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MashaPopuga
2-Feb-2012, 12:22
Hello! I'm from Ukraine, so sorry for my bad English:). I was given an old camera:
Mentor Goltz v. Breutmann, Dresden 46 843.
Object lens: Zeiss Tessar 1:3,5, 15 cm.
I do not know how to use it. Could you give me any information on it? User's guide or something. I would be very grateful.

Sevo
2-Feb-2012, 14:33
That one is more than eighty years old at least - rather past being simply used. You'll first of all have to figure out whether the shutter curtains are still light-tight and flexible, many of them have hardened and cracked, and need replacement.

MashaPopuga
6-Feb-2012, 11:22
Thanks for the answer :)

Peter Gomena
6-Feb-2012, 12:48
You are fortunate to have a set of film holders to use with the camera. It might be difficult or impossible to find some otherwise.

Sorry I can't offer any information on your camera. It looks to be in very good condition given its age. You may also have to replace the accordion bellows if they are dry and cracked or have pinholes in them.

Peter Gomena

Steven Tribe
6-Feb-2012, 13:25
As the owner of a 13x18cm Mentor (bought from the Ukraine!) some comments!
If you focal plane shutter actually workd it is possible the only one that does in the whole world!
The camera is great fun and many different lenses can be mounted on lens boards. These must have shutters, of course.
The only repair that is necessary is to be replace the odd shaped mirror.
There is no construction design info available - I have searched.
You might want to check/repair the aluminium wood assembly at the very front as this can be quite worn.
Bellows are often in "as new" condition.

Sevo
6-Feb-2012, 14:08
As the owner of a 13x18cm Mentor (bought from the Ukraine!) some comments!
If you focal plane shutter actually workd it is possible the only one that does in the whole world!


Well, out of my five Mentors, two (arguably both of relatively recent vintage - made in the fifties to early sixties) were in working order when I got them. The older ones generally had a blind mirror and/or a stuck shutter - both are repairable issues, though.

keisaa
27-Jun-2013, 14:43
I just bought 13x18 Mentor, which I think might be Mentor Atelier(?). The shutter works, flash-sync too, but the shutter curtain has needle-pin leaks. I was prepared to use front-assembled Packard ideal #6 shutter, anyway. However, besides the shutter time selection and fire button there is a controller of which usage I don't know and didn't ask the seller while he had said the shutter doesn't work. Now I'm asking what is this knob (picture) for?
97708
I would also appreciate a Manual, but I think there are only a couple of them left (seen one with a Mentor Camera on eBay).

Dan Fromm
27-Jun-2013, 15:27
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Mentor-Platten-Kamera-Originalprospekt-/271230166253

MMELVIS
27-Jun-2013, 16:02
I just bought 13x18 Mentor, which I think might be Mentor Atelier(?). The shutter works, flash-sync too, but the shutter curtain has needle-pin leaks. I was prepared to use front-assembled Packard ideal #6 shutter, anyway. However, besides the shutter time selection and fire button there is a controller of which usage I don't know and didn't ask the seller while he had said the shutter doesn't work. Now I'm asking what is this knob (picture) for?
97708
I would also appreciate a Manual, but I think there are only a couple of them left (seen one with a Mentor Camera on eBay).

Looking at the ebay link the missing knob sets the shutter speed

Sevo
27-Jun-2013, 23:26
Now I'm asking what is this knob (picture) for?


That housed the long-time (1/5s to 3s) timer wind lever and settings wheel - a bit more complex than a simple knob. But the camera ought to work without it, if you can do without these times. It was a option only, many of their cameras never had that extra delay timer.

keisaa
28-Jun-2013, 00:21
That housed the long-time (1/5s to 3s) timer wind lever and settings wheel -
Thanks a lot for your answer!
Next I'm going to clean the monster a bit and then check out, how much do these pin-holes leak. And the next step is to build a ground glass and a holder for it, while I think there isn't a lot of Mentor Atelier GGs on the market. I have some old wooden Pony Premo film holders, which of course fails the rails for Mentor-spesific film holder groove, but I think I can build some kind of clamping method. The critical part would be to adjust the height of the ground glass to be similar with Mentor film holder with glass plate or film sheat. Luckily my wife's hobby is glass-fusing, and we have all the tools and material for tailoring some kind of ground glass.

Steven Tribe
28-Jun-2013, 09:16
This is a post-war (GDR) product. The Mentors I talked about earlier in this thread were the early century SLR model with the tall viewing hood.

Sevo
28-Jun-2013, 10:57
This is a post-war (GDR) product. The Mentors I talked about earlier in this thread were the early century SLR model with the tall viewing hood.

Mind, Goltz&Breutmann carried on into the mid sixties making some of the SLRs they had already made pre-war - a bit more refined, with a shutter knob having direct speed settings rather than the dual knob (tension and width) arrangement requiring table lookup on their early cameras, and with the optional slow speed escapement above. It was not until they were merged into Pentacon that they finally dropped the SLRs in favour of the (non-SLR) Atelier and Panorama, which continued the same shutter (and film holder) on somewhat crudely Linhof inspired field and optical bench cameras.

The features on the shutter we associate with their post-war production may date back a bit longer, by the way - my oldest Mentor with a shutter of that type might be from 1948 if the lens is original, so the development of the shutter could fall into the time frame immediately around the war.

keisaa
29-Jun-2013, 00:37
This is a post-war (GDR) product. The Mentors I talked about earlier in this thread were the early century SLR model with the tall viewing hood.
Yes, I noticed it, but I also marked there were Mentor-owners replying in this thread, and I thought they might know about the newer models, too.

BTW, I could not wait to get get ground glass and film, but tied an old Ernemann's GG with rubber band, put Shanghai 4x5 film in film sheath and took a test photo. First I was going to take a picture of a rack, but then my son happened to pop in and I make him stand on the very same place I was focused to the rack. Unfortunately, he is taller than the rack and the 4x5 film was on lower-right corner - so, I lost a head.

But the photo was a positive surprise otherwise: it was reasonable sharp considering the Ernemann-ground glass not quite fitting into Mentor and a fact, that I had forgot to return the back tilt in normal position (having tested through all the possible movements).

97827
Oh, the lens is Industar I-11M 300/9 and F ~22 (the aperture scale is not exact)
The Mentor came with Rodenstock Apo-Ronar 240/9 which has exactly same thread as Industar. Rodenstock also has some extra glasses on both side of the lens with the text:" SG 240/300 f 91/2 / 12", but I can't see any optic effects whether these glasses are on or off.

Jonathan Barlow
30-Jun-2013, 09:37
The lens has a nice bokeh... pleasing, round out-of-focus elements. I also like his shirt.