Phillip
P. Dimor , jun
12, 2003; 10:11 a.m.
Hello! I've recently acquired a nice minolta himatic
7s. (not the 7sII) I am dying to clean the viewfinder glass although I can
not seem to remove the top cover. I am able to remove the film rewind
knob, advance lever and the only two screws that I could find on the
cover. There seems to be something else which is holding the cover down,
near the door-release latch. I can't figure it out!
Anyone know of the trick to open this thing?
thanks!
Phillip
P. Dimor , jun
12, 2003; 09:35 p.m.
I finally figured it out. There is a small retaining
ring under the film rewind knob that I was missing. It's very small and
the grooves in it are pretty shallow. I'm not too surprised that I missed
it. Also, It was extremely tight and it took a lot of force to loosen
it.
Frank
Mueller 
, jun 15, 2003; 04:41 p.m.
Taking the top cover off for a quick cleaning is ok.
Unfortunately I didn't stop there in my disassembly of the 7s, and managed
to misalign the rangefinder. Extensive research on the net did not reveal
a method to rectify this problem, and in utter frustration i finally put
it up on eBay for parts or repair. I think I managed to get around $9 for
an otherwise perfect camera. In short, be careful!
BTW - the Himatic 7s is a nice camera, just a bit heavy for a
rangefinder for my taste.
