Zeiss Super Ikonta A 530 cleaning/repair

I just acquired a Zeiss Super Ikonta A 530 (marked Super Ikomat)

4.5x6cm with a Tessar lens. When I bought the camera sight unseen I

was told the front element was a little cloudy. I assumed I could

get at the front element by removing the rear element but discovered

that T and B don?t work (although 1 sec on up seems OK). Anybody

know how to clean the lens with minimum disassembly (i.e. without

throwing the lens and rangefinder out of adjustment)? It is a

rather tiny but complicated affair.

In the other Zeiss cameras you ahve to take the front element out.

 

There are 3 screws in the front ring, loosen them and lift the focusing ring. Thaen take the front element out (you can leave marks with a sharpie to rememeber where it went.

 

After cleaning you can collimate again using another camera and Mike elek's recipe. http://host.fptoday.com/melek/zeiss/repair/collimate/collimate.html

 

The Shutters (Compurs) are prety easy to clean, always store it in the highest speed before B.

That coincides with Maizenberg?s instructions for cleaning the Moskva 2 lens so I?ll give it a try this evening.

 

I don?t have much luck with Compur shutters and have drawers full of springs and levers to prove that. While the shutter would benefit from a little watch oil on each axel I may leave well enough alone as the speeds seem OK. The B and T problem I suspect will involve bending something and that is where I usually come a cropper ? once one thing comes flying out of the shutter I?m doomed.

On older Compurs, T and B work without cocking the shutter. Just push the release button to open the shutter. On B, Bulb, the shutter will close when you release the button. On T, Time, the shutter will close after you release the button and press it a second time.

Well Pablo, the removal and cleaning of the front cell went smoothly. The collimation ? well we shall see? It made no sense to note the position of the cell as the camera had obviously been opened. In any event the correct position of the cell is somewhat pre-determined by the location of the detents struck into the rim for the setscrews (which must line up with the RF arm that actually turn the lens helical).

 

Assuming I got lucky and started the cell thread at the right point, I set the RF at the infinity position went outside with a piece of grounds glass and kept the shutter open by manipulating the cocking arm at the one second setting (remember no T or B) and checked infinity focus at a distant target until it seemed OK and the detents lined up correctly. Inside I tried at a closer target same results. Obviously with the detent position requirements and the lack of a way to hold the shutter open (that didn?t require one of my hands) I couldn?t fine focus the cell.

 

I think at this stage a roll of film is in order. If there are sharpness problems after my rough and ready ?fix? then Mike Elek?s collimator would be the next step. Many thanks for your advice and encouragement.

If the collimation was right in the first place (not always so!) you need to note both the final position of the front element and the exact point in which it separates from the middle element when you diassemble it. It doesn't sound like you did this.

 

Based on what you have described, don't even bother with film. The chances of you getting it right are not good. Get a cable release or if your camera doesn't have one, use a rubber band to hold the lever open on bulb, and use Mike Elek's guide to properly collimate your camera.

 

If its like my Moskva-5, then you can set the rangefinder by focusing on a far-away target (tower, moon, bright star etc). Finally place the focusing ring on and try hard not to move anything during the rangefinder alignment operation.

Bulb is not working - and I'm quite familiar with the operation of pre-war Compurs (having learned photography on them and currently having about a dozen) and am well supplied with cable releases (including those neat short pre-war Zeiss ones meant for folders)being also into LF. On my Super Ikomat the second cell is held by its own ring so it does not move when the front cell is removed.

 

In theory as there was only one possible position: i.e. where infinity focus and the setscrew detents lined up with the proper position of the RF accentuating tab (focus was also verified at closer range both on the RF and groundglass) so it should equal the factory collimation.

 

In real life it looks someone was mucking about disassembling the lens and my theory may not work.. I agree it is something of a long shot but worth a roll of film to avoid having to solve the T and B problem (which would be necessary to do any critical focusing/collimation).

 

The camera has great nostalgia for me. By childhood camera was my father?s 4.5x6 Ikomat with Novar lens which is sitting on my desk next to the new Super Ikomat (both of the same vintage ? early). My father always said the ?one with the Tessar? was better but he couldn?t afford it at the time (he moved up to a Voigtlander Bergheil which I also still use). I now have the one my father couldn?t afford at the height of the depression. That?s my motivation to make it work.

Please, no need to get upset, I didn't see that T and B didn't work on the first read. I assume you know that T and B only work when the Rim Set Compur is not cocked?

 

I guess you would since you're such an expert.

No upset - just old enough to have had to use them when they weren't classic. I appreciate your comments and in fact your encouragement got me going.

 

I have in my files an alternative collimation method that uses scratches on scrap film held in place by a ground glass as a pressure plate http://www.leica-camera.com/discus/messages/22/25880.html?1077094599

 

Scratch a row of parallel lines in a piece of film (use processed BW film, the blackened starting piece), place it in the film plane. Put a ground glass to use as a pressure plate (a piece of a sandpapered CD casing). The rest is the same. Probably a more accurate representation of the film plane. A long hair taped on the film plane can also work!

Here is a better explaination of the scratched film technique that I had cut pasted into my database:

 

http://feuerbacher.net/photo/frame.html?repair/InfinityFocus/InfinityFocus.html~Main

I think you will find Mike's (Rick's) method better. I put a scribed scotch tape in front to add some thickness. In a rollfilm camera, you will likely have film curl issues anyhow and with an f/3.5 lens, it is plenty accurate.

 

I have some photos of the inside of the rim set compur. I would be inclined to fix it while you have the camera apart.

Well I finished the roll and did the SLR collimation and it proved to be right on (whew!). Of course the proof will be in the film.

 

A waist level finder on a Nikon F enabled me to view the collimation target while retarding the 1-second exposure on the Compur. There was no flatness problem with a scratched piece of 120 film held down by an old Rolleicord ground glass all held together with a tape roll and rubber bands ? remember I only had to cover 4.5x6. The scratches made a perfect target for the split image rangefinder spot on the Nikon screen.

 

The Super Ikomat A was a delight to use ? now I know what my father was missing. Are there any 4.5x6 folders RF of comparable size that use unit focusing quality lenses? Would make one heck of a hiking camera.