Re: [Rollei] For a change of pace

[Richard Knoppow <dickburk >]

At 11:11 AM 09/12/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>I took my new 'cord out today at lunchtime and shot a roll of
>tri-x.  This is the first roll of film through the camera (by me
>:-)  It is a wonderful fall day here and I work on a college
>campus so there is always something happening or people nearby.
>
>To answer a question from last week, my Cord is S# 1091xxx, has
>a compur-rapid shutter, and a schneider Xenar lens.
>
>Question (and I'll browse the archives but just in case someone
>knows of the top of their head): can I remove the "viewfinder"
>(folding top assembly and glass screen) so that I can clean the
>focusing lens, or is this best something left to a professional?
>   I see four tiny screws, two on each side of the camera, but
>don't need to make things worse by mucking about where I'm not
>supposed to be.  Needs a CLA, and a maxwell screen, anyway but
>I'm just poor at the moment.
>
>It is a quite different way of taking photos than my FE2!  It'll
>be a little less exciting once I get a working light meter...
>
>Brian in sunny Tejas
>
>
  The four screws on top of the flange around the focusing hood hold the
hood to the camera body. The hood lifts out exposing the mirror and rear of
the finder lens. 
Everything goes back into alignment automatically.
  I've found a couple of Rolleicords (model IV) with some sort of
condensate inside the finder lens. It looked like tiny drops of oil It
cleaned off easily with lens cleaner but required disassembling the finder
lens, which requires some disassembly of the front of the camera to get
out. Maybe not worth the trouble. 
  Clean the mirror by blowing it off. I don't know if the mirror on this
model is aluminized or silver coated. If its silver it will have a
protetive coating of laquer on it so be careful of what you clean it with.
  The ground glass can be cleaned with a little dishwashing detergent in
water. Ground glass can accumulate an oily deposit from junk in the air
which makes it very dim. Cleaning helps a lot. Since the finder lens in the
Cord is f/3.2 compared to f/2.8 in the Flex the finder image is never as
bright. Undoubedly a Maxwell screen or similar will improve things a lot. 
  Actually, I have a couple of Rolleigrids (Rollei's drop on Fresnel lens)
which I find also helps a lot and just drops onto the top of the existing
ground glass. You must find them used (actually I am looking for another one).
  From the serial number it appears you have what Prochnow calls a
Rolleicord II built around 1947 to 1949. There seem to have been several
variations of the Model II, someone with better German than I have could
probably figure out from Prochnow what the differences were, perhaps
shutters. 
  I have a Rolleicord IV and a Rolleiflex MX both with Xeners. They are
very sharp lenses. There is some controversey as to the relative quality of
the Xenar vs: the Tessar. I suspect variations in individual lenses are
greater than any inherant difference.
  I find the Rolleicord actually easier to use than the Flex due to the
position of the shutter lever and not having to toss it from hand to hand
to wind film. If you hold the camera in the palm of your left hand the left
index finger is used for both cocking and tripping the shutter. The force
is against the ball of the thumb so the camera doesn't move. A very neat
and releatively light weight camera with excellent optical performance. 
- ----
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles,Ca.
dickburk  

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