So, one of my buddies tosses me his old 35RC that he got in college and wonders if I can clean it up to former beauty. He says it's not working so good anymore. Having heard so much high regard for this little wonderful camera I felt compelled to have a go at it. 

This 35RC was really in nice shape to start with, a shame to take it all apart. I'm going to keep the text to a minimum and let the images tell the tale. Ready?

OK, are you still with me? That's a soldering iron disconnecting the wire. You should now have the top off.

Let's have another look at all the do-jiggers in there. Pretty! Ready for more?

Ready to take a break? No? OK. let's keep going!

The last two images are just showing the actuation of the aperture. The position of the pin determines the aperture opening. Pretty simple...

Big picture to show the details of the shutter removed. Feel like going further?

Seems we've run out of parts to take off... what's left?

How about some fresh paint?

Re-assembly and Cleaning

Re-assembly is simply a reversal of the receding 150 images. OK, I'm feeling lazy and will fill out some better text behind this as I go. Until then just let the images be your guide and check back here from time to time.

More than likely all of the foam in your RC will have been reduced to a gooey mess over time. This will have to be replaced, especially the foam around the back door. Closed-cell foam kits can be acquired from Jon Goodman and further information regarding this at the following site: http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/sealreplacement.html

See this old gunk that used to be foam? You'll have to replace this during the re-assembly. Use a strip of some of the seal kit from above like to Jon Goodman's site.

I tested the shutter speeds using this not-to fancy of an apparatus. It essential is the photodetector circuit I've used for Kiev cameras. See this document for a description.

How about adding some new 'real' leather to replace that old imitation plastic covering that has probably shrunk a little over time.

Ah, a real beauty.

July 20, 2008