The FX-2's are multiplying!

I have three DSB 50/1.9 lenses, and all three have oily apertures. I had a 28mm DSB that also had oily blades. But the functionality was not hindered on any of them. It must be a DSB thing.

The dreaded green cement, I remember it well! Slightly off topic, but I once bought an old Agfa folder on EBay, it was the Billy Compur, for which I paid about £24 (I'm in the UK). The Seller had lied outrageously about its condition. Far from being 'optically perfect', the lens was so encrusted with white hinge it would not pass a single photon. Nor could it have been 'tested with film', because the shutter was jammed, and the lens would not turn because it was seized solid with the green cement that the Agfa lube turned to.

I figured it would be a lot of hassle trying to get a full refund out of him, so I decided to have a go at cleaning and fixing it myself, even though I'm not gifted in hand crafting like my brother. I managed to free the lens, which was very tricky, as it needed a lot of patience, organic solvent, and some brute force. Eventually I got all the green gunge out of the threads using wooden toothpicks and alcohol, and re-lubed it with silicon grease, cleaned the lens surfaces which came up beautifully, stripped down the shutter and freed it, and put it back together. The focussing was then light yet beautifully damped. Cleaned up the bodywork, then tested it with film. Cracking results! The lens was a Solinar, which is a Tessar design, still a good design after all these years.

In a nice epilogue, I sold it later on EBay, where in a last minute bidding frenzy, it fetched four times what I'd paid for it.

Ain't technology wonderful?

PF

Of the FX models I have from start to finish of the series, none have a metal only advance lever. I suspect that someone attempted a repair and replaced the original with something from another model, or even another make. The last ones to have solid metal levers were probably the TL series. The AX and FFT's had plastic tips, and once the FR and FX lines started, they made changes to shapes or gearing from then on for any that had manual winding, and everything had partial or full plastic coverings.