Petulant Leningrad

First I have to say that I love the Leningrad. It's a very nice camera with it's great view finder, body and spring motor. My first one was one from Juhani (and I always have it, dude :-)) and it works fine until now.

But most oft the Leningrads you get from eBay or a flew market (if you find one there) are in not so good condition. People often tried to repair it and the results are almost bad :-/

So I have 3 broken Leningrads here, one has a broken shutter (light leaks), the other one has a self made rewind knob and the third one was not able to cock, it makes a creaky sound and blocks while winding. Ouch, I have to open up the winding knob where the big spring is in was my first thought. Ok, let's go. Removed the two screws that hold the knob and pulled it up! I saw the spring flying through my room but nothing happens. Ok, let's see more.

It's a big spring, about 10 times wound in the housing. Ah, there are 3 screws on the bottom. They correspond to the 3 nuts that can be seen from inside. One helds a lever, one a small spring for the frame counter. Ok, let's remove the screws, the winding mechanism is broken and I can not make more damage.

The knob comes off and a lot of pieces felt down underside. No problem, I have an assembled top as a template for reassembling it :-)

How does it work? There is a gear inside the knob just under the spring that has two catches that make the characteristic sound while winding it. I turned it and it works fine. So what was the problem? A very very tiny piece of metal (just about a half of a millimeter) was broken from the gear and blocks the winding mechanism sometimes!

Cleaned it all with lighter fluid, reassembled it and it works like new now.

The Leningrad is one of the cameras that I have never disassembled so complete before, but NOW I GOT YOU BABE :-)

Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de

Hi Ulrich!

You are a modern explorer of the past...
Sure, you are the last repairman for such these cameras.

When I think I am just able to change the curtains on a Fed...

Bravo! Jacques.

Jacques,

thanks. I hope that I am NOT the only one who can repair a Leningrad, Start or FED... ;-) And yes, I like to explore the past. And the Leningrad is a nice piece to explore. It's very well build, the mechanics of the sping winding mechanism, the frame counter, the rewind dial and the self timer are nice to see.

But I also have found some weak parts that can break. Old Leningrads don't have a third screw to hold the slow gear mechanism. So because of the force of the spring the lever often jumps over and blocks the winding and release mechanism.

The camera blocks the release button when not full wound. That's ok, but the metal spring and lever under it are not strong enough, they can be bent when pressing the release button too hard. I have seen some Leningrads with deformed parts there.

And it is very nice that it's modular build like the Kiev/Contax or the Start. The shutter housing can be taken out as one part. But it's also hard to test it because of the spring. You always have to reassemble it nearly complete to test it...

Ulrich



http://fotos.cconin.de