Jörg Krüger
Revue 35FC
Revue 35FC aka Halina Micro 35, made by Haking in Hongkong. Sometimes you have the biggest repair fun with the cheapest camera. In this case it started with a faulty film advance mechanism. I opened up the camera, found the lose screw and fixed it - easy. But then I could observe how the shutter and diaphragm should work, but they did not. Like in many other cases it was oil spreaded between the diaphragm blades, I removed it and everything was okay. But the mechanism .. is not designed very niftily. The shutter has only one blade, it moves aside and then it just swings back. When the shutter is cocked, the iris is opened entirely. If the flash is switched on, a comparatively huge electromagnet keeps it open. If the flash is switched off, the iris will close to an f-number corresponding to the set ISO value. You can watch at it in the lens: if the shutter is uncocked the size of the iris is changing while setting another ISO value. So you have one shutter speed and one f-stop per film speed - no exposure metering is done except to switch on the flash automatically. This will also work without batteries, yes, the batteries are required for the flash light only (okay, and for the underexposure warning).
There is a tabular with the flash ranges printed on the back of the lens cover which gives some clues how the camera works. In normal use the range of the flash light grows with increasing film speed, that means, the used aperture is constant, obviously f/3.5. There is a small shifter in front of the camera, with it you can reduce the range of the flash light for close-up shots. In this mode the range is always 0.7 to 1.5 m, independent from the film speed. I strongly assume that this shifter just releases the electromagnet mentioned before, so that the diaphragm closes to the value when no flash is used, and, furthermore, that the flash light doesn't reduce its amount of light itself.
The normal flash range for ISO 100 is 1.5 to 3 m, the reduced range is 0.7 to 1.5 m, just the half of it. That means, that the f-number will double its value. f/3.5 for normal flash use, f/7 for reduced flash and when no flash is used at ISO 100. That also means, that the f-number at ISO 400 is f/14 and at ISO 200 the root mean square of 7 and 14: f/10. In regard to the inferior manufacturing quality with great tolerances you can certainly speak of f/8, f/11 and f/16, or even something different.
In short: with the selection of the film speed to ISO 100 - 200 - 400 you set the f-stop to f/8 - f/11 - f/16, when flash is off or reduced for close-up.
If you want to open this camera: there are two screws on each side under the leatherette. Then you can remove the front part completely. If you want to attach the front part again, I suppose the shutter should be cocked, otherwise you can damage the diaphragm seriously.
Here is an olive colored version.
Revue 35FC
Revue 35FC aka Halina Micro 35, made by Haking in Hongkong. Sometimes you have the biggest repair fun with the cheapest camera. In this case it started with a faulty film advance mechanism. I opened up the camera, found the lose screw and fixed it - easy. But then I could observe how the shutter and diaphragm should work, but they did not. Like in many other cases it was oil spreaded between the diaphragm blades, I removed it and everything was okay. But the mechanism .. is not designed very niftily. The shutter has only one blade, it moves aside and then it just swings back. When the shutter is cocked, the iris is opened entirely. If the flash is switched on, a comparatively huge electromagnet keeps it open. If the flash is switched off, the iris will close to an f-number corresponding to the set ISO value. You can watch at it in the lens: if the shutter is uncocked the size of the iris is changing while setting another ISO value. So you have one shutter speed and one f-stop per film speed - no exposure metering is done except to switch on the flash automatically. This will also work without batteries, yes, the batteries are required for the flash light only (okay, and for the underexposure warning).
There is a tabular with the flash ranges printed on the back of the lens cover which gives some clues how the camera works. In normal use the range of the flash light grows with increasing film speed, that means, the used aperture is constant, obviously f/3.5. There is a small shifter in front of the camera, with it you can reduce the range of the flash light for close-up shots. In this mode the range is always 0.7 to 1.5 m, independent from the film speed. I strongly assume that this shifter just releases the electromagnet mentioned before, so that the diaphragm closes to the value when no flash is used, and, furthermore, that the flash light doesn't reduce its amount of light itself.
The normal flash range for ISO 100 is 1.5 to 3 m, the reduced range is 0.7 to 1.5 m, just the half of it. That means, that the f-number will double its value. f/3.5 for normal flash use, f/7 for reduced flash and when no flash is used at ISO 100. That also means, that the f-number at ISO 400 is f/14 and at ISO 200 the root mean square of 7 and 14: f/10. In regard to the inferior manufacturing quality with great tolerances you can certainly speak of f/8, f/11 and f/16, or even something different.
In short: with the selection of the film speed to ISO 100 - 200 - 400 you set the f-stop to f/8 - f/11 - f/16, when flash is off or reduced for close-up.
If you want to open this camera: there are two screws on each side under the leatherette. Then you can remove the front part completely. If you want to attach the front part again, I suppose the shutter should be cocked, otherwise you can damage the diaphragm seriously.
Here is an olive colored version.