I have had the misfortune to have been unable to resist buying a number of these innovative focal plane shutters from the period 1895 - 1930. The concept behind these was great, perfect for the growing "Enlightened amateur" market. They have no movements and only a few lenses available with focussing mounts for each model. Typical sizes were from 9x12 up to 13x18cm and originally were made by Goerz, but followed by ICA, Ernemann, Mentor and others. They were crtainly very useful in the era when other shutters were pretty unreliable as far as speed. Note that my comments do not apply to the Graphic Speed model.
In my experience, most of these are well past their useful age. The shutters I have locked at (Intimately!) have been worn and extremely complex. It doesn't help that diagrams showing moving parts are usually unavailable.
Recently, I purchased a lot which, apart from the two ULF plate holders I was after, contained a Goerz Ango set (camera, Celor, case and 5 DDS's). I eventially looked at the camera this week after. repairing the ULF plate holders.
For the first time, I found that the mechanics, as far as I could tell, were OK. The movement of the curtain was very sluggish. The curtain was full of micro cracks in the rubber (?) layer and small holes in conjunction with these cracks.
I had no confidence in my ability to sucessfully take the shutter apart and re-assemble. It stuck me that I could just replace the three sections of curtain which were important. Basically - cut away the 3 sections, but leaving a 1 centimeter wide edge at the two reels and crossbars in order to glue the new pieces in. The only real problems I could see were:
- would the old rubber base prove to be a suitable surface for glueing?
- could I do a piecemeal assembly ( 3 pieces of curtain, 6 separate edges to be glued)?
This last point is made more difficult as the bottom roller has to be under some tension in the "uncocked" position. This means the bottom roller has to be locked under the operation and that the cut and replace must start here at the bottom.
This what the sections look like.
The curtain is made up of two separate sections, held together by a very thin (silk) cord. One end of this cord is attached to a slider. This slider can be (with difficulty!) moved to positions 1 to 7. The slack in the chord can be moved around to widen/narrow the gap - thus decreasing/Increasing the speed. A simple operation, but best done at home, I think.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks