Help with Wista 45D - front with belows came off of the rails

Hi all,

Recently I purchased Wista 45D camera, which is in very good condition, except that I find the two knobs on the shift base, which are used for extending the bellows, to be very hard to press. After a few tries to bring the bellows out and back in I broke a bit one of the sides of this shift base, as can be seen on the pictures. In addition, the whole base with the lens mount and the belows came off the rails and I couldn't put this base back on the rails. In your opinion, can this front base be placed back on the rails? I saw that on the bottom part of the base there are some screws. Can they be used so that the two knobs are more easily moved? I have seen a few review videos on Wista 45, where these knobs are pressed very ligthly and the front base comes out in ease. Can I found somewhere a spare front base, so that I replace mine, if mine is not able to be attached back on the rails?

yeah mine are pretty stiff as well. ive also pulled the front off track a few times. to get it back on i drop the front bed down a bit n carefully get the standard back on track. it can be a bit of a pita but you will certainly use some of your best french to make it work.

that cracked tip may not be that bad once on track. when you get it back together, youll find out if it effects the operation or not.

i wonder if there is a way to take some tension off that spring or if that cam is the adjustment? maybe moving the cam in/out very slightly will help? the cam seems to keep the mechanism aligned with very little slop and keeps it tight on its rails but moving a hair may be the cure? i havent tried to adjust any of it, im just mindfull when setting up or putting away.

im sure other users have had the same problem and may have a solution for us?

I have a 45sp, which is similar. The clips on mine are quite strong as well. I actually intentionally take the front standard off the track on a regular basis to get it in front of the infinity stops for longish lenses. I always assumed that it was designed to do that. It doesn't look like the damage should prevent you from reattaching it to the track.

Thank you all for the suggestions! I managed to put the front standard back on the tracks by just removing the infinity stoppers on the front (by removing the two little screws next to them) and then by pressing the knobs on the front standard base I managed to slide it back on the rails and then repositioned again the infinity stoppers.

What I thought after that is, that it would be a good practice to bring the rails to the back of the camera, so that the front base slides easier from the tracks which are on the back of the camera to the focusing rails on the bottom part of the camera. Then, when closing the camera again to bring closer the two rails, push back the front standard in its back, move away a little bit the focusing rails, so that the camera can close and that's it. What I was trying to do by now is to slide the front standard off the camera back and after that back inside, while having a gap between the two rails, which was my mistake.

oh you pulled the standard off the front (focusing) rails.... I thought you jumped off the rear (resting) rails inside the body.... Ive done that a few times. I have new bellows n sometimes its a real PITA getting it all into the body again. If I dont get it back far enough the camera wont fold because the pincers wont clear the door; and if it did with the bellows not compressed enough, those pincers would catch an edge inside the front door n refuse to open. That can ruin your day!

glad you figured it out.

Yes, I initially pulled the standard off the back part of the focusing rails (where the gap between the focusing rails and the resting rails is formed). So, the easiest way to put it back in, which I found, was to insert it from the front part of the focusing rails.

A man should be very careful indeed, also when they close the camera. The belows should be compressed and a gap between the rails should be left, so that there is room for these pincers, as you pointed out. Getting accustomed to these things makes the camera really easy to operate with, afterwards.