# voitlander bessa



## mysteryscribe (Oct 9, 2006)

I just bought a voightlander bessa with 110 mm lens 4.5 1/200 of a second compur shutter. I bought it for the lens. Plan to attach it to a 2x3 studio simi view i build. I paid 25bucks for the camera with shipping if I were to buy a vintage lens like it the cost would be about fifty bucks at least. 

I think I got a pretty good deal.


----------



## Mitica100 (Oct 9, 2006)

Yeah, that does sound like a good deal.


----------



## mysteryscribe (Oct 10, 2006)

have to wait to see how the shutter springs are but if it isnt worn out it should do fine.


----------



## Mitica100 (Oct 10, 2006)

BTW, which lens does the Bessa have? Is it the Vaskar, the Skopar or the Voigtar?


----------



## mysteryscribe (Oct 10, 2006)

I didn't pay any attention when I bought it on ebay... And the seller has pulled the pictures now that it is sold. I suppose to make away for more on their host site.  I will have to  wait a few days, but I'll keep you posted on the lens saga.  

I have been able to clean most all of the lenses I have bought (without opening them) so I'm not too worried if it is sticky.  I just wonder about the springs.  If it hasn't been over worked it will be fine no more than I shoot.

Since I got that 3a with the broken strut but shutter that was practically factory new, I know how those things were supposed to feel.  I realize how close to used up a couple of mine are.  Too bad there isn't some way to fire the lens on ebay before you buy it.


----------



## mysteryscribe (Oct 12, 2006)

lens is the voigtar anastigmat f4.5 110 mm and the shutter about half works just what I expected...at this moment I'm soaking it in benzine. I found a can of energine spot remover that does a great job. When it dries up im gonna lubricate it with graphite which is what I always use its a bit mess for a week or two but it does put a shutter back in shape if the springs aren't ruined. I think this one might have bad springs.

I cant cock the sutter on b or t slow speed the lens opens but wont close unless I raise the speeds that I hope is just dried grease. Im gonna know in the nest day or so.


----------



## mysteryscribe (Oct 13, 2006)

change benzene to naptha and the lens works perfectly now.  What a deal... The lens seems pretty sharp as well.  I shot it this morning inside the studio I was very pleased.


----------



## Mitica100 (Oct 13, 2006)

mysteryscribe said:
			
		

> change benzene to naptha and the lens works perfectly now. What a deal...


 

Yeah, Naphta, the greatest invention since sliced bread...:lmao: 

That stuff is miraculous.


----------



## mysteryscribe (Oct 13, 2006)

I usually put a lens in a waterproff plastic bag and drop in some very hot water.  Let it sit till the water just starts to cool then exercise the lens.  If I do that a few times it works well and I don't have to relube it.  Since i only lube with graphite it takes a week to get the darn stuff out of the shutter.

But on this one and the last one for one reason or another I had to use naptha and it cleans one up in no time, but it also washes away all the old lube.  Really do have to relube it with something but since i don't take the shutters apart graphite is the best thing it works it's way into the shutter chain.  The two together made that lens work pertectly.


----------



## santino (Oct 13, 2006)

so let's say I have a Agfa Sillete with compur shutter and don't know how to acces it (slow times aren't working so well) then I just put it in a plastic bag and hot water?


----------



## Mitica100 (Oct 13, 2006)

santino said:
			
		

> so let's say I have a Agfa Sillete with compur shutter and don't know how to acces it (slow times aren't working so well) then I just put it in a plastic bag and hot water?


 
As long as you disassemble the lens cells and you take the shutter off the camera, that should work fine.


----------



## santino (Oct 13, 2006)

ok, so let's say it won't work 
I don't know how to take the shutter of the camera. any info on the sillete?


----------



## mysteryscribe (Oct 13, 2006)

Take the lens and shutter off the camera. Make sure your plastic bag is water proof before you slip the lens inside it. Then set the bag in the water and after it get warm work the shutter over and over. repeat it reheated water until the lens works as it should, then do it again a couple of extra times. You dont want it to get stiff again when it cools off. That should work.

Try that before anything else.

Getting the lens and shutter off the camera is pretty simple. With the camera closed open the back then find the spanner nut. There might be two the larger one holds the lens onto the camera frame. If you have a spanner wrench use it to remove the lens if not....

Get a jewlers screw driver set and a small hammer. Take the largest flat screw driver and set it at an angle(so that when you tap it gently you will be loosening the bolt. lefty loosy.... when you get the nut off open the camera slowly and behold you have the lens in your hand.

If you take the rear lens element off, you wont get any lens condensation build up. That happened to me just once but it can happen. The rear element comes out with the smaller spanner nut. It actually is the rear element of the lens usually be damn careful loosening it.

This sounds harder than it is. If you get the rear element off and the lens won't free up with the heat thing, go to the naptha that'll get her unless a spring is broke but usually if that it the case the shutter wont stick it just wont work.

Im sure there are others who can add more but in at least the last ten lenses and shutters I have NOT opened the shutter at all.


----------



## Alex_B (Oct 13, 2006)

you guys seem to understand some things about how to bring new life to old cameras ... I have a couple of old ones which I want to wake up from their sleep again, maybe I'll get back to you then


----------



## mysteryscribe (Oct 13, 2006)

can't guarentee you wont screw them up so before you do it you do so at your own risk.  However I have only screwed up one and I did it because I have fat fingers and shouldn't have been where I was in the first place.  I stopped opening them up after that one.


----------



## santino (Oct 13, 2006)

wow thanks, I always wanted to know how to clean central shutters


----------



## Alex_B (Oct 13, 2006)

actually, with those whih have a shutter, the shutter seems fine. however i fear some lenses might be ... not so well.


----------



## mysteryscribe (Oct 13, 2006)

Well if it isnt cleaning the lenese Im lost.  I don't know how to reglue them, or anything like that.  I can remove the rear element clean it then open the shutter on t or b  and use a cuetip to clean the inside of the front element or group.  Im not sure but I expect you could kill the mold if it wasn't between the glued elements that way.

That about all I can do to one.


----------



## mysteryscribe (Oct 14, 2006)

Since I said so much about this lens and shutter thought I would give you the final update. The lens is now sitting on a cobbled together home made view camera sorta.... I did add a removeable 120 film holder back last night... 120 film is easier than cutfilm to find now and actually less expensive to shoot since I cut the film down to three eposures per roll. Makes three rolls that way.

So the lens works perfectly on all speeds bulb and time as well... here is a shot from it/'vv 







I love this lens by the way...


----------



## Alex_B (Oct 14, 2006)

Nice, I personally would prefer the bottle without a label though.

Do you also have a photograph of the tool you used to produce this one?


----------



## mysteryscribe (Oct 14, 2006)

no but i got a ten dollar point and shoot camera I can make you one in a few minutes....


----------



## mysteryscribe (Oct 14, 2006)

ask and you shall receive
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




As to the label on the bottle.... It is a matter of photographic philosophy mine is "play it like it lays sam."


----------



## Alex_B (Oct 14, 2006)

mysteryscribe said:
			
		

> ask and you shall receive


Thanks for the effort! Interesting to see the actual camera behind the photograph. 

Will try to take some pictures of my cameras too (not tonight though).



> As to the label on the bottle.... It is a matter of photographic philosophy mine is "play it like it lays sam."


Well, no need to change that!


----------



## mysteryscribe (Oct 15, 2006)

On the play it like it is, I'm certain not above picking up a candy wrapper to get it out of my shot.  I would like to make that absolutely clear that there are no hard fast rules in my world.


----------



## tempra (Dec 4, 2006)

Just reading through this thread, I've just got hold of a zeiss pancolar 50mm f1.8 lens that is stiff on focussing, would the hot water - lens in a bag thing work for that?


----------



## Mitica100 (Dec 5, 2006)

tempra said:
			
		

> Just reading through this thread, I've just got hold of a zeiss pancolar 50mm f1.8 lens that is stiff on focussing, would the hot water - lens in a bag thing work for that?


 
You could try it. Just make sure the plastic pouch/bag that you're using is totally waterproof. 

I have read about another method on how to bring older shutters back to life. In a way it's the same, heat. But this is done with an oven (yeah, baking oven) heated at the minimal temperature (around 175-200 deg.) and with the door slightly ajar. Place the lens for 10 minutes only, if it works after that, then fine, if not, another 10 minutes of gentle heating might do the trick. Again though, I read this on another website and I do not endorse this method over the hot water method, I just list it here since I found it to be interesting.

With larger lenses, the focusing might go stiff if the helicoidal grease is of inferior quality. It turns into the green monster which is sticky. There are ways to dissolve that hardened (green) grease but I can't seem to recall them. Will do though, once I remember or find them.


----------



## tempra (Dec 5, 2006)

Cheers Dimitri, I'll give it a go although working the focussing ring seems to be making small improvements - although it might just be me getting stronger from the workout. 

I'll report back...


----------



## Don Simon (Dec 5, 2006)

I assume that's an East German Zeiss. I think lenses in the DDR and USSR must have been intentionally made like that in order to make people stronger so they could defeat the capitalists in the Olympics :mrgreen:. I have a Russian 85mm... great lens, but I don't so much focus it as wrestle it.


----------



## Mitica100 (Dec 5, 2006)

ZaphodB said:
			
		

> I assume that's an East German Zeiss.


 
That is correct! However, the Pancolar is the best lens amongst the DDR produced lenses. There were the Domiplan, the Tessar and the Pentacon lenses as well but the Pancolar was the best of them all. Super sharp lens!


----------



## Don Simon (Dec 5, 2006)

Sounds like I'll be off lurking around Ebay looking for unsuspecting lenses again then. :mrgreen:

I think some of the East German & Soviet lenses are well worth the time and effort spent trying to sort the very good from the horrible, the irritation of finding oil inside an otherwise perfect lens etc... it's worth it when you find a good one. For example my 85mm, it's a Jupiter-9, as I understand it's a rip-off of a 1930s Zeiss design... I have no idea which decade mine was made in, I have to set aperture and then stop down with a separate ring, and as I implied focussing is _really_ stiff. BUT... on the other hand it's an 85mm f2! For about 1/10th of the price of a similar manual focus lens from one of the Japanese companies. The almost completely circular aperture would look cool even if it didn't produce great bokeh (which it does) and stopped past f/4 it is sharp. I don't think I'll risk putting it in water until I've got another one


----------

