Ikonta 524 Cleaning...

steveo_mcg

steveo_mcg

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I've had my folder for a few weeks now and finally shot a roll in a quasi scientific method. I shot 5 frames of the subject under the same flat light using a "correct" exposure but a 5 different apertures, I was curious as to how sharp it was wide open vs stepped down. If any one is interested I can post the results but the difference between F11 and F3.5 is frankly startling, even f11 to f8 there is a noticeable increase at 1200 dpi.

My other test was to check the shutter speeds, unsurprisingly 1/10th down isn't right. 1/10th is definitely slower than 1/50th but I can't see any difference between 1/25 and 1/50 the histograms are almost identical. 1/100 seems to be faster than 1/50 and 1/300 might be ok.

I've found a site detailing the dismantling of the lens assembly but it removes it from the body with an improvised tool, I'm wondering if this is necessary or if I can clean the guts of the shutter mechanism in situ and if so what is the best method for cleaning out stuck mechanics.

I'm also wondering if I should just live with it I'm unlikely to need <1/25 as I'm too shaky to hand hold it and if need a tripod I'll like switch to *ahem* dijical so I can chimp it.
 
How confident are you??!!!

To sort out sticky speeds in the simplest shutter mechs like in a box brownie are within the capabilities of most people, however when it comes to more complicated ones then it is very dependent on wether you feel able to complete the job successfully without sending everything out of synch.

For me I would leave well alone if you're unlikely to use the slow speeds.

My nearest experience to this was dismantling an Oly Trip to free up the aperture blades....successful but not something i would wish to do again....dismantling was easy, it's getting it back together in working order that was the challenge!!

Best of luck if you give it a go.

And yes, I for one would be interested in the results you got if you wish to post em.
 
Up until the removal of the shutter assembly it seems about with in my ability and if it was just a matter of sticking some lighter fluid then some lube i'd probably be ok but taking it out the body with diy tool worries me a little more!

On the other hand maybe I should just try and get a cheap broken one and try to fix that before "fixing" my working model...


I'll do a 100% crop and post them this evening. Since taking them I have started to wonder if I'd just messed up the focus but I'm not sure.
 
Shutter speeds from cameras this old are rarely correct. I tested a dozen or so of my cameras with a basic shutter speed tester and barely any of them were correct. On my Franka Solida IIIe 6x6 folder with a synchro compur shutter nearly every speed was one stop slower than what it should have been at which seemed to be par for the course with the rest of my older 50/60's cameras. The worst was my Zorki 3M rangefinder, the 1/1000th speed was firing at 1/200th, a good 2.3 stops over exposure.

Usually the accepted tolerance for these kind of mechanical cameras from the factory back in the day was anything up to 20% of the advertised speed (fifth of a stop in other words).

The disassembly page isn't too bad though i'd advise not taking apart the shutter like he did, just stick to the lighter fluid bath and hope for the best, if you want to proceed further go no further than removing the shutter blades before the bath. One thing he didn't touch on at all was readjusting the lens to infinity focus, he mentions noting the point at which the lens leaves the thread but you should mark the lens on the edge with a marker so you have a reference point as well. If you get this wrong you'll lose infinity focus unless you have a tool to help with resetting that point. The improvised tool he made is a kind of lens spanner, looks a bit iffy but works fine, quite a few lens repair tools are rather pricey so it's understandable.

One of the best guys i know online to ask about these things is Hans Kerensky on flickr, he has lots of experience and is always willing to answer questions if you want help, check out those collections i linked to, the shutters one in particular. Here's a set that shows how to make a basic infinity focus checker for when rebuilding the lens, or you can use a ground glass if you have one handy.

On the other hand maybe I should just try and get a cheap broken one and try to fix that before "fixing" my working model...
Click to expand...
Hans told me the same thing, buy a "throwaway" camera on eBay or somewhere and take it apart before working on your sluggish but working model.
 
Asha said:
And yes, I for one would be interested in the results you got if you wish to post em.
Click to expand...

The full image, resized. All were scanned at 1200 dpi and I've pretty much left them as they came out the scanner.

IkontaTestFrame1 by steveo_mcg, on Flickr

First f16 - all the text is quite visible.

1/25 f16 by steveo_mcg, on Flickr

F8- would be just fine if not compared to the above

1/100 f8 by steveo_mcg, on Flickr

f3.5- don't think i'd want to blow this up too much.

1/300 f3. 5 by steveo_mcg, on Flickr

I don't worry too much about sharpness probably limit its use for a very highly enlarged portrait, throwing the background oof with a wide aperture probably isn't that great an idea if you wanted a4 prints.
 
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You'll have to take the lens elements out anyway to clean the mechanics of the thing. You can try the bath with maybe some careful fluid flushing of the escapement (the bit that controls the shutter speeds) section with lighter fluid, i was only concerned at dunking the whole unit in there as that includes the aperture blades section as well and they rarely need cleaning unless really gunked up.

I'd throw Hans a flickrmail post about what you intend to do and ask his opinion on it as he's far more qualified than me to answer.
 
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