I developed a roll in my Praktica today and saw a lot of odd blobs, turns out the shutter curtain has pin holes! Can anyone suggest some trusted and budget friendly places in the uk to get it repaired? Would like it serviced at the same time, plan on using it for slide film so accurate shutter speeds as needed!
Praktica FX2 service and repair suggestions
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john.margetts
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There are few people who are willing to repair old film cameras and I am afraid that I cannot recommend anyone.
I buy a lot of old cameras and frequently find shutter curtains that either have pinholes or have become generally translucent. I repair these when Bestbeloved is out of the house by raiding her painting box and painting the curtains with a thin layer of Copydex and black acrylic paint mixed together. The paint provides opacity and the Copydex provides flexibility and adhesion. It is important to ensure that the mixture is very thoroughly dry before either firing the shutter or winding it on.
I buy a lot of old cameras and frequently find shutter curtains that either have pinholes or have become generally translucent. I repair these when Bestbeloved is out of the house by raiding her painting box and painting the curtains with a thin layer of Copydex and black acrylic paint mixed together. The paint provides opacity and the Copydex provides flexibility and adhesion. It is important to ensure that the mixture is very thoroughly dry before either firing the shutter or winding it on.
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Where are you?
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Well unless you have a sentimental reason or must use this camera, it is cheaper to buy another camera than have it repaired and serviced.....costs could be about £60 or more.
Plenty of M42 cameras around like Praktica, Pentax etc and even more advanced cameras with electronic shutter, you can fit a M42 adapter to use screw lenses e.g Canon, Minolta.
Plenty of M42 cameras around like Praktica, Pentax etc and even more advanced cameras with electronic shutter, you can fit a M42 adapter to use screw lenses e.g Canon, Minolta.
essex
I would but its a Fx2 which is a waist level 35mm, I havent seen a lot of those about, unless there just wasnt when I was looking
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Quite a number of 35mm cameras had interchangeable prisms/waist level finders (the Exakta even did stereo!) and come up for sale. West Yorkshire Cameras have had (still have?) a few. Admittedly, finding the finder might be tricky, but still possible.
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Ah...the only 35mm waist level camera I have is a compact Yashica T5 but they aren't cheap, maybe using a medium format camera? But have no idea on prices. So the fix as suggested self repair on the curtain is the cheapest.
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I've several Exaktas with waist level finders - the Exa I also takes the same finders. The Nikon F, F2, F3 etc have WLFs, as does the Pentax LX, several models of Mirandas, Edixa off the top of my head.
I will look around but I cant got the camera for what I think was fairly cheap, £20, so I would imagine that a repair would still make it cheaper than buying another camera. Unless you take the curtain into account! The shutter speeds all work though.
I have a Yashica Mat that I use for 120, I like using both formats. I might be tempted to try to fix it myself. I have the first version of the Praktica fx, the slow shutter speeds dont work and I think the fast ones are out, could be a decent practice camera
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If you contact the member "the big yin" and IIRC he has done some fixes on shutter curtains? and he would tell you what he used etc