So, after gaining some experience replacing the foam in a Canonet rangefinder (no mirror box confines to work in), I've decided to replace the foam in my MX.
I did put one roll of film through it, and I developed it in the darkroom the other day - all the exposures seem to be spot on, with the majority of the frames being inbetween full white and full dark. So the meter and the shutter speeds are allright as far as I can tell, which is very reassuring considering that there are a couple dents on the body and I only paid $50 for it to begin with. The original foam in the camera is quite deteriorated, and the fact that the back didn't leak light is a testament to the robustness of the door design, IMHO. However, given its condition, I have a few questions about the seal system before I attempt to replace it. If someone with an MX could take a look for me and answer my questions or some could point me to a site with some pictures, that would be awesome First the mirror foam. The two tiny strips that go down the side of the focusing screen are intact and don't seem to be sheding pieces yet so I think I'm going to leave them as they are - they would be pretty difficult to remove and replace anyway. The question I have is about the front piece - is it split in two on either side of the focusing screen release tab, in kind of a "--== " shape with the larger section to the outside? Or is it just one long strip all across the front of the tab? On to the door - I know that I have to clean out the channels of their foam and I have precut strips to put in there to replace the originals (the door channels on the Canonet were similar). The film counter reset tab needs to remain uncovered in the top channel. On the body at the hinge end there is a piece of fabric style foam that goes from the 'lip' at the bottom of the top channel to the 'lip' at the top of the bottom channel, covering both. The door has one ~1.5-2" piece of foam in the top channel starting at the angle bend and going to the right, covering where the film counter tab is (paranoid engineers! :P). On the latch end of the door, there are two small fabric type squares on either end of the latch in the larger width part of the channels. And that's all that I can find - am I missing anything? I'm really happy to be able to give this nice old MX a good home, it's not in perfect shape and I fear for what might have happened to it if I hadn't put in the only bid on it. Thanks for all your help, -Andrew
