Kodak Ektar 127mm lens

I use my Ektar 127mm on my B&J 4x5 and am pleasantly surprised at the amount of
rise I can get out of the lens before the corners vignette. More coverage than
I had expected. The lens is very sharp and fairly contrasty for a
single-coated job.

Mike


C program run. C program crash. C programmer quit.

I had the lens panel out after I noted some tiny pin prick dots over the
area of the front lens cell.
This seems to be between elements.
I was going to do what is referred to as the 'Ronsonol Soak' after removing
both lens cells.
Its a bath of lighter fluid into which the shutter assembly is placed for a
short time to soften hardened lubricant. I dont know if anybody has tried
this out.
If the lens is suffering some defect I am not too worried as I also have a
150mm f4.5 Schneider Xenar.

People do the "Ronsonol soak" as you call it all the time and with great
success. Be aware that Ronsonal may remove lens coatings (and it may
not). Your mileage may vary.

Regards,

Marv

Neil Purling wrote:
I had the lens panel out after I noted some tiny pin prick dots over the
area of the front lens cell.
This seems to be between elements.
I was going to do what is referred to as the 'Ronsonol Soak' after removing
both lens cells.
Its a bath of lighter fluid into which the shutter assembly is placed for a
short time to soften hardened lubricant. I dont know if anybody has tried
this out.
If the lens is suffering some defect I am not too worried as I also have a
150mm f4.5 Schneider Xenar.

I was going to remove both lens cells first. However i spotted what seems to
be very many tiny dots that seem to be BETWEEN the elements of the front
cell.

"Neil Purling" wrote

I was going to remove both lens cells first. However i spotted what seems to
be very many tiny dots that seem to be BETWEEN the elements of the front
cell.

See if they aren't little air bubbles. Air bubbles were common in optical
glass until sometime in the 50's. And some batches of glass (and batches
of lenses) had lots of bubbles and some had none.

In any case, if the dots are opaque (as the small bubbles are), they
will have no impact on the image.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.

Well, I can relate my experience from a few days ago with the so called
"Ronsonol Soak".

I have a Graftar 135mm 4.7 in a Graphex No. 2 Shutter. It kind of started to
hang up and would not fire from the solenoid --I've had the camera for about 5
years and it used to work fine. So checking the help board on http://graflex.org
I saw all those glowing testimonials to the Ronsonol Soak.

Bought a 5 oz. tin of Ronsonol at my local grocery store. Removed the lens &
shutter from the lensboard. Removed the lens elements from the shutter. Removed
the retaining ring, pointer plate, and cam plate exposing the innards of the
shutter. Squirted Ronsonal liberally into the thing swishing it about throughly
and cocking and firing the shutter repeatedly. Blew it dry. Put it together.
And... It would only fire on 1/400

Back to graflex.org. Oh, there is a mention of that happening. The suggested fix
was to soak the shutter in a jar of Ronsonol for several hours. OK, another can
of the stuff (not enough left to cover the whole mechanism from the first can).
Gently agitate the jar from time to time. Boy is there a lot of crap settling to
the bottom of the jar. OK, 5 hours should be enough. Drain, gently blow dry with
my lens blower bulb. Put it together. And... Still only fires on 1/400, and
locks open when the synchronizer is turned on, also is much harder to cock than
it was.

OK! Bit the bullet, order out a Repair Manual for the lens. When it gets here I
tear down the shutter. There is a lot of grit in there and no more grease. No
wonder it does not work properly. Clean each part with an rag dampened with the
Ronsonol. Use a fiberglass contact cleaning pen to remove anything that looks
like corrosion. Reassemble oiling and greasing as indicated in the manual.
Basically only pivots are oiled, most of the other lub points are sliding
contacts and are greased. One drop of watch/clock oil, and a bit of grease about
the size of a paper match head is enough to do the whole shutter and leave a lot
left over. And... Shutter operates smoothly, easily, and properly. All shutter
speeds are withing tolerance except 1/400 is slightly slow, and 1/100 is
slightly fast (I will fix them when I get around to it).

WARNING-- As a result of the long soak all the stiff paper insulators in the
synchronizer subassembly are now pretty much useless mush. The fine hairspring
contact spring on the sync. subass. apparently got washed off in the soak and
jammed into the mechanism causing the jam open mentioned above. There are errors
in the manual. Most are switched information between the No.2 and No. 3
Shutters. Some seem to be simple running changes over the years. A couple are
outright wrong.

CONCLUSION: DON'T EVEN CONSIDER THE SOAK IF YOU VALUE THE LENS AND SHUTTER.
Either get the manual, and do it properly, or send it off to some competent shop.

On 1/15/2004 8:41 AM Tom spake thus:

Well, I can relate my experience from a few days ago with the so called
"Ronsonol Soak".

[tale of woe snipped]

Yet more evidence that just dunking a shutter in Ronsonol is a real crap shoot
and an exercise in hope. For one thing, contrary to popular myth, shutters
*do* require some lubrication to run properly, and removing all oil is not a
good thing.

As you pointed out, the "right way" to do this is to bite the bullet and
disassemble the shutter. Not everyone's cup of tea, which is why there are
people who charge to do such things.

As an example, you can check my page on servicing Compur dialset shutters out:

http://www.bonez.info/photo/Compur_dialset_service.htm

Of course, these are antiques by comparison, and simpler than your shutter (no
flash sync, for one thing). But the general principles are the same. I'm
working on a page for the more modern rimset Compurs.

I guess my point is that for those who are inclined to tinker, shutter repair
is well within your grasp. It's not as demanding as watch repair.


--
Focus: A very overrated feature.

- From Marcy Merrill's lexicon at Junk Store Cameras
(http://merrillphoto.com/JunkStoreCameras.htm)

Well, my Ektar has a rim set Supermatic which need gloves to adjust the
speed or else you can hurt yer fingers. The lens cells have a whole regiment
of what look like this: -.
They are look thin and like tiny dashes under a magnifier. There are rounder
ones.
It was at that point I wondered if it was really worth sending the thing
away to SK Grimes.
I am shooting some negs first.
The lens is 1949 I didnt expect it or the shutter to be mint.

On 1/15/2004 1:28 PM Neil Purling spake thus:

Well, my Ektar has a rim set Supermatic which need gloves to adjust the
speed or else you can hurt yer fingers.

Gloves? Pshaw: come back to us when you have a shutter which needs a pair of
*pliers* to adjust the speed!


--
Focus: A very overrated feature.

- From Marcy Merrill's lexicon at Junk Store Cameras
(http://merrillphoto.com/JunkStoreCameras.htm)

"Neil Purling" wrote in message ...
I was going to remove both lens cells first. However i spotted what seems to
be very many tiny dots that seem to be BETWEEN the elements of the front
cell.
The front cell's elements are air-spaced, with no cement to
deteriorate or grow fungus. Could you be seeing dust?