

 

I could write a short tutorial on removing the top cover

of the Konicas' and on accessing the lens element - which is a beautiful one piece unit that unscrews and comes out, revealing the

wonderful compur shutter blades.

 

I can say that the wiring of the flash sync , hot shoe and light meter is simple, at least as far as what is on the outside of the actual steel case.

 

The real problem, the dandy , for me, was that bent filter holder and how to defeat it so i could take off the inner ring that holds the lens assembly face ring in place.

I could have left it but just said WTH, i was bored and in the state of mind to do a little investigating!

 

Great fun.

No, if the camera was of any real value TO ME, not to YOU, then i would not have touched it.

 

I have a Super Baldina, a Zeiss Contina, Olympus cams of all shapes and sizes, and my favourite of all, the yashicas.

Ask me if i would try to pry any of those thing apart and the answer would be no.

But i just HATED that stupid little poor performing sob Konica Super S3!!! Take that !

<A HREF="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=654606"> This </A>is a link to

how to straighten a bent filter ring.<p>My introduction to camera repair was a bit sadder.

I was about eight years old. My father gave me his old Yashicamat. The first time I clicked

the shutter, it broke. He screamed at me and told me he'd never give me anything nice

again. ( He kept his word. When he died on Christmas day, 2003, several friends called to

tell me I got my wish. ) I tried to fix the camera, but I never did reassemble it.<p> You

guys with the prostate problems and the anonymous names, Rants and Raves on Craig's

list is two web sites over to the left. That's where you belong.<p>Meanwhile, Mike, nice

try. Better luck next time.

And does it work now ?

Mike

 

I learn from my mistakes, the more mistakes I made the better I learned and the less mistakes I make now. Professionals are guys who make more mistakes than normal people so they do better, some times people have to pay for those guys mistakes. Just take a little more time to tear your camera apart, you have nothing more to lose with that camera and the second Konica S3 is a nice cake. Don't worry be happy if you want to try another camera I'll send you one. Good luck

 

Minh

you should have used your torch instead.

I make my living as the maintenance manager for a large factory and I interview a LOT of mechanics and electricians as part of the hiring process.

 

The question I pose to every person I interview is, "Tell me about a time when you really messed up. Messed up so bad you wish you could go back in time and 'do over'. What did you learn from it?"

 

That question brings some people up short. *gasp! "Say something negative about myself in an interview?!!"

 

The way I see it, there are only two kinds of people who have never made a big mistake or utterly ruined something. The first person who will tell you it's never happened to them is just your basic, everyday liar. The second person who will tell you he has never made a huge blunder simply has never been in a position where he could have.

 

Neither is qualified to work for me.

 

The guy who puts his head down, shakes it back and forth slowly, then looks up with a sheepish grin on his face as he recounts a truly horrible incident that he has never forgotten is the guy I am looking for. What he learned from it determines how much farther his interview will go. Every one of my top mechanics and electricians has a story that would have you rolling.

 

The liar and the untested? They don't go any farther in the interview.

 

To learn your lesson on a thirty dollar camera is thirty dollars well spent. Get two more just like it and keep at it. When you can fix one, move to a fifty dollar camera. Learn, read, make mistakes and move on. Go back to the wrecked camera. See what you would have done differently. Demystify the process.

 

*Buy the proper tools.

Mike - Good try and way to go being brave and bold. I will quote a brief conversation with my repair man who is excellent:

 

me: "How did you learn to repair so many cameras so well"

him: "easy, I broke many of them as an amateur before I started fixing them".

 

Hope this explains it all.

There are only two cameras that I have actually opened up & performed repairs on (Kiev 60 & Argus c3) & in both cases & I had specific screw turn for turn screw..do this first dummy...instructions.Everything else I leave to the pro's.

Actually the camera - i am being truthful here- DID cost only $3.99

at the Goodwill store! It was $6.99 but i talked them down a bit.

Can you believe that?

 

Thanks Minh, but i would not feel right getting anything for free to be honest- admirable to offer though.

 

My dad was a mechanic and an inventor.

He bent,twisted, forged, and generally made all kinds of odd and unexpected things out of bits of this and that. Sort of like that

guy on Bond who creates all the wacko weapons for OO7.

He also took risks. Investigating, experimenting, and having to know WHY is in my nature, like it was in my dads.

No one of course, especially myself, advocates foolish destruction and that was not the intent here. I wanted a nice tight lens housing assembly!

I could afford the loss, and moreover did not care if the camera was wrecked 'cause i did not like it anyway and it was a chance to learn.

 

How could i tighten the lens barrel so it was not as rickety on this otherwise perfectly functioning camera?

If i took out this screw and that screw...

 

The retaining ring did me in. It turned so far up then it jammed, HARD.

Tried heating it, tried every method short of taking a tiny Dremel cutter and CUTTING it off. Actually, that may have worked but i

do not have a Dremel tool. As long as one did not hit the inner thread of the main ring! hahah

 

How to get that dented main thread ring straight? lesson: Don't use force if it won't turn, or a screwdriver tip in the little ring divet on a 45 to try to PUSH it around the circle!! It eventually snapped.

(Learned how fragile these tiny brass holding rings are.) .

Anyway, the thing still fires perfectly even if half of the front lens assembly is missing .

 

Someday i will run across another one but i won't bother to fix it. I just don't care for this particular Konica.

 

Ok , don't laugh; I DO have a Konica C35-V which i DO like to use!

Go figure! Its just a zone focuser! Very small though.

 

BTW, A LITTLE TRIVIA...

 

Behind the light sensor, on the INSIDE of the plastic bubble at the top of the outer ring is a small dial type thing which has tiny pinholes in it.

Not enouph light?

You can slide this over behind the electric " eye" to allow for more light to enter.

Anyway, it is there. The tiny holes become ever so slightly larger in progression. They go behind that sensor.

 

The rangefinder glass cover on the OUTSIDE of the camera had become

seperated from the inside of the metal camera wall. Maybe at some time the metal had warped.

I took some dots of bond-all and re-glued the glass - after taking off the top plate.

( The metal that the glass butted against ON THE INSIDE had to be slightly straitened of course.)

All of this and cleaned the glass too.

 

There was , as a consequence of the glass pulling away from the inside of the camera, a small gap, barely visible , on the OUTSIDE of the camera where the window and metal mated.

A lot of dust and stuff could easily have got in there, so any glass cleaning on the inside would have eventually been for not.

 

Small victories. JUST A FEW OF THE THINGS I LEARNED!

"Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all". The same goes for DIY camera repairs. Nice try. I agree with John Wilson about obtaining the proper tools. The proper tools for any type of work will make the job much easier. A professional repair person is someone who gets paid for their mistakes.

FORGOT TO SEND PIC....<div></div>

Hi Mike!

 

Hang on to the camera, you've got more than $5 worth of spare parts and screws and stuff there. You might want to check out http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/forum/messages/2/2.html?1153747105 where there is lots of good information and helpful discussion - some of those guys are particular fixed-lens-rangefinder buffs and can offer guidance on your next project.

 

In these RF cameras, often a wobbly lens doesn't come from anything in the lens at all: the whole lens and shutter is usually attached to a panel that's held on to the front of the camera with 4 screws, back behind the piece that has the self timer lever on it.... these screws get loose and then the whole panel wobbles, lens, shutter and all.

 

Keep at it, it's kind of fun when it works out better!

Hey Mike, can I borrow that wrench? My Kodak stereo, apart now for about 4 years, has refused to put itself back together. Perhaps if I threaten it?

I've destroyed my share of cameras. Also, just because it didn't perform that well for you, doesn't mean it wouldn't forever. This is why we take them apart, to make them work better. Like you said, no biggie.

 

I will toss in my two cents. I have discovered that whether I'm dismantling a camera, shutter, or a clock; the best thing to have around is my point and shoot digital camera. Can't remember how something was supposed to go together or how it should look? Look at the photo. Pretty easy.

 

I photographed all the while, but I took this one to show my buddy. As you can see, there wasn't room on the desk for the hammer and crowbar, so I had to keep them on the floor. :)

 

I did get a functional SRT101 out of this mess, though I thought for sure they were both going to end up in the dumpster. (BTW, the rewind crank from one of those in on my Spotmatic that came without one).<div></div>

I recently completely ruined a $10 Mamiya non-interchangeable-lens SLR, trying to figure out how to get the shutter/lens unit off to free up the blades. Felt bad putting it in the trash.

 

However, I've also just finished fixing a Solinette II and a Ricoh 300, based on that experience. So, that's two more $15-$20 cameras that I now have in fine working condition. It's fun. It's worth spending a little money and a lot of time learning.

 

Reed

That little bit of wobbliness may have been what caused your photos to turn out less than adequately. It doesn't take much. From what I've heard, Konica makes excellent lenses. A friend from work gave me an old C35 that I haven't put through its paces yet. The shutter opens and closes at what looks like one speed, but I haven't checked the battery yet. The filter ring is bent on this too, but I know how to fix that. Gimme that wrench!!!