Re: Realist rangefinder (Re: Lubitel Models)

[E R Swanson <ers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I did it a long time ago, and don't feel qualified to respond to this in
detail, other than when you pull the leather or leatherette, I think you
expose the base plate screws, and nothing terrible happens when you remove
the baseplate. BTW the best tool I've found is an artists palette knife--
sort of a miniature pancake flipper-- for removing leather. Also, when
replacing leather, use contact cement on the leather only, not both
surfaces, and reapply the leather while the cement is still wet. I used
contact cement on both surfaces once. After much cursing and scraping the
next time I had to open the camera, it was necessary to replace the
leather... I also used Duco cement once, and a friend of mine told me to
expect the same experience as a dual surface contact cement job if I ever
tried to take the leather off again. 

BTW if the pressure plates are uneven in tension, you might want to be
sure nothing is obstructing the ability to flex. Some pressure plates use
shoulder screws that allow one arm of the pressure plate to slide, and if
someone replaced it with a standard screw, it will no longer move. Zak
probably has replacement parts.

Did George Themelis do a book on repair of the Realist camera? If he did,
I'm sure it's worth having. I know there's a Romney Realist repair book
that has had mixed reviews. 

I'd love an exploded view step-by-step disassembly like you can buy from
Reel-3D for the Kodak stereo. With one of these, it's easy to do a
complete tear down and reassembly of just about anything...

Elliott


On Wed, 12 May 1999 pennywise@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> If I remove the base covering leather, what do I find?
> I understand that the focus is achieved by a moveable film plane.
> One end of my floating film plane is slightly higher than the other, 
> but will press down with a slight pressure.
> Do you think that the tension of the film and the pressure plate will 
> be enough to even it out?.
> The fact that the rangefinder is out, won't affect the focussing 
> scale, will it?.
> Tony (UK)
>