1948 Moskva 2 Restoration

Hi to all.

Decided to share the complete overhaul of a 1948 Moskva 2 I purchased. This will have some episodes.

First, general overview of the camera I received.

https://i.ibb.co/HB8ShVk/M2.jpg

Serial numbers :

Camera 4808797
Lens 002331
Shutter 484437

The camera is in restorable condition, with severe paint loss on the edges. It is missing the covering screw and washer on the focusing wheel. Between the paint and the aluminium shell is a brown coating that I suspect is comparable to Alodyne, a chemical coating that prevents oxydation on aluminium.

The leatherette is made of brown vinyl.

The general manufacturing standard is really poor. Scissors mechanism is made from thinner material compared to original Super Ikonta. Riveting was still not mastered on the assembly line at the time, with lot of bend or too long or poorly installed rivets. Lateral play is huge.

Anyway we will try to compensate these defects in order to have a reasonnably working camera.

Removing the rangefinder prism and viewfinder

https://i.ibb.co/2Fcc9Cv/moskvadis1.jpg

Removing back, advance mechanism, shutter assembly

https://i.ibb.co/qkMTLNB/moskvadis3.jpg

Shutter disassembly

https://i.ibb.co/SnTBt5Q/moment2.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/yddjBQs/moment.jpg

Shutter release lever broken, repaired.

At this time I was convinced that this shutter was 100% russian Moment shutter.

But when I removed the rear shell, I have to say that this is a genuine Fritz Deckel Compur part. This is the only one german part in this camera.

https://i.ibb.co/MhNGvSj/rearshell.jpg

Lot of parts are out of tolerance not due to wear but poor manufacturing, with old gummed up grease and rust. Will try to make it work correctly anyway.

Putting back aperture blades after cleaning, polishing.

https://i.ibb.co/K9Wj9n6/shuttassy1.jpg

Repolishing of shutter journal, and blades actuating disk. Lot of work to remove hard edges. Actuating disk is too large and floating but will work.

https://i.ibb.co/QQ5dG0w/shuttassy2.jpg

Putting back blades after cleaning and polishing

https://i.ibb.co/6RS9hqJ/shuttassy3.jpg

Reassembly. Speed escapement module is crude, first tried a genuine Compur assy and shutter worked fine, but decided to go back to the russian one in order to keep authenticity, but after several attempts it is working following DIN specs of the time (+/- 20% of the desired shutter exposure)

https://i.ibb.co/vXT1TPy/shuttassy4.jpg

Checking shutter parallelism and good news with 0,02mm that is acceptable

https://i.ibb.co/Vm2vrJm/paracheck.jpg

Reassembly of lenses after cleaning, no major scratches and some light coating defects that will not affect picture taking.

https://i.ibb.co/QpKHYB0/shutfinished.jpg

(To be continued...)

Thanks for sharing this !

Thanks, Maël!
I am a bit surprised that this early Moskva does not contain more German parts...

Jacques.

Then, taking a piece of rectified aluminium (+/- 0,01mm) as small marble, you will need to put it in the film gate in order to feel if the gate and the body are distorded.

I.e. if you have two diagonaly opposite corners from the marble that are not in contact with the gate, than you know where to try to gently bend back the body by hand. In this case, with a feeler gauge, we have a badly distorded body diagonaly, with more than 1,5mm.

After some attempts the marble is perfectly sitting on the film gate without any play and the film gate is correct.

https://i.ibb.co/vvqb94N/filmplane.jpg

Please take note that this can affect the scissors geometry.

https://i.ibb.co/5vn4NFN/back.jpg

Another thing to check is the folding front door and visually check for distortion, it must be flush with the body when closed. You can again and gently by hand try to put it back to a correct alignment.

Then comes the funny part. Putting back again our little piece of aluminium in place of the film, on a larger marble, our camera partially assembled, under a micrometer. We will then see deflections from optical misalignment in all directions.

https://i.ibb.co/4gBw1tv/align.jpg

First you can try to act on the scissors stops, you can try to bend a little here and there, but beware not to do any damages on the scissors assembly.

After every slight alignement close the folder and open it again and check for good lock of the mechanism before measuring again.

After clearing the alignment from under 0,20mm, then you can remove the lens and cut some shims that will be put under the shutter. There were already some cardboard shims. Had to add one 0,10mm on a side, and after some trials we have less than 0,01mm in the image width, 0,02mm in the image height, which is quite good. [:D]


(To be continued)

Fascinating! This is the most hardcore restoration I've ever seen!

Jacques, this is 1948 already AND also a Moskva-2, the only German parts were the Zeiss shutter (and Zeiss lens on earlier ones) in the first model in 1946-47, once it got replaced with the Moment and Industar lens everything else was domestic production.

Cheers,
Vlad.

Well what next ?

All this to clean and inspect.

https://i.ibb.co/hWNmybH/RF.jpg

After cleaning and reassembly

https://i.ibb.co/4TVxH1q/rfdetail.jpg

This is the main mechanism in the Super Ikonta and Moskva cameras. A gear train in closed loop moves two contra-rotating prisms. This deviates light laterally before it enters the rangefinder prism. It moves the focusing helical too.

Problem with a gear train is that you will have a light play at every gear. If you add all this, you will have a huge play at the end. The first gear will move long ago before the last get in motion. The solution is that one of the gear is a double gear spring loaded. (red arrow in the picture) As the two raws are spring loaded in the opposite direction this will constantly remove any play between the gear as the loop is closed.

This is the funny part at reassembly because a slight tooth misalignment in one of the gear will make the RF patch to deviate in an improper direction. Only one position will work. But it is not so complicated.

Well, finished at last. Collimation and rangefinder adjustment. I left a cardboard shim that was put by someone long ago in order to compensate the defective manufacturing of the rangefinder arm. It works. You will notice it if looking closely at the picture. Will make one from brass or aluminium later.

Missing washer on the focusing wheel is temporary replaced by a leatherette, too lazy to make a washer today..[:I]

TXP400 loaded and we'll see if I managed to do something with this camera.

https://i.ibb.co/dfwqT13/finishedfront.jpg

Film test extract, optically quite decent camera.

(click on links for samples)

https://ibb.co/wwQL5nK
https://ibb.co/txG0cbp
https://ibb.co/wcn94jx
https://ibb.co/9p0Nrk4
https://ibb.co/HpGPxvD
https://ibb.co/r3KvkbT

Even the german shutter was poorly made?

Anyway, well done on a good restoration. The photos look quite good for "test" shots.

Shutter is russian. Back of the shutter (where is located the aperture mechanism) is german.

Nice work !
Do you know if a repair manual for Mockba or Super Ikonta exist, or a link to it ?
Would be helpful for disassembly of mine.
I'm afraid pros do not need one...
Thanks anyway, this post looks like a good part of the manual !
Have a nice time,
j

http://www.ussrphoto.com/resize/resize_image.aspx?ImgWd=800&IptFl=/UserContent2/1222021_Inkedmoskvadis3_LI.jpg

http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent2/1222021_Inkedmoskvadis3_LI.jpg
Hello!
I am trying to save a moskva-2, but it misses the part marked on the picture. I want to make a replacement part, but I want it to be as authentic as it can be. Does somebody has some pictures where this part can be seen clearly?

I may have one from a Moskva 4 which is identical. Sorry for late response.

Nice work. I also have such a brown Moskwa from 1948 :-)

Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de

Thank you very much for sharing your amazing work and for the pictures, they are very very helpful!. This is my first post, just found this place while seeking for information about moskva cameras.I have restored a Moskva 5 bought "for parts", but I have not been able to remove the backslash in the rangefinder gears train. This is not a serious issue because if you move the focus from near to far the focus is accurate, not so from far to near.
It would be nice however to have no backslash (play) in the mechanism. I don't quite understand your explanation about the spring loaded gears. I have noticed the spring in the rangefinder, but in my camera it does no effect in removing the play. Any clues about that?. Thank you again

EDIT: OK I think the spring is there to remove the backslash in the movement of the two prisms, but not from the focus ring to the prisms