Simda Panorascope - Shutter Service
This is the early version with fixed focus Roussel 25mm f/3.5 lenses and black leatherette. Shutter 1-250 & B. It takes a large reel of double or single perforated 16mm film, and produces stereo pairs with 62mm separation (or mono), image size 10x20mm. Knob wind, interlocked with shutter cocking. Knob on upper surface marked M-S, = Mono-Stereo. Cold shoe, PC socket. It is well made from aluminium castings.
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When I tried to use it, I found that the shutter speeds were all one single fast speed, so I needed to open it up sufficiently to work on the shutter.
This makes for a rather puzzling problem of how to get inside, and initially I peeled off rather more external leatherette than I needed to. In fact, access to the front part of the mechanism is quite straightforward. However, if you needed to get at the rear section which contains assorted levers which, for example, manage the mono / stereo selection and film winding, it would be quite difficult. Even after I had looked fairly carefully and tried to extract the whole of the working chassis from its covers, I didn’t succeed. Fortunately, however, that’s not necessary if you just want to service the shutter. Removing the front body section The front cover, or outer body section, comes off quite easily: Step 1 – Loosen (but don’t remove) three grub screws from the retaining rings in front of both lenses; lift off the retaining rings, and the shutter and aperture selection levers, which just pull off. Step 2 – Peel back the leatherette from the rear edges of the front casting – just top and bottom, not the ends. Step 3 – Remove four screws along each of the long edges. Step 4 – Pull the front cover casting forwards to remove. It may be very snug and need a combination of wriggling and gentle leverage with a screwdriver. The shutter release button will fall out, along with a brass “rivet” that slides inside it to allow a cable release to fire the shutter. Lift the cover off carefully – there is a wire connecting to the flash PC socket from the shutter; I unsoldered it for convenience, though with care you could get away without doing that. |
Unusually, the instruction manual has on the rear cover a drawing of the internal structure. All the mechanism is on a separate chassis which is enclosed within the aluminium castings, resulting in a very solid structure.
Screws to be removed above and below the front cover.
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The marked screws are to be removed to take the retard mechanism out.
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Servicing the shutter
As I suspected, the cause of the problem was that the retard mechanism was gummed up and not running. It is held on to the edge of the shutter mechanism with two screws. Remove these and lift out the complete little gearbox. Soak in Zippo lighter fluid, naphtha or similar to dissolve out the ancient oil, rinse and let dry. Lubricate the spindle ends of the gears with a tiny drop of watch oil, both ends, and mop up any surplus. Now the gears should run smoothly under the power of the built-in spring. Return the retarder to its position, lower screw first, then rotate it into place and fit the upper screw. You should now be able to turn the speed selection cam (the big brass disc) to its various positions and check that the shutter speeds sound about right. If you have a shutter speed tester, you can shine light through the lenses by removing one or both of the two pressure plates inside the film compartment – two screws each. Then the shutter speeds can be checked. Some adjustment is possible – there is a set of little notches on the lower external edge of the retarder, and you can transfer the end of the spring between them to alter the spring tension. In my case the resulting shutter speeds were all within about half a stop of nominal, certainly good enough for negative films. Re-assembly is just the reverse of the initial dismantling. |
The Simda Panorascope in use
The first thing I tried was the film that was in it when I got it. The was an unidentified colour negative film, which I processed in b/w – but it was fully fogged. I scrapped it and put some Plus-X onto the spool it had been on. The standard spool for the camera is a 25’ (7.5m) length of Standard-8 cine film, 16mm wide before processing and splitting. This has 2x the number of perforations than ordinary 16mm, but they are at exactly double the spacing, and the camera’s drum has register pins that suit either.
The second trial was with Plus-X from a 100’ roll, so less tightly curled than the original. This brings us to loading the camera with film, which is difficult. In an ideal world you would load in complete darkness but that seems to be more or less impossible, and the manual says load in subdued light. Make sure the feed spool doesn’t run loose – keep the film tight. However there is no mechanism that does that, such as a retaining spring, it has to be done with one of your hands. With film transferred from a 100’ spool, less tightly wound, it is quite keen to unwind.
The film path includes wrapping round a couple of rollers, inserting behind both pressure plates (quite tight), and making sure the film is pushed down enough to allow the little pins on the drum to engage with the film perforations. In the end I transferred some film to the small spool in total darkness (about 6’, which is the limit imposed by the processing spiral. It should be enough for about 24 stereo pairs). Then I installed that on its spindle, and tightened the film on the spool. The next step, easing the film under the pressure plates, can also be done in the dark and helps retain the film.
Having re-tightened the feed spool film, hold the feed spool with the side of the right hand, and turn on the light. Keeping the feed spool still, work the film round the drum, getting it right down, and feed the free end into the slot of the takeup spool, and then settle the takeup spool on its spindle. Turn the film wind knob, still holding everything from springing loose, and make sure it all moves correctly.
The last tricky bit is to get the cover on without letting the film escape. Turn the light off again for this; the cover goes on easily but has to be aligned just so, and you want to still control the film – fingers between the spool flanges this time.
The first part of the film is now fogged, so wind on a good 6 stereo pairs, then zero the frame counter. The 6’ of film should run the counter up to about 40 or a little more – towards the end listen out for the film coming off the feed spool when the end is reached.
So loading is a nightmare! Once that’s done though, actually taking pictures is easy. There is no focusing, setting the exposure is easy, and the viewfinder isn’t too bad – though the sports finder is pretty vague. The camera is so heavy that camera shake shouldn’t be a problem.
I rated my Plus-X at 80ASA, and developed it in Ilfotec-HC 1:31, 4.5 minutes at 20°C. I used a Jobo 1502 16mm spiral with the red clip removed to give the full available length. The frames clear the lower sprocket holes, but I was using double-perforated film and the upper sprocket holes come into the pictures.
What of the results? Despite all this work, and despite the apparently good constructional standard, and what must be the biggest and heaviest subminiature camera in existence, not especially good. Getting good results is always going to be dependent on technique, especially the choice of film and how it's developed. I used film and developer that's worked well for me before, but the Simda still did not impress. The left and right images are not of equal sharpness, so there may be some optical alignment work still to be done. Or perhaps the manufacturers deliberately set the focus of the two lenses apart, to increase the apparent depth of field when viewing stereos. Others have done this, though it's less than ideal on cameras that are also used for mono pictures! As ever, subminiature pictures should not be challenged by too much enlargement.
I have put a small gallery of red/cyan anaglyph pictures below. View them with the usual two-coloured glasses.
The camera remains interesting, with a unique combination of a near-panoramic aspect ratio with stereo. Maybe it was attractive as a holiday camera - you could get your local shop to load it before you went away, and come back from your adventures with 120-odd stereo pictures which could be developed and printed (or reversal-processed) for you as if they were cine film. Simda made cards for mounting the results, and a matching viewer, so leave everything in the hands of the professionals and enjoy the results. Actual operation of the camera could safely be left to the amateur user.
The first thing I tried was the film that was in it when I got it. The was an unidentified colour negative film, which I processed in b/w – but it was fully fogged. I scrapped it and put some Plus-X onto the spool it had been on. The standard spool for the camera is a 25’ (7.5m) length of Standard-8 cine film, 16mm wide before processing and splitting. This has 2x the number of perforations than ordinary 16mm, but they are at exactly double the spacing, and the camera’s drum has register pins that suit either.
The second trial was with Plus-X from a 100’ roll, so less tightly curled than the original. This brings us to loading the camera with film, which is difficult. In an ideal world you would load in complete darkness but that seems to be more or less impossible, and the manual says load in subdued light. Make sure the feed spool doesn’t run loose – keep the film tight. However there is no mechanism that does that, such as a retaining spring, it has to be done with one of your hands. With film transferred from a 100’ spool, less tightly wound, it is quite keen to unwind.
The film path includes wrapping round a couple of rollers, inserting behind both pressure plates (quite tight), and making sure the film is pushed down enough to allow the little pins on the drum to engage with the film perforations. In the end I transferred some film to the small spool in total darkness (about 6’, which is the limit imposed by the processing spiral. It should be enough for about 24 stereo pairs). Then I installed that on its spindle, and tightened the film on the spool. The next step, easing the film under the pressure plates, can also be done in the dark and helps retain the film.
Having re-tightened the feed spool film, hold the feed spool with the side of the right hand, and turn on the light. Keeping the feed spool still, work the film round the drum, getting it right down, and feed the free end into the slot of the takeup spool, and then settle the takeup spool on its spindle. Turn the film wind knob, still holding everything from springing loose, and make sure it all moves correctly.
The last tricky bit is to get the cover on without letting the film escape. Turn the light off again for this; the cover goes on easily but has to be aligned just so, and you want to still control the film – fingers between the spool flanges this time.
The first part of the film is now fogged, so wind on a good 6 stereo pairs, then zero the frame counter. The 6’ of film should run the counter up to about 40 or a little more – towards the end listen out for the film coming off the feed spool when the end is reached.
So loading is a nightmare! Once that’s done though, actually taking pictures is easy. There is no focusing, setting the exposure is easy, and the viewfinder isn’t too bad – though the sports finder is pretty vague. The camera is so heavy that camera shake shouldn’t be a problem.
I rated my Plus-X at 80ASA, and developed it in Ilfotec-HC 1:31, 4.5 minutes at 20°C. I used a Jobo 1502 16mm spiral with the red clip removed to give the full available length. The frames clear the lower sprocket holes, but I was using double-perforated film and the upper sprocket holes come into the pictures.
What of the results? Despite all this work, and despite the apparently good constructional standard, and what must be the biggest and heaviest subminiature camera in existence, not especially good. Getting good results is always going to be dependent on technique, especially the choice of film and how it's developed. I used film and developer that's worked well for me before, but the Simda still did not impress. The left and right images are not of equal sharpness, so there may be some optical alignment work still to be done. Or perhaps the manufacturers deliberately set the focus of the two lenses apart, to increase the apparent depth of field when viewing stereos. Others have done this, though it's less than ideal on cameras that are also used for mono pictures! As ever, subminiature pictures should not be challenged by too much enlargement.
I have put a small gallery of red/cyan anaglyph pictures below. View them with the usual two-coloured glasses.
The camera remains interesting, with a unique combination of a near-panoramic aspect ratio with stereo. Maybe it was attractive as a holiday camera - you could get your local shop to load it before you went away, and come back from your adventures with 120-odd stereo pictures which could be developed and printed (or reversal-processed) for you as if they were cine film. Simda made cards for mounting the results, and a matching viewer, so leave everything in the hands of the professionals and enjoy the results. Actual operation of the camera could safely be left to the amateur user.
