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cees_jan_de_hoog

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  1. After swapping shutters (or lenses) the lens collimation will need to be checked, it’s unlikely to be correct. It can be adjusted with shimmies behind the shutter or the front focus ring on the lens. The usual way is with a frosted glass on the film frame.
  2. It sounds like this may come too late, but my to go to trick is to get the best fitting screwdriver and then -tighten- the screw with force. After this, it usually unscrews. The idea is to get the threads unlocked and that works easier the way the screw went in. Also, screwdrivers with a good hand grip help a lot. I prefer those even if they are wider than the screw (unless it's a sunk screw of course) than the mini screwdrivers . It's easier to apply force which actually lessens the chance of damaging the head.
  3. Actually, I think the shutter on the Altix is fairly straightforward to access. The front lens assembly should unscrew quite easily, which then gives access to the front of the shutter. Here you'll find a securing ring or for some Altix models a circlip-type ring, which holds the speed ring in place. This page by Rick Oleson Synchro Compur will give a good idea what it will look like. Just some lighter fluid on the timing gear (aka speedcam) may do the trick, but I prefer to take it out and clean it separately, as its easy to drown the shutter in fluid and spread grease everywhere. The shutter blades should also be visible, if they are not clearly greasy I would stay away from lighter fluid/naphta for those, as it may just stain the blades. From the symptoms you describe it sounds like the speedcam rather than the shutter blades causing the issues. If you have never done this but want to learn, I suggest to get an old bargain camera with Prontor-S or Pronto shutter, they are easier to work with than the Compur-style shutters. If you are interested more about Altix cameras have a look at my website: http://www.cjs-classic-cameras.co.uk/altix/index.html.
  4. He's still selling things on ebay (find it via the link on the certo6 website) so if all fails I suppose you could message him there, and alert him there's a problem.
  5. There's a small lever just above the P from Photavit on the top plate (see photo), push it towards the back of the camera and the counter will wizz back to 0. If the lever isn't there, you may have a 828 film version.
  6. The 1958 Minolta V2 already had a single glass panel covering range and viewfinder windows. From 1960 onwards various other Minolta rangefinders had these, but not all of them. I think it was mostly based on visual design rather than anything technical. I am not sure brightframe finders had anything to do with it, as these were introduced in the mid 50s, e.g., the Aretta Ia had a single piece of glass covering the viewfinder and brigthfinder windows. I also don't think it had anything to do with a single piece vs multiple pieces of glass, as many rangefinders with two windows had only a single piece of glass anyway.
  7. I am not sure why you can't find it but a Diax II with Xenon was sold onebay on 24 Oct for $75 in the US. Buy it now so perhaps undervalued? I bought mine, with a Xenar, for about the same price as Buy it now, also from the US, about a year ago. I was annoyed when not long after another one sold for less in auction. If someone offered me $200 for mine, I'd sell it. In response to your complaint that people replied with less than useful info, you may have confused them by claiming that 'the lens alone sells for more'. The lens is fixed so no one sells the lens alone. The price of interchangeable Xenars is irrelevant.
  8. <p>Hi Donald, indeed as Allard said, the first camera is a Wirgin Gewirette, a pretty rare little camera from before WWII. More info can be found on http://www.cjs-classic-cameras.co.uk/wirgin/wirgin.html#gewirette<br> Looks like the top (which can be removed to load film) is mounted the wrong way, that's the eye piece of the viewfinder pointing forward.</p>
  9. Another camera with similar Keplerian viewfinder was the Canon Demi. It used prisms to get a normal image, as a Kepler telescope inverts the image. The benefit of this setup was that the viewfinder could be made very small (as on the Demi and Kowa) yet the image would be bright.
  10. <p>I don't know about the Agifold but the 35mm Agima and Agimatic had lenses with a good reputation, being four-element and coated. Agilux produced lenses before they went into consumer cameras, so they knew how to make them. I doubt it's different for the Agifold. Perhaps the poor photos you've seen were from poorly adjusted examples. Also the first version had no rangefinder so it relied on estimating focus. I think a well maintained and adjusted example should give excellent results, but I'd probably go for the rangefinder version not the waist level one.</p>
  11. <p>Those boxes with cases ring a bell... I have enough cupboard space for my cameras but those boxes and bags with camera cases really start taking their toll (on my marriage)</p>
  12. <p>This is indeed an Agfa Karat 36 / Ansco Karomat. Just about visible on the front is the T button, so this was the early version of this particular model, introduced in 1949 or perhaps even 1948. Later versions lacked the T button. The Karat 36 was the first Karat model that would take regular 35mm film cartridges instead of Karat / Rapid cassettes, the number 36 referring to the number of exposures one could take. The earlier models with Karat cassettes would only take 12.<br> The rangefinder on this model was not the more common coincidence type but a split mirror rangefinder, hence the staggered windows. Another particular feature was the wind lever, which you needed to pull towards you. These cameras were most commonly found with Schneider Xenon or Rodenstock Heligon f/2 lenses, both excellent.<br> There was a nice write-up about this model recently, with some photo examples, by Tony Lockerbie: <a href="/classic-cameras-forum/00d4PI">http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00d4PI</a></p>
  13. <p>Nice photos, especially #5 already seems a classic!<br> The camera is a beauty too. The Agfa Karat range is one of my favourites. Personally I don't find the split mirror rangefinder particularly easy to use. I suppose Agfa must have gotten complaints, because after the Karat 36 above they released the Karat IV with a 'normal' coincidence rangefinder, much like the one on the Super Silette. That would my favourite Karat to use although I am rather smitten with the cigar-shaped pre-war viewfinder Karats. </p>
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