OddCameras.com                         Voigtländer Brillant Mirror

The Voigtländer Brillant is a Twin Lens Reflex 6x6 camera, so there is a mirror that reflects the light of the viewing lens to the ground glass.


On all very old TLR cameras the mirror of the finder might have issues. It's always a front coated mirror, the silver side is up and unprotected. So never touch it and never, never wipe it. You will wipe away the coating. You can only blow the dust away or you may cautiously apply a very, very soft brush. Ordinary mirrors are coated from the back and the coating is then protected by layers of varnish. So why can't you use a back coated mirror? The glass in front of the coating would create double images and make focussing difficult. And turning the mirror would shift the reflective suface by a mm or so, everything would have to be calibrated anew.

Most mirrors are very thin, about 1mm only, so handle with extreme care. Replacement mirrors should have the same thickness. It's easy to find replacement mirrors in the USA, either on Ebay or via a web search. Since shipping fees to Europe have exploded, a mirror sent from the States might exceed the price of the camera (no problem for Rolleiflexes). TLR mirrors are usually trapezoidal. Measurements are usually taken in this order: top x hight  base.

The Voigländer cameras are cheap if you have time to search for them. So I will try several solutions and show the results here. It's an ongoing project. For the moment I have only taken the camera apart and ordered some material. So please come back later.

The access to the mirror is quite easy,
the finder housing is only held by 4 screws, 2 on each side, easily visible if you unfold the finder . You need a fine screwdiver which should be a bit longer tha usual. Unscrew, they are quite long. Lift the housing. All parts are loose now.

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Housing taken away. The lens with its matte spot is held by a frame. The matte spot should be up, if not, focussing is haywire.

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Frame taken away.

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Lens taken away. It rests on another frame that also secures the mirror.

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The second frame taken away. The mirror can now be taken out. It's quite dirty and has big black spots.

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All deposed parts. To easily rescrew the housing, set it a bit higher (e.g. on pliers as in the picture), insert the screws with tweezers and let them "hang out" to the bottom. Then put the housing into place, holding it 1 or 2mm above the camera and begin to tighten the screws slightly. When all screws are inserted, let go down the housing and tighten further.

That's it for the moment.

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