Salut-S Arax updrage - worth it?

I'm just dusting off my film equipment among which is a Soviet Salut-S. Unlike

a lot of these camera which have quality control issues, this one works great

and always has, and believe me, I KNOW how Soviet cameras are...I think I buried

6 Zenit's before I gave up and bought a Canon Elan IIe, which I still use.

 

I recently discovered a web site that rebuilds and upgrades these cameras and I

was thinking about sending my Salut-S to them for the treatment.

 

Has anyone done this? Is it worth it? Mainly, I wanted to have the inside of

the camera flocked, and the shiny metal shutter replaced with a cloth one.

Apparently they do a number of other things to make the camera more consistent,

which I'm not at all opposed to. My specimen already has the twist-lock lens

mount, and I bought a TTL spot meter prism for it...so for the $150 or so plus

shipping, is this a worthwhile upgrade? I can get a Kiev-60 body from Arax

(which will accept my lens and prism) for $209, but it doesn't have the

Hassy-like look. I've never used the Kiev-88 or the -60, but it does not appear

that there are major feature changes.

 

I've seen the operation of the Salut described as "sounding like you're crushing

walnuts...and that's when it's working the way it's supposed to" and that much

is true. It sounds and feels horrible, but it takes good pictures. Does Arax

really smooth it out enough to be worth the investment?

According to everything I have read the Salyut was one of the most unreliable cameras. You would be advised to get a more modern Arax upgraded Kiev 60 or 88.

yeah, I've read that too, but mine seems to work exceptionally well. I emailed Arax and asked for their opinion on the matter. I like med format, but this is a hobby for me so the budget is limited.

There is also a german guy working on Saluts, Kievs and Pentacons:

 

www.baierfoto.de

Perhaps you should just continue to use it. If it isn't broken, why fix it?

 

Flocking you can buy and install yourself, if you're handy with your hands and have the patience for it.

 

Perhaps you could ask Arax how much for repair and upgrade at the same time, in case it needs repair in the future.

 

Other than that, I hope someone posts who has experience dealing with them. I'm interested in them too, and would like to know more.

IMHO leave it as it is - The Salut S is an older model and the expertise etc of these companies is with newer and different models - It would be a pity if they interfered with a working camera and it was never the same afterwards.

good points. most of the annoyance comes from the crunchy film back. I could just buy a new-design film back and a flocking kit ($10) and just use it till it quits, and then get a modified 88 body. After all, the lenses, back, and TTL/Spot prism will all fit on the new one.

 

Guess you guys talked me out of it!

Allow me to talk you back into it ;-)

 

I've been using my Salyut-S for a couple of years now and I've been amazed at how reliable this camera has been (despite all the bad press it's received).

Mine was serviced by Arax when I bought it. I had it CLA'd and a new black titanium shutter installed. Gevorg (owner of ARAX) is a pleasure to do business with and delivers excellent services (if only the cameras build at Arsenal started out with the same quality control).

 

If you're serious about using your salyut and you believe it's in need of the upgrade, by all means go for it. It will only benifit from it.

One word of advice though: you mention installing a cloth shutter. While the jury is still out on this one, think about this: the salyut-s was initially designed with a metal shutter which behaves differently to a cloth one. I believe that a metal shutter will provide you with better accuracy (mine doesn't produce banding even at 1/1000s), so I you do choose to go with ARAX I recommend you let him install a black titanium one. It will however make more noise than a cloth one.

 

You could off course always order a fresh ARAX (cm/mlu) body for about 350$ and use all your current accessories and lenses on that body.

 

DbVdb

Yeah, I just got an email back from Gevorg. He said that it is the Salut that has reliability problems, NOT the Salut-S (which I have). My shutter has a little dimple in it (not sure how it got there...may have been there all along, but doesn't seem to affect the function of the camera. I suppose a CLA and flocking is really all it needs - I'm not sure if a cloth shutter would really CHANGE anything - I just thought because it was black, it might cut down on internal reflections. I didn't see an option for a black titanium shutter, but I'll have to ask him.

 

Still, it's probably under $200 to have the camera reworked (including shipping), and close to $400 for a new body, so looks like if I do it, I'll just do it with the one I already have.

Dietbrand -

 

Is the titanium shutter worth the effort? What difference does it make compared to the stainless steel shutter that's there now? It won't make any more noise than the steel shutter I have now, will it?

 

With the cost of film/processing being what it is, if I can get this camera reliable, I think I'll probably move to medium format for my main camera...especially if I can snag a few film backs on ebay cheap.