Another Colorist II

Well, with spring break approaching, I need to pull the motor ut of our '78 VW Bus and overhaul it. I can only really handle one project at a time so I decided to call Jess Powell (well-known stereo camera repair person) and ask him if he had any spare shutter units lying around. He didn't, but he had a Colorist II he had overhauled and fixed the take-up spool on. Well, I couldn't resist so I bought it. In the meantime...

I discovered that the slow speed mechanism on the second Colorist II I purchased was not functioning properly (probably why the guy dumped a bunch of oil in it and mucked up the shutter blades and then sold the camera as fully functional except for the oil on the blades- dishonest) I am in the process of swapping out the slow speed mechanisms and getting one functional shutter unit, but then again, this will be on hold for a while while I work on the bus.

Rangefinder

Last night I adjusted the vertical alignment of the rangefinder. This is rather easy to do. Once you remove the top plate, find the viewfinder. On the top of the viewfinder window there is a pair of screws, one on either side of the viewfinder window. There is a corresponding pair of screws on the front of the viewfinder window, one to the right and one to the left of the window. Loosen the front ones a 1/4 of a turn and loosen/tighten the top ones to raise or the rangefinder. Retighten the front pair of screws to hold the alignment.

Precision Screwdrivers

These are the best precision scewdrivers I know of...

Craig Camera Manual

I purchased a TDC repair manual for the Colorist I,II, Vivid and Projector from Craig Camera. There doesn't appear to be any information on adjusting the rangefinder in it and there is not a schematic of the Colorist II, only the Colorsit I. Other than that, it is a very high quality reprint.

Another Colorist

Well, I lucked out. Someone on Ebay decided to remove the front plate on their Colorist II and lubricate the shutter mechanism. The Velio shutter is designed to run dry. Anyway, they mucked up the shutter blades with oil so I got their camera for $45! Now I have a replacement shutter mechanism for my Colorist, or I might just fix the new one if it looks better.

Rings

The aperture and shutter speed rings on the face plate have been rather stubborn. It took quite a while to get them properly lubricated. I used Sil-glyde, a silicon grease, part part # 765-1351 from NAPA. This grease is unaffected by temperature and will never solidify.

It Finally Arrived!

The Colorist finally arrived. Very nice. The leatherette was barely stuck on. I reapplied it using contact cement. You only get one chance with contact cement. The apertures were very sticky so I disassembled the shutters for cleaning. They had a good soak in Zippo lighter fluid. NOTE: on the "dummy shutter" (the shutter without the timer in it) the connecting bar between the two aperture mechanisms is press-fit into the blade drive ring. It is attached with a screw to the shutter with the "guts" in it. While I was disassembling, the coupling came apart(it's not supposed to come apart). No big deal, I'll just remove the blade drive ring and put it back together with a punch. This worked great. Unfortunately, one of the screws that holds in the blade drive ring- the head snapped right off. The shutter blades slide on these screw heads. AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I have to buy another Colorist for another shutter mechanism. :( VERY frustrating. Here is a good shutter site. And another about the Vero, a very close cousin to the Vario.

An Excellent Stereo Site

This site is in German, but VERY good. Use Google translator if you don't read german.

The Stereo Window

Here is a very nice PDF describing the stereo window. It is relevant in picture composition and slide mounting.

Colorist Repair

I stumbled upon this BLOG entry. All I want to know is, where's part II????

Self-Timers and Cable Releases

It turns out the Colorist has a tapered-thread cable release socket so the following is moot.

I have had a very hard time finding a straight-thread cable release. I stumbled upon this odd Kopil mechanical self-timer on Ebay so I decided to give it a try. I say odd because it is unlike any of the other Kopil, Alpex, Autoknips or others I have seen. I got my father-in-law a self-timer for his Realist, but it is a tapered-thread model.

Filters

I have not seen filters available for the Colorist. As the colorist does not have lens caps like the Realist, filters would help protect the lenses. The lens outer diameter is 28.36mm and this is not in accord with any of the standard Series filters. The closest is the Series V at 30.2mm. It might be feasible to shim the Series V filters to work.

Focus Daniel-son

The focusing method of stereo cameras will make a difference in the quality of your pictures. High quality cameras, like large format, move the entire lens when focusing. Moving the film plane accomplishes the same thing. The early Mamiya 6 medium format camera focused in this manner. Lower quality cameras move the front element of the lens (see lens diagrams in previous post). If the lens elements stay aligned and are not twisted by focusing, better image quality results. The Colorist focuses the front lens elements.