voitlander bessa

santino · Oct 13, 2006

wow thanks, I always wanted to know how to clean central shutters

Alex_B · Oct 13, 2006

actually, with those whih have a shutter, the shutter seems fine. however i fear some lenses might be ... not so well.

mysteryscribe · Oct 13, 2006

Well if it isnt cleaning the lenese Im lost. I don't know how to reglue them, or anything like that. I can remove the rear element clean it then open the shutter on t or b and use a cuetip to clean the inside of the front element or group. Im not sure but I expect you could kill the mold if it wasn't between the glued elements that way.

That about all I can do to one.

mysteryscribe · Oct 14, 2006

Since I said so much about this lens and shutter thought I would give you the final update. The lens is now sitting on a cobbled together home made view camera sorta.... I did add a removeable 120 film holder back last night... 120 film is easier than cutfilm to find now and actually less expensive to shoot since I cut the film down to three eposures per roll. Makes three rolls that way.

So the lens works perfectly on all speeds bulb and time as well... here is a shot from it/'vv

I love this lens by the way...

Alex_B · Oct 14, 2006

Nice, I personally would prefer the bottle without a label though.

Do you also have a photograph of the tool you used to produce this one?

mysteryscribe · Oct 14, 2006

no but i got a ten dollar point and shoot camera I can make you one in a few minutes....

mysteryscribe · Oct 14, 2006

ask and you shall receive

As to the label on the bottle.... It is a matter of photographic philosophy mine is "play it like it lays sam."

Alex_B · Oct 14, 2006

mysteryscribe said:
ask and you shall receive

Thanks for the effort! Interesting to see the actual camera behind the photograph.

Will try to take some pictures of my cameras too (not tonight though).

As to the label on the bottle.... It is a matter of photographic philosophy mine is "play it like it lays sam."

Well, no need to change that!

mysteryscribe · Oct 15, 2006

On the play it like it is, I'm certain not above picking up a candy wrapper to get it out of my shot. I would like to make that absolutely clear that there are no hard fast rules in my world.

tempra · Dec 4, 2006

Just reading through this thread, I've just got hold of a zeiss pancolar 50mm f1.8 lens that is stiff on focussing, would the hot water - lens in a bag thing work for that?

Mitica100 · Dec 5, 2006

tempra said:
Just reading through this thread, I've just got hold of a zeiss pancolar 50mm f1.8 lens that is stiff on focussing, would the hot water - lens in a bag thing work for that?

You could try it. Just make sure the plastic pouch/bag that you're using is totally waterproof.

I have read about another method on how to bring older shutters back to life. In a way it's the same, heat. But this is done with an oven (yeah, baking oven) heated at the minimal temperature (around 175-200 deg.) and with the door slightly ajar. Place the lens for 10 minutes only, if it works after that, then fine, if not, another 10 minutes of gentle heating might do the trick. Again though, I read this on another website and I do not endorse this method over the hot water method, I just list it here since I found it to be interesting.

With larger lenses, the focusing might go stiff if the helicoidal grease is of inferior quality. It turns into the green monster which is sticky. There are ways to dissolve that hardened (green) grease but I can't seem to recall them. Will do though, once I remember or find them.

tempra · Dec 5, 2006

Cheers Dimitri, I'll give it a go although working the focussing ring seems to be making small improvements - although it might just be me getting stronger from the workout.

I'll report back...

Don Simon · Dec 5, 2006

I assume that's an East German Zeiss. I think lenses in the DDR and USSR must have been intentionally made like that in order to make people stronger so they could defeat the capitalists in the Olympics :mrgreen:. I have a Russian 85mm... great lens, but I don't so much focus it as wrestle it.

Mitica100 · Dec 5, 2006

ZaphodB said:
I assume that's an East German Zeiss.

That is correct! However, the Pancolar is the best lens amongst the DDR produced lenses. There were the Domiplan, the Tessar and the Pentacon lenses as well but the Pancolar was the best of them all. Super sharp lens!

Don Simon · Dec 5, 2006

Sounds like I'll be off lurking around Ebay looking for unsuspecting lenses again then. :mrgreen:

I think some of the East German & Soviet lenses are well worth the time and effort spent trying to sort the very good from the horrible, the irritation of finding oil inside an otherwise perfect lens etc... it's worth it when you find a good one. For example my 85mm, it's a Jupiter-9, as I understand it's a rip-off of a 1930s Zeiss design... I have no idea which decade mine was made in, I have to set aperture and then stop down with a separate ring, and as I implied focussing is really stiff. BUT... on the other hand it's an 85mm f2! For about 1/10th of the price of a similar manual focus lens from one of the Japanese companies. The almost completely circular aperture would look cool even if it didn't produce great bokeh (which it does) and stopped past f/4 it is sharp. I don't think I'll risk putting it in water until I've got another one