Ancient Wirgin Edixa Reflex

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 960 Location: Austin

Many thanks to Kathmandu for donating this Edixa Reflex to me.

Because of the lens they got off of it I was expecting a late model Edixa - so imagine my surprise when what I recieved was actually a very early Edixa. The second year of production - 1955!

No strap eyelets, no exposure lock, not even an auto diaphragm plunger! A good example from the dark ages of 35mm SLR technology.

It was rather dirty and the shutter was sticking. So I decided to clean things up.

There was quite a bit of green corrosion. There was a huge waxy glob of it on the film door latch (scraped it off - bare brass underneath, chrome completely gone from that area)

The inside was actually not as bad as I was expecting. I cleaned the slow speed timer, and shutter spindles - and the camera seems to be working fine, except the shutter speeds were still slow, even if they were regular now.

I put a little bit more tension on the springs, which seemed to bring things up to normal (at least by sight and sound) - but a new problem popped up.

When the shutter is cocked, the first curtain's edge overlaps the second curtain's edge - and more often than not, when the shutter is released the first curtain hangs up on the second curtain.

I'm not really sure what to do about this. Naturally you'd think they should be lined up right over each other. Any ideas?

Anyway, I have some era appropriate lenses:

Here is an Isco Westar, which suffers from some sort of eternal haze on the front element. But it looks appropriate anyway. The Westar was the cheapest of the cheap - it's what you got if you couldn't afford a Meritar (not even kidding). They seem to usually be in bad condition. It is a triplet with front cell focusing and a click stop aperture. No preset ring.

Then I decided to go over the camera one more time and really scrub all the dirt off, including washing the leather (it's real leather!) covering.

Quite better now, eh? Pictured with the Isco Isconar 100mm. This was another cheapy lens by Isco. Very common today as it was the cheapest long lens you could buy in the 1950s. It does have a pretty funky look to it though.

I hope to go out shooting with this camera eventually. I just need to finish figuring out the shutter.

And again, thanks to Kathmandu for sending this little beast to me.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Neat !

Looks fair inside. Not worse than an Exakta anyway.

dof · Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 5:41 am Post subject:

Cool! Thanks for posting.

I have a couple Edixa Reflexes. Both have none functioning slow speeds.

Could you give more info on how you cleaned the slow speed timer?

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 960 Location: Austin

dof · Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 12:16 pm Post subject:

Funny -- never thought to look for the timer under the bottom plate! Fixed
in about 10 seconds with a little naptha. A piece of cake. Thanks!

I like these cameras -- they have a certain clunky charm with some nice
features like removable prism/waist finder and M42 lens mount. Many
models to choose from too (they must have sold a lot of cameras back then)
and a wide variety of German lenses were made for them.

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 960 Location: Austin

Glad I could be of help. What's most impressed me with this early model is how crisply the ground glass "snaps" in and out of focus. I've never seen that on an SLR this old. On the other hand, the internals are actually rather more crude than in my contemporary Praktica.

Also apparently Wirgin created 60 different Edixa Reflex models... so yes there are a lot of variations out there!

I'm going to have to come back to this camera later, don't have the time to keep fiddling with it now.

I found a crease on the bottom of the little metal end thingy on curtain 1, which was probably what was causing it to catch on the other curtain. I smoothed that flat with a flat head. Now it seems to fire 90% of the time. Something is still causing resistance somewhere in the system though.

I set the tension by watching for capping and fade at 1/1000 - and seemed to have it spot on. But now there is noticable fade at 1/100 and 1/50 - but it fires perfectly at 1/25! No idea what that is about.

I suppose given that it has a rotating dial, it may need cleaning under the top plate too. For another day though...

Kathmandu · Expire: 2012-04-08

Bravo- looks like you're almost at a point where you could run some film through. Looks very nice with the Isco lenses I must say. Very Happy

dof · Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 12:53 am Post subject:

Here are my pair:

One has a Steinheil 55/1.9. The other is shown with a Schneider Retina Reflex 135/4 (via adapter) that I just put on for the photo.

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 960 Location: Austin

They both look good! I really like the black dials on the Mat.

dof · Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 10:10 pm Post subject:

Thanks. The Steinheil Quinon is a nice lens. Another member recently posted some photos taken with it in another thread here.

anatonic · Joined: 14 Dec 2011 Posts: 1 Location: United States

Sorry to dig up such an old thread, but I've had a Wirgin Edixa rangefinder with a clouded viewfinder for a few years. I've tried removing the top cap on numerous occasions but always get stuck at removing the film advance lever.

OP- I noticed your model has the same 2 holes in the advance lever, can you provide information on how to unscrew this or remove it?

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 960 Location: Austin

Those two holes are for a pin spanner. If the cap isn't screwed down too tightly you may be able to get it loose with a paperclip bent to fit, but it is usually a good idea to use the proper tool.