Dear KP - This is gold dust advice - thank you so much! My newly acquired mint condition Mamiya-6 Automat recently arrived from Japan, but I soon discovered it had a winding mechanism that occasionally jammed 😖. Your video clearly showed me how to remove the top plate, revealing the scarily complex assembly of gears, levers and ratchets that sit below the winding knob. These I carefully lubricated with a few drops of watchmaker’s oil, pretending I was the old repair guy from Toy Story. Now the combined winding on/shutter cocking/frame counter all work like a dream 😀. I owe you a beer when you’re next in London! PS. Allow me to admire your effortless manual dexterity - micro-surgery’s loss is photography’s gain.
What size flat head screwdriver do you need? Not a single small one I own is thin enough to fit into the screws to remove it, which is annoying since my cameras viewfinder is very hazy
Yes! It'll let you clean the inside of the viewfinder panes on the top cover. And I think there is another piece or two of glass on the rangefinder mechanism itself that will be exposed for cleaning as well.
Wow, great video which i really needed to see! recently purchased a mamiya -6 automat. needed to do all of those things so thanks very much !.....however, once i put it all back together the counter indicating the number of exposures was no longer working, and it was before i did all of the things that needed doing. any suggestions ? .... zen billings, niagara falls region in canada
I realize this question is two years old, but I'm adding this in case it helps anyone else who stumbles across it later. The frame counter on the Automat resets automatically -- either when you flick the little thumb lever (Kip's model) or when you open the back (the later model I have.) I don't know about Kip's earlier model, but on the later model this reset is powered by a long spiral spring that's coiled up inside the counter mechanism (visible only after removing the top cover.) The end of this spring has a hook in it, and this hook needs to hook into a small hole in a circular metal plate (which also has larger holes all around the rim; one of them is secured by a screw.) This plate is visible after you unscrew the advance knob. If you don't notice the hook, it easily can unhook itself when you remove the top cover (I discovered this the hard way!) and then when you put the cover back on, the spring will no longer reset the counter because the spring isn't providing any tension. The remedy is to re-hook the hook in the small hole in the plate. The easiest way to do that is to remove the one screw in the multi-hole plate (you may want to mark which hole it was in) and then remove the plate; then put the top cover back on while leading the end of the spring out through the counter hole in the top. Grab the circular plate, hook the spring hook in the small hole, then set the plate back in place, twisting it a bit if necessary to get the spring arranged underneath, then re-insert the one screw. If you find the spring doesn't have enough tension to reset the counter, remove the one screw and wind up the plate one or two holes to increase the spring tension; then replace the one screw. Go gradually and don't over tighten it, because if you break the spring, good luck finding a replacement!
I have a Mamiya 6 folder with an almost impossible to see focus patch making if difficult to get a good focus sometimes. Are they all this way or only certain models? Mine is a 6x6 No.38798, not sure of the model. Thank you for the informative video
Beam splitter glass in rangefinders can and do fade over time. Replacing that and the mirror is a common and easy repair in some Speed Graphic cameras, but I'm not sure if that is a daunting task in a Mamiya 6 or not. What you can do that may help the visibility some is get some sort of thin see-through colored gel/plastic and tape it over the window for the rangefinder patch. The color should make the patch more visible.
Keith, I have IVB also and it has another way of the removal of the top cover. You will not be able to just unscrew ASA-dial and you'll need to unscrew a ring and a fork from the film holder knob inside a camera.
@@karkunow thanks for the reply! i got it unscrewed and i tried my best to clean it but am not too sure if i should use alcohol on the rf prism... also my bellows have tiny holes... trying to find liquid rubber for it can't seem to find any where i'm located. Thanks though!!!
Dear KP -
This is gold dust advice - thank you so much! My newly acquired mint condition Mamiya-6 Automat recently arrived from Japan, but I soon discovered it had a winding mechanism that occasionally jammed 😖. Your video clearly showed me how to remove the top plate, revealing the scarily complex assembly of gears, levers and ratchets that sit below the winding knob. These I carefully lubricated with a few drops of watchmaker’s oil, pretending I was the old repair guy from Toy Story. Now the combined winding on/shutter cocking/frame counter all work like a dream 😀. I owe you a beer when you’re next in London!
PS. Allow me to admire your effortless manual dexterity - micro-surgery’s loss is photography’s gain.
Thank you so much Kip! Your help is very appreciated. You have a new follower 😉
What size flat head screwdriver do you need? Not a single small one I own is thin enough to fit into the screws to remove it, which is annoying since my cameras viewfinder is very hazy
Hi! Thanks for this! Would I be able to clean the viewfinder this way? Mine has got some haze in it...
Yes! It'll let you clean the inside of the viewfinder panes on the top cover. And I think there is another piece or two of glass on the rangefinder mechanism itself that will be exposed for cleaning as well.
@@clickroach That's great, I can just do it myself then! Thank you so much for your quick response!
what should i clean it with? mine is kinda rusty and some parts are hard to move
Wow, great video which i really needed to see! recently purchased a mamiya -6 automat. needed to do all of those things so thanks very much !.....however, once i put it all back together the counter indicating the number of exposures was no longer working, and it was before i did all of the things that needed doing. any suggestions ? .... zen billings, niagara falls region in canada
I realize this question is two years old, but I'm adding this in case it helps anyone else who stumbles across it later. The frame counter on the Automat resets automatically -- either when you flick the little thumb lever (Kip's model) or when you open the back (the later model I have.) I don't know about Kip's earlier model, but on the later model this reset is powered by a long spiral spring that's coiled up inside the counter mechanism (visible only after removing the top cover.) The end of this spring has a hook in it, and this hook needs to hook into a small hole in a circular metal plate (which also has larger holes all around the rim; one of them is secured by a screw.) This plate is visible after you unscrew the advance knob. If you don't notice the hook, it easily can unhook itself when you remove the top cover (I discovered this the hard way!) and then when you put the cover back on, the spring will no longer reset the counter because the spring isn't providing any tension. The remedy is to re-hook the hook in the small hole in the plate. The easiest way to do that is to remove the one screw in the multi-hole plate (you may want to mark which hole it was in) and then remove the plate; then put the top cover back on while leading the end of the spring out through the counter hole in the top. Grab the circular plate, hook the spring hook in the small hole, then set the plate back in place, twisting it a bit if necessary to get the spring arranged underneath, then re-insert the one screw. If you find the spring doesn't have enough tension to reset the counter, remove the one screw and wind up the plate one or two holes to increase the spring tension; then replace the one screw. Go gradually and don't over tighten it, because if you break the spring, good luck finding a replacement!
I have a Mamiya 6 folder with an almost impossible to see focus patch making if difficult to get a good focus sometimes. Are they all this way or only certain models? Mine is a 6x6 No.38798, not sure of the model.
Thank you for the informative video
Beam splitter glass in rangefinders can and do fade over time. Replacing that and the mirror is a common and easy repair in some Speed Graphic cameras, but I'm not sure if that is a daunting task in a Mamiya 6 or not. What you can do that may help the visibility some is get some sort of thin see-through colored gel/plastic and tape it over the window for the rangefinder patch. The color should make the patch more visible.
my model is the one that does not auto-cock the shutter, do i unscrew the knob just the same? thanks
My viewfinder is dusty, and patch is barely visible. Do you by any chance know the correct way to clean it??? THANKS!!!!
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Keith, I have IVB also and it has another way of the removal of the top cover. You will not be able to just unscrew ASA-dial and you'll need to unscrew a ring and a fork from the film holder knob inside a camera.
@@bigcat3342 to clean viewfinder just remove the top cover and use ear-sticks with alcohol and compressed air for mirrors and glass.
@@karkunow thanks for the reply! i got it unscrewed and i tried my best to clean it but am not too sure if i should use alcohol on the rf prism... also my bellows have tiny holes... trying to find liquid rubber for it can't seem to find any where i'm located. Thanks though!!!