The slow speeds are out because the little gear chain speed
regulator is dirty and jammed. You must open the shutter to get to it
properly but once open a couple of drops of naphtha (lighter fluid) will
clean it. These can run dry but a very modest amount of fine oil will
help. Silicon oil is best. Apply to the bearing trunions and escapement
with a wooden tooth pick or the end of a small paper clip unfolded. The
shutter will work and will probably be fairly close to being on speed.
On 9/19/2015 3:08 PM, CarlosMFreaza wrote:
I received the Voigtländer Bergheil yesterday. It came into the original black leather case with the ground glass holder, a 6,5x9cm film holder and a similar size pack holder. The packs are no longer manufactured from a long time BTW, but the holder could be adapted to use the regular film sheets, according the seller, and I think he is right.
The camera is a beauty considering it was made at least 85 years ago. It was folded and closed and looked like a little box coated with a textured black leather, a bit bigger than a Rollei 35. Only a plate with a DOF scale on one of the sides suggests a photographic camera; the wonders are revealed after the front cover opening. This front cover becomes the base with the rails where you slide the Compur shutter and the Heliar 4,5/105mm lens combo. You can slide the combo along the rails putting two fingers on two handles below the lens or turning one of the two buttons on each side of the front cover/base. There is a distance scale beside one of the rails to calculate the focusing distance like the Rollei 35 however the shutter-lens combo with the bellows can be advanced or retreated a lot beyond this distance scale limits. There also is a sort of "sports finder" with a wire frame on the shutter-lens combo and a frame reference on the camera body. A brilliant finder helps to compose the vertical image. and the Shutter-lens combo have up-down movements and lateral movements too, allowing to control the image perspective; however lens or back tilt is not possible and then you can't increase the DOF.
The camera is light and very easy to carry, but in spite of the ground glass back, the lack of a reflex system to focus explains why cameras like the Rolleiflex were replacing these MF models. You need to replace the ground glass holder with the film holder,after to focus the frame, it means you need a tripod most of the times if you use the ground glass. Rapid photography could be only done guessing the subject distance, like for the Rollei 35., even if you use 120 roll film.
The Compur shutter has speeds from T, B,1,sec and the known old sequence 1/2;1/5, 1/10; 1/25,1/50; 1/100 and 1/250. Shutter speeds from 1 to 1/10 are not working, but from 1/25 they seems to work fine. You needn't to cock the shutter for T and B and T is the way to use the ground glass. The diaphragm scale is odd:4,5; 6,3; 9; 12; 18; 25.
An interesting camera to use sometimes:
http://itarphotos.blogspot.com.ar/2015/09/voigtlander-bergheil.html
https://www.flickr.com/photos/itarfoto/21359295710/in/dateposted-public/
Carlos
