Power To The People

Reduced

Tweaking the Leotax & the Jupiter 12

 I took a walk in the neighborhood with the Leotax after making some adjustments.  

I decided to slightly lessen the tension on the first curtain in order to reduce the shutter capping which was giving me an uneven exposure across the frame.  The Leotax makes such adjustments a bit easier than the Leica.  You just lift the spring off the cogwheel and turn it slightly clockwise and then let the spring down again to maintain the setting.

I also applied some black paint to the rim of the Jupiter 12's rear element to eliminate some flare at the edge of the images.  

Both adjustments seem to have worked.  The exposure across the frame seemed even, and the odd flare I got in images from the Jupiter 12 lens was gone.  The film I used for the test was some Agfa APX 100, expired 07/98.  I gave the film a couple extra stops of exposure to compensate for age, but it still required a bit more of a boost with Photoshop to get the proper tonal values.  The APX was processed in Rodinal 1:50.

The Leotax really needs a full CLA, but I'll likely let someone else undertake that assignment.  I was pleased with the progress on the camera, and even more so with the improved performance of the Jupiter 12 lens, which is a favorite for use with the Barnack-style cameras.

Leotax Elite

 I picked up this Leotax Elite recently at a good price from a seller on Rangefinderforum.  It is a Japanese Leica clone from about 1959.  

The camera looked good with only  few signs of use and it seemed to be working.  However, there was no take-up spool and the ones I use in my Leica and Soviet copies did not fit in the Leotax.  Some research indicated the Canon spools with a pop-up handle were what I needed.  I found a pair on ebay.

I shot a roll of HP5+ and processed that in Legacypro L110b.  I wasn't too happy with that combination, but at least I got to see that the camera could make some pictures.

I tried out three of my Soviet lenses with mixed results.  The Jupiter 8 and the FED 50 seemed ok, but I'm not sure about the Jupiter 12.  The camera itself has a few issues that will need attention.  The viewfinder is a little cloudy, the rewind switch is a bit hinky, and the shutter curtains need to be properly tensioned because of some uneven exposure across the image.  I'll try adjusting the shutter tension, but I'm not sure I'll trust myself with the rest.

I found a couple good repair information resources on the web for the Leotax:

On Flickr there is a good tutorial about viewfinder cleaning for the similar Leotax K.

A Youtube video shows how to take the Elite apart and get it back together, though the presenter gets a bit confused at the end about reassembling the rewind handle and leaves that incomplete.  

There is a good review of the whole Leotax line at the yashicatlr site.