Dropped my Rolleiflex MX-EVS... Oh, no!!!

[brian_prestemon]

<p>Yes, I did the unthinkable... I was in New York City last week and <strong>dropped my prized Rolleiflex 3.5 MX-EVS on the sidewalk</strong>. I was using it with its genuine Rollei strap but one end came loose and it slipped off of my shoulder and crashed - and even bounced - on the sidewalk. I am heart-broken. And it is so ironic as I'm one of those that is way over-protective of my equipment.<br>

At first it looked to have suffered no damage other than a scratch on the corner. And the shutter seemed fine as I took a couple of photographs. But then I realized that the veiwing lens is cocked slightly to one side. The impact pushed in one side of the viewing lens so it is no longer parallel with the taking lens below it.<br>

I did this on Friday later in the afternoon. Since I was in NYC, I called Krikor at Krimar in New Jersey. I'd heard of him but had never talked to him before. He was very nice on the phone and told me to bring it to him to look at. Unfortunately it was just before 5 pm so I couldn't make the 40 minute trip right then and on Saturday my family and I had too many St. Patrick's Day plans to be able to go. And on Sunday we had to fly back home to Dallas. So I didn't get the opportunity to have him look at it.<br>

<strong>So now I'm asking the advice of my associates on Photo.net. Please give me your advice on how to proceed and whether or not the camera is beyond repair.</strong><br>

My thought was to mount my Rollei flash arm on the viewing lens and use it's arm as a lever to try and pull the lens back in line. Or, possibly I could mount enough stacked filters on top of each other to give me some leverage. Or, mount some stacked filters with no glass in them and stick a wooden dowel in for leverage to try and pull it back into shape.<br>

But before I try any of these things I'd sure appreciate some advice - and perhaps some consoling as well. I really am heart-broken about this. I love that camera and I don't think I can afford to replace it.<br>

Thanks for any and all help. As I mentioned above, I live in the north Dallas area.</p>

<p> </p>

[jerome_ibanes]

<p>I've always been worried about the rollei strap, please let me know if someone has a good solution on how to make it hold better.</p>

[brian_prestemon]

<p>Yes, I found out the hard way that the Rollei strap isn't real reliable. The connection can come loose if the strap isn't pulled taut at all times. And it was the very first time I had ever used that camera with a strap of any kind. I had always just held on to the camera or used a tripod.</p>

[michael_costello1]

<p>I would take some detailed photos of the damage and attach them to an email to Harry Fleenor for advice and the possibility of repairing the damage. As well as the eventual cost. <br>

email: harry@rolleirepairs.com<br>

website: http://www.rolleirepairs.com/</p>

 

[BrianS1664879711]

<p>What an unpleasant experience. I always carried my Rollei TLR on a monopod.</p>

<p>I doubt that bending it back will be the best approach. Suggest you send it to someone -- Krikor, Fleenor, ProCamera, etc and have them look at it and give you advice.</p>

[nathan_bonsal]

<p>Wait, you want to deliberately brute-force a camera housing? A vintage camera housing? Something about that just seems to give me the heeby-jeebies.</p>

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[brian_prestemon]

<p>It gives me the heeby-jeebies as well. I wasn't exactly planning on using brute force... more like carefully applied and monitored incremental torquing. </p>

<p>But that's why I started this post, to get some insight and advice from you folks prior to doing something stupid.</p>

[jan_b_ttcher]

<p><a href="http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/repairmanuals.html">http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/repairmanuals.html</a> at the bottom<br>

<strong>Rolleiflex TLR </strong><br /><a href="http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/manuals/repair/rolleiflextlr.zip">[ Download File ] </a><br />Pages: 478 <br />File Size: 59MB<br />Format: PDF, zipped <br>

name: free<br />password: manuals123<br>

Your camera is not included, but build-principle is very similar.<br>

Probably the filter mount is bent - but the filter mount is not directly connected to the lens(es), so don't try to pull/puch it "back".<br>

So, one will have to (carefully) take off the leather and dismount the front cover, then take a close look what is bent and what is straight. In a rather bad case you will have to take off the side panels cranking gear etc. to get to the "struts" ... in best case you will find out, only the (aluminum) cover is bent (straighten it out or get a new one) ... in case either lens is "out of whack" you better find someone with experience, maybe even somebody with spare parts is needed.</p>

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[BrianS1664879711]

<p>"I wasn't exactly planning on using brute force... more like carefully applied and monitored incremental torquing. "</p>

<p>They are the same thing. Please don't fool youself! Whatever is bent needs to be REPLACED if possible.</p>

[brett_rogers]

<p>As has been said previously, it may be that the bayonet mounts have taken most of the impact, but with a fall onto hard pavement it is quite likely the focus rails or the cam followers have been damaged as well. Unfortunately in this situation there is really no substitute for having the camera collimated in order to verify the state of the focus alignment, because I would be surprised if the parallelism to the film plane has not been compromised. It's important you understand that it is not simply a case of the two lenses being aligned relative to each other, they must also both be parallel to the focusing rails of the camera to a tolerance of .05 millimetres across the corners. There's no easy fix for this one I'm afraid, but with access to the necessary replacement parts it can most likely be fixed.</p>

[robert_marvin]

I live in NYC and have had Krikor repair Rolleis a number of times without ever

driving to his NJ shop. In eachbcase his turn around time, with shipping both

ways, hasn't been much more than a week.

[brian_prestemon]

<p>That's good to hear, Robert. Maybe that's what I should do then, send it off to Krikor. I'm just hoping he doesn't charge me too much just to estimate what it will take to fix it.</p>

 

[robert_marvin]

I don't THINK Krikor charges for an estimate. This probably will be a fairly costly repair, but the alternative is using the camera as a paperweight, or doorstop.