Leica IIIf Camera Shutter Curtain Replacement
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ต.ค. 2024
- This is an incomplete and amateur guide to replacing the curtains on a Leica III. The model shown is the IIIf Black Dial but some or all of the steps may be applicable to other models. You're probably better advised to send your Leica to Youxin Ye...but if you take on this repair, I hope this video is of some assistance!
Great craftsmanship. Enjoyed seeing the innards, like those of my IIIf RD. YYE did a CLA about 8 years ago, and it is still running beautifully.
I was recently gifted an M4 where the one curtain was completely detached from the bar and the other was in the process of pulling away. No doubt the original material from 1967. You're giving me hope that for the modest cost of materials from Japan I can rebuild this camera. I am not sure how different the internals of the M4 are to this model. But the curtain process itself seems somewhat universal so as long as I can get to this point in disassembly, I am hopeful I can turn my current paperweight back into a functional camera without having to send it off for a $500+ repair job (no doubt more than that if i send it half apart with a bag full of small screws). Thank you very much for sharing your experience. TH-cam really is a wonderful place.
Nice gift! I suspect the M4 is very similar. Go for it!
Great work. I'm amazed you managed to do this without taking apart the shutter unit. I did it already on a FED 2 and a Zorki I and it's pretty straight-forward if you can take out the rollers, but this is almost micro-surgery. Btw. it's fairly easy to build a shutter speed tester with an Arduino and some cheap components, there is a tutorial here on youtube how to do it, it was very helpful with adjusting the shutter speeds after the reassembly of the shutter. Regards, Peter
I've just purchased an Arduino controller and associated laser sender/receiver! I've used various goofy methods to check shutter speeds in the past - it'll be fun to have a more direct and reliable method. Thanks for that!
@@crawshaws I've found it pretty accurate up to 1/500th of a second, but not beyond. Either the board or the laser sensor is not quick enough to respond in those cases, but it's still ok to get a rough idea. You can also take measurements at the left/right edges of the exposure window to get an idea whether exposure is even, you'll be surprised of the results.
Superb, thankyou for sharing this. I dont have a leica iii yet but am looking fit one, and as time goes by old curtains are only going to degrade further so knowing repair is possible them relatively cheaply when the time comes is a huge worry I can set aside.
Absolutely Dave, hope you find a nice one…even if it needs some work, it’ll reward you in many ways.
Beautifully done!
Amazing work!
You should disassemble all mechanical gears in the body to cleaned and lube everything. For adjusting use a shutter tester or a very slow motion camera to check that the slit remains constant during travel
it's the best option but definitely not recommended for a inexperienced user. having some of the more sensitive gears out of alignment can pretty much introduce more issues. And it's pretty hard to find infos on which parts require precise positioning. Generally i'd say stripping it down to the point where you can reach the points that require lubrication should be fine enough. after that it's just diminishing returns. Carefully clean and relubricate. But a shutter tester is a must. I see a lot of people who simply tighten the curtain rollers without any reference. It's not a good idea because increased tensions means increased forces and suddenly you have your curtains coming loose. It's just such a shame seeing inexperienced hobbyists destroying high quality camreas. I have a leica iiic that had the entire curtain plastered with liquid rubber. The whole curtain ribbon came loose after it jammed. Going to have to do a whole curtain replacement to get it working again.
Great video thank you
I'm coming back to this because I had to disassemble my Leica IIf (simplified version of the IIIf) just a few days ago to solve an issue with the shutter release. Yes, you are completely right, you have to disassemble the rangefinder coupling arm and the gears from the bottom to get the last baffle out. Absolutely horrible job. I thought there is a way without actually removing every single bit but I was wrong and bent the baffle in the process, but luckily I could straighten it back into original shape without any damage and then went on and took more pieces out. I think this is actually a pretty poor design in this regard. I'm doing a Canon IId which is more of a Leica II, let's see how that goes.
Peter Barth it’s a bear of a job alright. Pretty satisfying when it all comes together though! Good luck with the Canon
牛逼！厉害！强大！学习了！
Thank you for doing this video. It clarified many things. Quick question, I was not able to remove rangefinder screws (the 3 screws that remove rangefinder assembly) on one of my camera. I am wondering if you have similar issue / how do you remove them? I believe it has not been removed before judging from the curtain never been replaced.
Hmmm, I don’t recall having trouble with the rangefinder screws. Maybe soak in solvent? Sorry, I can’t help more with that.
Hello, thank you for the nice video in the first place! Is there a reason that one of the curtains is inverted (rubber facing to lensmount) ? I am doing the curtain swap on my IIc.
If you look at 1:35 in the video you'll get a glance of the two original curtains - the rubber (badly degraded) is facing different ways. I don't know why and whether that's important, but I just replicated the original set up. Good luck with your project!
Oh, you can see it better at 2:06
11:56 When I said Oh Hell no!
hahaha, go for it!
I am afraid of buying the new Leica Q2 because I was afraid to hear what the cost would be to replace the shutter of that model ,knowing how much I shoot ~I know I will wear that Q2 out many times over in my life time ,it this normal,I would have thought a camera costing so much would last a life time
The Leica III has a cloth shutter. The cloth deteriorates with age rather than use. My 70 year old III might only have 2,000 shutter releases on it, but the cloth rotted. The Q2 has an entirely different shutter mechanism. I assume it has a titanium or composite vertical bladed shutter mechanism. Good for 100,000+ releases, 200,000 with e-front curtain AND there’s a fully e-shutter option. There are reasons for thinking hard before buying a Q2, but I’d suggest the shutter life should be very far down your list.
hello what adhesive did you use? they would help me a lot!
Super-X. See ~7:35
Thank you !!
Which 'other cameras' have you replaced shutters on, my Pentax S2 has crinkled curtains and recently snapped a ribbon, so I'm looking at total replacement. Is there any major notes I should make with Pentax's or SLRs in general.
I've only done the Leica III and a Minolta 35 rangefinder (a bit of a Leica knock-off). There's quite a lot of repair information out there on the Leica...not much on the Minolta 35. Your S2 is a bit of a classic - there should be some disassembly information available on the web. Go for it...nothing much to lose if you've got a non-functional camera. I do recommend video-ing the complicated dis-assembly steps - so you can retrace your steps (and you could post the video as a guide for other Pentax S2 enthusiasts)
Which kind of cloth should I use? Where to find ?
The video tells you this. See 7:38
How much does it cost for a Pro CLA and Curtain swap on a Leica iii?
About $250 - check out YYe: www.yyecamera.com/price_list.html
Please after to glue And cure the new Curtain need you yo recoveryi the tensión on the rollers? How?
There’s two roller tensioning screws on the bottom of the assembly. Pretty simple, just keep tensioning until the shutter operates (makes it all the way over the film frame). I think there are better videos than mine that show this tensioning process.
@@crawshaws i have the camera open on tablet operation....only need replace the first blind. I ask if i could i cut the curtain or. Can i glue the new in tensión position.?
@@crawshaws how can i keep the roller botton?
th-cam.com/video/q_0F7QB25mw/w-d-xo.html
Here is my question
Is that address at 0:40 for disassembly guide correct?
This? th-cam.com/video/gTb94H0AGng/w-d-xo.html
@@bigpardner that looks right
Anybody else in way over their head here?
Looks really intimidating hahha.. big nope for me
Yes, a bit scary, but very satisfying if you can make it through to the end!