Re activating an old lost forgotten thread.
Recently baba has gifted me his Asahi Pentax K1000. Its one of his prized possessions, very close to his heart, with fond memories. It was handed over as a recognition / confidence of me capable enough to handle the masterpiece. Baba had stopped clicking pictures long back and therefore the camera remained within its casing for years at stretch.
Below are some Of the observations which I would like to get rectified with your help.
> The latch seems to get stuck at the time of closing and I need to give it a slight push upwards to lock. I do not know how it was earlier as I was never ever allowed to touch, but Probably the latch has come down by some MM. Experts,please advise.
> The lens has fungi formed all "inside" the barrel. I have owned some other cameras so am aware of cleaning the lenses, but here the problem seems to be within the lens barrel. I can see the fungi but cannot clean it up. Last time pictures were taken (most probably between 1998 - 2000), there were black marks in every positive images.
> The mirror, at times gets stuck, after taking a shot and therefore it needs to be manually pulled down. It happened only at times, but I know the problem is there.
> Apparently it seems that the camera had some sort of lining around the bottom metal plate , to make it airtight. (something like gaskets in motorcycles). Presently it had changed state to powdery form. Is there anything that can be done?
Probably taking pictures with this camera will not be cost effective at all, but I want to gift it to my baba. He has memories attached to it, something I can never understand.
I had tried getting it repaired at Calcutta, but no success. Also I cannot trust to keep the camera / lens with unknown guys.
At the moment I stay in Pune and would really appreciate if someone can please throw some light to get the camera back to its glory days.
Please advise.