I am in need of Irako

Skinny McGee · 03-22-2005

Hello Fello RFer's,

I am in need of a Irako for my Leica 111a. Can any one help me?
photosam on E@#y had one for awhile and I didn't jump on it . my mistake.

But this weekend I was trying to shoot some film of some bands at a fest. in a dark place and this film came out great at 1600 but all were out of focus.
some was beer. but I was guessing on the focus because of the lack of contrast in my rangefinder.... I am trying to put of having it redone...

Has anyone had one redone? does it improve it alot? any help would be appreciated? thanks

Skinny

Solinar · 03-22-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skinny McGee

Hello Fello RFer's,

I am in need of a Irako for my Leica 111a. Can any one help me?
photosam on E@#y had one for awhile and I didn't jump on it . my mistake.

Skinny

The filter 's actual nomenclature is an ORAKO. Manfred Schmidt has one listed for mere $80. (See manfredschmidt.com )

I'm using the later version, the OKARO, with my two IIIf's and love them.

By the way, there is a couple of places to the mirrored prisms resilvered. One of which is in the UK, ( See Camera Repairs and Restoration )

Nikon Bob · 03-22-2005

I could not see the focussing spot in my IIIf and IIIc so I had DAG replace the beamsplitter and now they can be used. DAG also had listed in their Leica parts section the OKARA filter. This is their site http://www.dagcamera.com/. You can also try cutting some orange filter material to fit the rangefinder window to see if it wll boost contrast.

Bob

Paul Connet · 03-22-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skinny McGee

Hello Fello RFer's,
Has anyone had one redone? does it improve it alot? any help would be appreciated? thanks

Skinny

Hi Skinny,
About a year or so ago I had a beat-up IIIc with a very dim rangefinder. I had just started lurking on the Russian Rangefinder Forum and heard about Oleg, master camera repair person from the Ukraine. I sent an email asking about fixing my Leica and he said yes, he thought he could use Zorki parts and fix it for me. Bottom line, he fixed it like new for the princely sum of $25 plus shipping which was about $25 more. He was away from camera repair for a while, but I understand he is back in business now.

He can be reached at :
http://www.okvintagecamera.com/

I would expect his prices to have increased somewhat, but it surely will be less than anything in the US.

Regards, Paul C.

Nikon Bob · 03-22-2005

Paul

Trust me, the prices you quoted for the work done by Oleg IS considerably less.

Bob

Brian Sweeney · 03-23-2005

I had my Leica IIIf repaired at Essex, repairs included inoperative shutter (godd curtains) and faded RF spot. They did a great job. That ran $130 over 10 years ago; I suspect prices would be ~$180-$200 these days.