I bought this little camera with my uncle Frank in Pensivannia. It comes with it's original box and the condition is very good.
The bellows were not light tight. I tried to fix the bellows with a mixture of ink, elmer's glue and soap and it did not work properly. The ink was not dark enough and the added layer was too thick.
Back in France, I've been looking for a material to reconstruct the bellows. I've found a material used to do curtains to block the light. I bought the thinnest available. This material is white and has a rubber side and a cloth side.
I took out the bellows with a fabricated tool made from an old screwdriver.
The bellows are reinforced with thin pieces of hard paper. I opened the bellows and ironed them to make a template.
With lots of care, I separate the cloth from the rubber on the material I bought to do the new bellows in order to insert the paper stiffeners. Doing this, I avoid the need of adding another cloth layer to the bellows. The bellow has to be les than 4 mm thick if I want to close the camera again.
I did a paper template, and fold it to form the bellows. I did a test of the bellows to confirm that the size and shape is correct. Once the template was slightly corrected, I taped it over a bord, put a thin layer of plastic film on top to protect it and I taped the backing cloth of the bellows on top. I glued the paper strips one by one with contact glue.
Since the cloth is white, I painted the inside with a black marker.
The box of the camera is very brittle and need some work. I rebuilt the box with black hard paper and organic glue.
If someone needs a copy of the pattern I've done to recreate the bellow, please send me an email and I'll make a copy.
I took some pictures with the camera on my last trip to UK. The pictures are nearly all underexposed because there was no sun and i was usin a EFKE ASA 100 film. There are no light leaks and the pictures are perfectly focused. The picture was scanned with my office copier and the quality of the scanning is rather poor.
