I have had an Ektar 203 for some time, but have not had a fair chance to evaluate it due to a slow and inconsistent shutter (seems to slow up more in the cold) and resulting poor exposures. The casing for the shutter appears rather worn and I'm wondering the value of repair costs vs just biting the bullet for a modern lens of similar weight (I do mostly color reversal).

The section of the LF home page indicates that the shutter can be cleaned without dissasembly because the mechanism is exposed when the lens cells are removed. Is this something I might attempt? The article also mentions a difficulty in finding replacement springs if needed. If I do have the shutter professionally CLA'd can I expect it to perform well for a while, inspite of it's age and appearent wear? I suppose my next step might be to contact Mr. Grimes, but am wondering of the experience of others with this? Thanks very much for comments.

-- Roger Rouch (rrouch@msn.com), February 15, 2001

Answers

Roger,

I've owned a couple lenses with supermatics and my recommendation would be to send it to Steve Grimes. Usually a CLA is less than $100. I understand that he also has replacement supermatics available or can remount the lens in a more modern Copal. He maintains an informative web site that can be found in the links section of this website.

-- Kevin Kemner (kkemner@tatesnyderkimsey.com), February 16, 2001.