Camera aperture defective?
Good evening,
I found an Agfa Silette Vario (Agfa color-agnar 1:3.5/45). I think the aperture is defective, because when I turn three different dials for setting focus, exposure time, and another dial, nothing happens. Shouldn't the aperture normally open or close further? During exposure, it makes a grinding noise. When I load a film, push the lever to the right, and then press the shutter release, the aperture doesn't open either; it just wobbles a little (I don't have any film in the camera). Are there instructions somewhere, or can it be repaired? The camera belonged to my great-grandfather.
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With such purely mechanical lenses, the change is only seen when the tripping mechanism is actuated. If the lens can be unscrewed, there should be a small metal pin or the like, which can be pressed down with the finger to test the function and see how far the diaphragm lamellas close.
You can’t unscrew the lens. If I actuate the trigger, the closed shutter is shaking a bit but does not open.
Addendum: As long as it is not on B for continuous exposure, the closure only opens for fractions of seconds. So, in order to go safely, place it on B, open the camera to see if necessary whether light passes through the objective when triggered.
She’s broken.
Note:
With pure viewfinder cameras this does not happen because it is simply not necessary. Even comparatively very old analog SLR did not know that. You had to live with the blinding.
Thank you. I’ll go to one on Monday. Thanks for the quick answer
Well, hundreds of euros won’t cost. You can ask and decide.
Is that awkward?
Some photo stores still repair old cameras. You have to ask.
Okay, I don’t know that well. Can you do something when the lock is jammed?
That’s the lock.
I got this objective, I got two screws in the case. So the aperture works that you see from inside, before that is another kind of aperture that you only see from outside. Probably the image is not exposed immediately. It’s not going on
so ancient cameras tend to oil or resin the dazzling lamellae, i.e. they stick and no longer move.
But can it be repaired or is it final?
Hello
this is a central lock camera, more precisely with a vario of Gauthier. The closure is in front of the aperture and not coupled as in Compur. This means the diaphragm mechanism is only moved by the diaphragm ring, not by the closure. The silettes have a quick-acting clamping lever with which the closure is also tensioned for this purpose, rotating a gear shaft with driver pins on the camera side on which the optics mount is fitted with closure.
The prontor-based closures and diaphragm lamellae run “dry” but were often lubricated/oiled and glued by bastards for fast sale or “resin” after a few days/weeks. Often, “after-lubrication” is then again preferred with rust remover (Caramaba).
So the Punt is a “basic” silette is too little value to put in more than 5 minutes of work while the precision mechanic who can die or confess to die.
The Gauthier closures were installed and adjusted until the 60s in homework in the Black Forest from Magstadt to Villingen, often from watchmakers the fine motors for small-calibrated watches were worn out and then alarm clocks and closures were produced. In any case, such a closure is disassembled and overtake a puzzle task for several hours without any precision mechanical basic knowledge, which already begins with the fact that every closure and diaphragm is exactly “fitted” during assembly and you can’t interchange it/for that you “fit” the diaphragm again. Adjusting is a bending/twisting of the part to a level according to experience/feeling, this is about 100tel.
Good morning,
I had already screwed the lens from the inside. From the inside I saw the gear shaft and a small lever on the right. The wheel shaft was a real one until I could screw the lens back. However, it is still “stretched” to open completely instead.
I once looked on eBay and found the same camera for 8€. Is it possible to simply take over the lens or the mounted mechanism, i.e. when bought to screw and to screw it on my part, or did there any fine adjustments that vary from device to device?
Hello
these are mass-manufactured cameras (million pieces) where production tolerances were compensated for during assembly on the flow band and no interchangeable optics cameras like the Ambi Silette. In the “objective change” you have to adjust the optics to infinitely that you can do with a matte disc on the film stage or the Not Tesaband
But best to buy a working camera where you need to fix nix. And the base silette with the Agnar or Verso closure is now rather a “collector camera” or a case for lomoists. Super Silettes (measuring examiners) or LK or SLK types are more suitable for photographing. They have been built more rarely and more worth collectors.
It’s more about the sentimental value, it was the camera of my Uropas.
Do you think with “Sammlerkamer” that they are difficult to handle for lay people and therefore rather to look at?