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Bolex h8 Rex 4 lenses cleaning


Mitchell

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Good Afternoon I have a Bolex h8 Rex 4 Camera 

The problem is when looking though the eyepiece  of my Bolex l can see lots of dark specks 

When I close the aperture  down  on all  3 prime lenses the black specks look a lot worse 

Can you tell me is it just dust on the lenses or prism?

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There are two planes of focus in the finder system, one is the frosted double-prism upper surface, the other lies close to the front element of the ocular. If the specks don’t change position upon a lens swap, they’re in the finder and therefore won’t affect the exposed image.

Edited by Simon Wyss
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You may end up having disassembled half the camera in an attempt to remove all dirt. If you can imagine the 55 years old mechanism could well do with a service, let me know. Just of late an other person from Scotland was inquiring.

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It’s not the most important thing. A seal can’t prevent dust entering, be it the original rubber foam striping, be it something else. One would need to seal the duct airtight, for instance if one is going to shoot in the sand. The annoying part is the eyepiece in your case. I think it takes a little too much knowledge to service all that correctly but I’d never deny anyone the ability to find out. What I shall not do is to walk somebody through the job, which is the trend experiment today.

Have you already exposed some film with that camera?

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Hi Simon thanks for the  heads up regarding the viewfinder 

l have not run some film through the camera  

will buy some film stock and do some film testing with the camera 

regards Chris

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Some easy places to clean:

Remove the lenses, rotate the turret out of the way and check the prism. Flip it up from the right side and clean the back surface if necessary. Use a tissue folded to a point and moisten the tip with isopropyl alcohol. Use the tissue once in a single swipe, then use a fresh tissue to swipe again.  
On top of the prism is the ground glass surface - use a blower to blow off any specks on there, or dab it carefully with clean blu-tac.

If the specks move when you adjust or wiggle the eyepiece diopter, then you can try to clean in there. Remove the viewfinder lid by undoing the 4 screws on top. For good access use a cotton bud, moistened with isopropyl alcohol. Reach in to the back of the eyepiece diopter, past the mask, and clean that glass surface. You can sometimes just push a big speck to the side, out of the way. But sometimes the specks are on the inside surface.

You don't need to reseal the viewfinder lid.

If the specks remain, they are too difficult to access unless you remove the front or disassemble the diopter, and you’re probably better off getting a professional to clean it. The camera may need an overhaul anyway.

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Just let everybody no that I bid open up the viewfinder top of my Bolex h8 Rex 4

and l did fined lots of small flakes inside the viewfinder 

l clean out the flakes and then used air blower 

l still see lots of Black speaks when looking though the viewfinder and it becomes more in focus 

when closing the aperture on the 3 primes lenses

will probably need to clean the viewing optics 

Has  somebody on this forum clean a Bolex viewfinder before 

some help would be very appreciated 

regards Chris

 

 

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