Destroying your Nishika (longish)

[P3D Bob Wier <wier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Recently, I picked up a Nishika at a reasonable price (mainly
because I could not find a Nimslo at a reasonable price!). Anyway,
not being real familiar with the Nishika, I was taken a bit
because the guy selling it said he didn't know anything about
it (probably true) but that it seemed to work ok because you
could see the shutters operate when you looked thru the back
of the camera. It turns out of course that the Nishika is a 
totally manual camera - it works just fine if you take out the
batteries! The only thing the batteries do is to run a little
"low light" LED indicator in the viewfinder (which is basically
worthless because it comes on at the same light level regardless
of the aperture setting). Anyway - it turns out that my N. would
not run a flash unit. After a number of confused messages between
me and other N. owners about what kind of flash is required, 
it turned out that the wire going to the hot shoe inside the N. was
broken (although I did not know that at the time, of course). I
SUSPECT that this may be a very common problem in many N. 
cameras as it looks like a manufacturing defect. Anyway, to fix it,
I had to get the top of the camera off. This turned out to be
quite a struggle - I made one fairly serious mistake along the
way which resulted in having to super-glue back some broken plastic
parts which hold the back closed. Anyway, I thought I'd post
this out for anyone who needs to do the same, and to get it 
into the archives.

At this point, with the flash shoe wire repaired, looking thru
the lenses and firing the flash, things look bright! -)
(Incidentally - I'm using a "universal hot shoe" type of flash
unit - it has multiple probes that extend down to match several
different contact patterns). Consistent with some other things
on the Nishika (like the LCD display :-)  although there appear
to be 4 contacts (3 on the shoe, one connected to the shoe frame),
only 2 of those actually have wires connected to them! To get a 
flash to work, it needs to fire when the side contact on the shoe
is shorted to the larger "bulb" central contact in the shoe. The
two smaller contacts (which don't match any standard pattern as
best as I can tell) are dummys.

To remove the top:

The top is a one piece moulded lightweight plastic shell that
is both press fitted and screwed to the camera body.

To remove it, proceed as follows:

Place a used or unused roll of film in the camera - this
is to prevent the rewind cam from falling into the camera
body when the rewind knob is removed. If the cam falls
inside the body, you will not be able to open the back
of the camera. This is not a major problem in itself, but
it does commit you to removing the camera top - you may
want to change your mind!

- Remove the rewind and film advance knobs by unscrewing the
brass colored phillips head screws in the center of the knobs.
Note that there is a washer on the film advance knob, and 
a small rectangular piece of metal on the rewind knob which
comes off also. BE CAREFUL not to lose these parts! Note the
position of the small flat piece of metal under the rewind
know for later reassembly. Also note that both knobs are keyed, and
so will have to be rotated so that they fit down on the cams
when reassembled. The film advance knob fits in two positions.
The *correct* position is where the handle is parallel to the
camera back (assuming the advance is not rotated halfway to the
next expousure). These are little tiny screws - you'll need a 
set of jeweler's screwdrivers.

- Remove the small black phillips head screw which is hidden under
the large rubber grip on the film advance end of the camera - this
screw is located just below the red stripe to the right
of the carrying strap bracket.

- Remove the black phillips head screw under the red stripe
exposed under the large rubber grip to the  right and below
the shutter release knob. Do NOT remove the two black phillips
head screws which are arranged vertically in the crease
between the hand grip and the front of the camera.

- At this point you should be able to pry the top of the camera
body away from the body. It is a tight fit so you may have
to use a jeweler's flat blade screwdriver to pry up on the top.
The plastic is very soft, so you probably will nick the edge
where you pry up.

- Suggest to pry up beginning on the rewind knob end - a good
place is between the carrying bracket and the top shell. As you
pull up on the top, it will come lose until you can remove
the film advance end. Note that the shutter release button
will probably fall free when you remove the top (not a problem).

What you do NOT have to remove to open the camera top:

The flat plastic washer under the film rewind knob.
The rubber pad on the back of the camera.
The smaller rubber pad on the back of the camera above
the previous item.
The battery test slide switch.
The "LCD display" on the top of the camera :-)

If you are having the flash problem, look for a loose white
wire (very small gauge, stranded) which *should* connect to the
center contact of the hot shoe. I found that soldering it 
back to the post in the shoe was difficult (which may be why
this is a problem with this). The camera shell plastic has a 
rather low melting point, and if you keep heat on the contact too
long, it will tend to melt out of the camera body. So a light
touch is needed! It's hard to get a good solid solder joint 
without unduly melting the camera body. In fact, the first time
I reassembled the camera (see below), it broke again!

Reassembly:
The reverse of disassembly except -
The shutter release knob is difficult to get to stay in
the right place while you put the top back on. Suggest
to put it in the right place in the camera body (note the
long pin fits into a hole in the body, and a bracket
fits under the release button which may need to be rotated
by hand to the correct position). When the release is in
place, put the camera top on the body - press down to cause
it to snap back into place. This may take several tries.



The BOTTOM shell.

Generally, there is not much of interest inside the bottom of
the camera - only the film advance and shutter cock assembly.
However, there is a 1/2 lb chunck of (lead?) which serves no
purpose, and it may be safely removed without affecting
camera operation. Needless to say, it makes the camera 
considerably lighter.

The bottom screws may be very tight and difficult to remove.

I'm still looking for a reasonable price Nimslo - it would
be nice to have a better exposure control than on the Nishika.
If anyone spots one, kindly drop me a note!

THANKS!

   ====== wier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ======
       9:01 AM Monday, June 17, 1996
      keeper of the Photo-3d, Motorola
   MC68HC11, Overland-Trails, LDS State
  Research Outline Guides and other stuff
     (currently in Ouray, Colorado)
                 



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