Leica IIIF CLA and repair 

Glad I could help! Thanks for catching that detail about the screws, I'll put a note about that in the video description

Hi Jones, are you sure it s at 30:00 ?

After watching several videos like this, and reading 3 books I decided to send mine to a pro. Yikes.

Right, carburetors I can handle, German cameras not so much.

Happy to help!

They are quite similar, and some of the steps are the same, so you could probably use this as a rough guide. However if you want a guide specific for the IIIa, I'd recommend this one: bit.ly/2W4ejWa

There is a little noise when moving camera, as if something was broken or loose and moving around. I found that slow speeds work perfectly well when the camera is pointed at the ground or sky/ceiling. So sadly there must be a loose piece that is reacting to gravity. Does this give you any clue? Thanks

Cheers Lee it was meant to say at the end

Some of the tools I got from B&H, search for "Japan Hobby tool", and things like the oil bottle I just got from Amazon

The Leica IIIc is almost identical to the IIIf, the main difference is that the IIIc does not have the flash sync port, making it slightly simpler, so you should be able to follow this video. Here's a guide for the IIIc that shows many of the same steps as this video, and in fact uses a IIIf in the photos: goo.gl/hzxDfz

@@hansstahl1887 thank you :-)

Shit, I forgot to mark the shutter dial hahah... hopefully just setting it around bulb will be ok

Thanks! It's sewing machine oil, which can be found at stores like Joanne's fabrics or just Amazon. It doesn't have to specifically be that, but it should be a light machine oil, and definitely don't use WD-40 or 3-in-1 oil

@@hansstahl1887 Sewing machine oil is an excellent lubricant for these small parts. Be direct and sparing - you don't want little puddles of oil in the camera. Also, sewing machine oil will last a good long time. Remember to "run" your mechanisms when the camera is idle. Once a month won't hurt you. Also, consider mineral spirits as a gentle degreaser solution. Use the low voc variety and make sure you have ventilation or a very large room. Would not suggest acetone because the fumes are so strong and is very difficult to control.

Not yet, but if I can get my hands on a non-functioning one I certainly will post some videos. Would love to work on one if I get the chance.

this is also confused me, is it enough?

Good to know! I'm not that familiar with "Russian Leicas", are they essentially entirely clones including the mechanism or do they just copy the appearance of Leicas? I might have to do some eBay searching...

@@hansstahl1887 Well, zorki 1 and fed 1 i would say are 95% clones. Pre-war ones were completely hand made so ofc there will be inaccuracies. They have little not important differences like the spring for the shutter release button on the bottom. I believe on earlier ones its a long flat spring and on later ones its a small piece of metal, which makes the button noticeably harder to press. Overall the mechanism is identical, just manufactured more roughly and not so precisely. Function-wise they are identical to barnack leica. Mind you, as far as i know FED 1 is a leica 2 clone, so no strap lugs and no slow speeds (which would be so cool, i always wonder why they never included that). And zorki is essentially the same, main difference is that it has a threaded release button for cable. But i would recommend a FED manufactured after WW2, because pre-war ones dont have standart flange focal distance, but anything made after the war is absolutely fine. Feds in my experience are a little nicer. Later these 2 factories started developing something of their own, but still designed/based on leica cloth shutter. Cool examples to note are: FED 2 (early one with small advance knob and no timer, i advice versions from IIв to IIд), zorki 5, zorki 3 (not 3M), zorki 4k. But my personal favorites are still first models because they are way smaller and compact. If you`re only going to get one, try fed 1 with non-threaded shutter button. Serial number should be upwards from 200000. Here you can find them from around 20 bucks and up, i wouldn`t give more than 40 honestly. So don`t overpay to some ukrainian huckster, haha.

Also that i found is that if i literally dump a bunch of WD or oil for mechanical watches on the curtain mechanism, it becomes so silent and smooth i would argue its better than some leicas. But not all of them, maybe i`m just lucky and most of my cameras slipped through soviet "quality control", haha.

Read this. Its in russian, but i cheked and it translates quite accurately in google translate. rus-camera.ru/Zorki-1.htm rus-camera.ru/FAD-1.htm

While I don’t have any experience with the Russian copies, I’d guess they are not 100% mechanically identical, although that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be useful to practice on, I imagine you could learn a lot of the mechanical/repair principles from working on one

Also: doing some Google searching it looks like there might be some almost identical Russian copies of the IIIf, but those are probably quite rare, and the Leica-style FED cameras that I assume you are referring to which are more common, have a number of differences from their true Leica counterparts (I could be wrong of course)