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Konvas 8m in 2015


Ruben Arce

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I recently bought a Konvas 2M with the 17.. Sync motor. The camera appears to be in good working condition. Looking condition is fair to good. It came with a 400ft magazine, 4 pin XLR cable and M42 adapter. I already have the camera, some film to practice loading the mag and I order some film to shoot soon.

 

Why am I posting here? I've been trying to find information about the camera. But basically every link connecting to websites related to this camera are out of service. I found the user manual at rafscamera's website (thanks) But other than that there is not much recent or usable info any more.

 

I know the camera is pretty straight forward. Easy to use but I would like to lub it, and be careful so I don't damage the camera. I wanna do it myself, because I can't pay. Not that I'm super poor, but probably the camera is not going to generate money for me at any point. But I still feel a profound respect for cameras and film and I would like to use occasionally in my personal projects.

 

So I have the user manual, I have shot super 8 and 16mm before. I know how to expose and use lenses.. You know the basics. But I would like to receive some specific advice for this camera.

 

Thanks

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All the konvases I have bought have been pretty dirty inside, one even had little rocks in it and all of them had lots of dust and film chips so it may be a good idea to open the camera for cleaning and clean the movement parts. You just have to be very careful to maintain the flange focal distance and not to break the mirror shutter. Turn the shutter to viewing position before opening.

 

If you dont dare to open it by yourself at least oil the tachometer bearing, there is instructions in the manual. Dont use oil to the gears, especially the tachometer wormgear, it will spread all over the camera interiors (I accidentally dropped some oil there once, took whole day to clean it up).

The shutter bearing is not difficult to oil but the oil spreads easily to the bottom surface of the shutter and will fly all over the camera if you add too much, the shutter rotates about 1400rpm at 24fps so it will spread quite effectively.

 

For such a old camera you should really clean and oil the movement but that is only possible if you open the camera body.

 

Dont dismantle the movement mirror shutter groundglass combo unless you want to spend great time reassembling and timing it. It might not even be possible to reassemble it correctly without special tools so if you are going to shoot features with the camera and really need to disassemble the movement and shutter for complete service you should send it to a professional, for examle olex, who can retime and adjust the critical parts correctly.

 

Opening the main body and cleaning and lubricating the movement and gears is very straightforward, as said. Just dont disassemble the movement or mirror shutter/groundglass combo and also check the ffd after putting it back together and you should be fine

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Thanks guys,

 

Aapo that was exactyly the kind of information that I'm looking for. I already read all the topics in the forum related to the Konvas 2m or 8m if I'm asking for more info is because I want the inside information. And because as I mentioned the websites and links are down. So any useful information will be appreciated..

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  • 7 years later...
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3 hours ago, Pilvari Pirtola said:

what kind of oil would be best to use? 

I am normally using what is available because not having service manuals for the things. Any oil would help the camera compared to no oil and I am shooting so small amounts of film with them that it would not matter much as long as there is SOME oil in all the critical places

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