karl_bryan1

<p>Jerry,<br>

if you do decide to work on the shutter yourself be aware that the common mistake made on that shutter is to reinstall the slow speed escapement with the drive pawl on top of the shutter drive spring lever. If you don't pull the drive pawl back to clear the shutter drive spring lever and you tighten the slow speed escapement down you will break the pawl. There are no new parts available from Mamiya. It is very simple to pull the pawl back but it is amazing how many shutters I seen where the owner did not do this. <br>

The other cause for slow running could be oil/grease on the shutter blades. It is quite easy to remove the barrel of the shutter and clean/polish the shutter blades and the area where the shutter blades ride. Reinstalling the shutter blades is easy if you thread one of the lens groups into the shutter barrel with a small piece of rubber eraser (or anything soft, even a piece of cotton will work) setting on the inner surface of the lens so that the rubber eraser just touches the bottom side of the blade. Then when you reinstall the shutter blades they will rest on the rubber eraser instead of falling down. Or you can remove the shutter blade bull ring return spring and have the shutter in the open position, then the blades will sit on the shutter body instead of over the shutter barrel opening. I prefer the rubber eraser method because the lens group also acts like a small stand for the shutter barrel.<br>

karl</p>

<p>For Rollieflex repair contact Mark Hansen, <a href="http://zeissikonrolleirepair.com/">http://zeissikonrolleirepair.com/</a>. Unlike Harry Fleenor, Mark will repair the camera for a reasonable price and the camera will be repaired completely. My experience with Harry Fleenor is he will repair the part that you the customer complain about but he will not recommend or repair other obvious issues with the camera. Mark Hansen either advises you on what additional repairs are needed along with an estimate for the additional work, or he repairs the camera completely if the additional cost is minor. Nothing worse than paying to get a camera repaired only to send it back to have a different aspect repaired. </p>

<p>There is always the possibility that the Fresnel lens is warped due to someone leaving the camera lying in the direct sun. This will give the affect of looking through a snow/ice covered window. Sadly this means removal and replacement of the Fresnel lens. I have only seen this twice while repairing TLR cameras. <br>

The lens board should have a consistent distance between it and the camera body. If not then the lens board has been bent, usually by dropping the camera. This can be fixed. The Autocord, Diacord and Flexaret, and a few other makers, used a focus helix directly mounted to the lens board. Front impact on a focus helix rarely damges the camera or affects focus of the taking lens. Rollie, Yashica and most other TLR makers used focus arms and helicoid cams and on each side of the camera and these are easily damaged. As described in the previous posting above, the lens board on a helicoid cam should move in/out smoothly and in parallel with the body. This is not an issue that Autocords have.<br>

The recommendation to take off the waist level finder (only 4 screws) and looking at the mirror and viewing lens is good advice. While you are at it you can look at the Fresnel lens and ground glass. The Fresnel lens is the plastic lens under the ground glass. If the Fresnel lens is damaged by direct sunlight you will easily spot it because the plastic will be melted. If the Fresnel lens is melted you can either remove it, this makes the view dimmer and will affect the lens collimation, or find a replacement Fresnel lens. I do have one spare remaining so contact me if you want to purchase it.<br>

You can clean the mirror on the later model Autocords because they have a silicon dioxide coating over the first surface mirror. On the older models you run the risk of removing the first surface mirror. Check by trying to clean a corner with a soft cloth and ammonia. Clean the rear element of the viewing lens with a cotton swab and ammonia. Don't worry about viewing lens focus, the indexing occurs off of the waist level finder. Just reassemble and you are good to go.<br>

karl</p>

<p>Did you check to make sure that there was not a set screw underneath the set screw? I have found several IIICs that had 2 set screws. Also, the knob unscrews counter-clockwise. The film advance ratchet prevents the shaft from rotating counter-clockwise so you should be able to unscrew the knob after you have gotten it loose. Sometimes the knobs are on very tight (corrosion or an over zealous camera tech) and I have also had to use a ring wrench (or if the knob is pretty beat up a pair of pliers) and apply a fair amount of force in order to loosen the knob.</p>

<p>Here are some comparison shots of the f/stop: <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/member-photos?user_id=2914032">http://www.photo.net/photodb/member-photos?user_id=2914032</a> <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/member-photos?user_id=2914032">http://www.photo.net/photodb/member-photos?user_id=2914032</a></p>