Wista DX rear shift doesn't seem to work

[mentalcrisis00]

I've been playing with the Wista DX I got this week and it's a beautiful camera. I feel fortunate to have gotten it for $350, I've seen them go for $500-$600 on ebay at the very least.

I've been working with the tilts, swings, rise and fall just to get used to the cameras movements. I then looked at the back there's a couple of white zeroing lines and 2 brass levers. I immediately am thinking "wow it has shifting too!" I loosen the levers and I can't seem to make the shift work. One of the levers does seem a bit harder to flip than the other, maybe it's too tight? Unfortunately i can't see anyway to get to the screw to loosen it. Can anyone shed some light on this? Am I missing something?

[Joe Forks]

Are you sure it's not SWING instead of shift on the rear?

[mentalcrisis00]

the swing is on the sides, there are 2 levers on either side that tightens the swing down (you can kind of see them in the first picture). On the underside of that bottom plate there are 2 slots so I'm assuming that allows the top plates to shift across the bottom one. I could be mistaken, I've seen others talk about the Wista DX having left and right shift on the rear standard. This is my first wista camera so I really have no clue.

[Fred L]

I think you might have to swing the back to get at the screws. Swing to the right to get to the left shift lever etc.. I sold my Wista a couple of years ago but am pretty sure this is what you need to do. Possible the previous owner fiddled around with the levers.

[IanG]

Those two brass levers (underside) are fully locked, both need turning towards each other then the shift should work OK.

Ian

[mentalcrisis00]

Those two brass levers (underside) are fully locked, both need turning towards each other then the shift should work OK.

Ian

Yup I tried that before, when I swing them towards each other i see the plates loosen up a bit but it doesn't budge. I'll try swinging the back over and loosening the screws on the one side a bit. I'll check back after thats done.

Update: WOW heh I think my heart just skipped a beat! I was just fiddling with the camera and I tightened and loosened screws to no avail. Then I just decided to push on the rear shift as hard as I could. There was a bit of a tacking sound like when you pull something apart thats been glued together. It scared me half to death but the rear shift is now working! I imagine it was frozen by dirt or probably hadn't been worked in a long time. When I got the camera there was an even layer of dust on it so I think the poor camera was someones shelver. Thanks all for confirming what those rear levers actually do

[Pete Watkins]

If you need some backup I could sell you a 4 pound hammer (:-))
Pete.

[Bob Salomon]

Where are you located? In the USA Wista service is reached at 252 652-4401.

[mentalcrisis00]

Well the rear shift didn't break or anything, it was just stuck. But I may need to get the camera serviced at some point thanks for the number