[Leica] Rollei

[marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small)]

At 10:51 PM 2/7/2007, G Hopkinson wrote:
 >Hey, we're almost sort of on topic. We are talking about classic
 >German cameras.
 >
 >I finally ended up with the Rolleicord Vb 2. It's awfully nice. The
 >brighter finder is a big leap forward from what I'd seen
 >previously.
 >
 >Cheers
 >Hoppy

If you keep this up, I'll get you signed up yet 
to the Rollei List yet, a sister to the LUG, and thanks, Brian!

Franke & Heidecke perfected the modern TLR (yes, 
yes, there had been plate-camera TLR's earlier, 
but the concept was moribund when they switched 
from stereo cameras to the TLR in 1929).  They 
chose for reasons of optical purity a 
first-surface mirror in the viewing 
cabinet..  For reasons of economy, they chose a 
silver surface as aluminum surfaces on mirrors 
were then most expensive and also an oddity.

Clean the mirror.  This will dissolve any 
remnants of the silver coating, I fear, but, a 
clean bare glass surface will do rather well on 
its own merits.  (I know:  I've been there, done 
that, and have the Tee-Shirt).  It would be 
better to have the mirror recoated.  I have been 
into amateur astronomy long enough (more than 
four decades) to be able to send you instructions 
for doing the silvering yourself at home, though 
you will be dealing with some rather nasty 
substances so caution is in order.  There MAY be 
firms in Australia which will do this as well, 
though I do not know of any such.  (I had a time 
finding US firms still doing silvering for the 
Great Guru of US Rollei Repairs, and I finally 
located three of them.  I kept encouraging him to do it himself.)

There are certainly firms which will coat this 
mirror with aluminum, as you guys call it.  (Our 
Aluminium Company of America in my hometown of 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, bought a sign 
immediately before they opened their doors to the 
public.  The signpainters left out that last "i" 
and it was cheaper to revise the corporate 
filings than to get a new sign, so youse guys say 
"aluminium" while usans say "aluminum", as we 
would say back in da Burg.  Go figure.  Stan 
Yoder probably knows more of this:  he has a 
handle on ALL of the mysterious elements of 
Western Pennsylvania life, and he DID keep a 
number of my distant cousins from the sort of 
life of ruin and ill-repute to which I've been 
reduced.  <he grins>)  There are long arguments 
about this in the astronomical community, as 
silver coatings are fragile and easily decay but 
more accurately reflect the wavelengths seen by 
the human eye, while aluminium coatings are 
tougher and more stable and respond better to photographic wavelengths.

And, of course, you should CAREFULLY take out the 
screen, noting the paper shims, and clean this 
off.  Yours might be glass or it might be 
plastic, but, in either event, a dunk into a 
kitchen sink laden with a decent detergent would 
be salutary.  (I would wash the skillet in which 
you cooked up your Australian Ugly-Lipped Eels or 
Kippered Kangaroo AFTER you wash the viewing 
screen, mind you!)  An old toothbrush might well 
be useful for the task though I'd not use the 
stiff wire brush you use to get the gunk out of 
the rear brake drums on your 1953 Sunbeam Talbot 
Roadster.  Like things to like things, and all of that.

To cut to the quick, my friend, I would suggest 
that you remove the viewing mirror and have it 
recoated with aluminium and with an overcoat.  I 
would also suggest that you remove the viewing 
screen, carefully preserving any paper shims 
which may or may not be beneath it, and scrub the 
daylights out of this with dish soap.

That Prince of Darkness, Joe Lucas, will again be 
defeated, and Bob's your uncle.  QED.

Marc


msmall@aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!