A while ago I bought myself a Bessaflex, the mirror of which unfortunately immedietly cracked. Following a mirror donation from a Canon T60 deglued with a hair-dryer and re-attached with epoxy-resin glue.

The mirror cracked after shooting a test-shot with my Helios-44M and the shutter mirror getting stuck on the back-element. This happens due to glue holding the mirror slowly degrading and letting it slip further down. The repair process goes something like this:

  1. Use a hair-dryer to loosen up the glue on the Canon T60 mirror.
  2. Once the mirrors loosens a bit I used a plastic spatula to slowly separate it from the metal piece it sits on.
  3. I then did the same to the Bessaflex mirror, which unfortunately cracked again in the process, and scraped the ground glass a bit.
  4. I used a little bit of Isopropanol on the metal surface to clean of residue, and the plastic spatula to scrape residue off-of the back of the mirror.
  5. I then mixed up a little epoxy-resin glue and spread out a very thin layer on the back of the mirror.
  6. I put on some gloves and held it in place for a minute before leaving the camera to cure, ensuring its in a position where the mirror would not be able to glide down.

Most of this roll was shot the day after letting the resin cure, and metered entierly with the builtin meter, given some brand new LR44 batteries. I am very happy with how it turned out ✧/ᐠ-ꞈ-ᐟ\.

The camera is a joy to use and I really appreciate the whimsy of it. It may be a bit plasticy, only able to shoot manual, and far more expensive than other M42 cameras, or even a modern SLR with an adapter, but it oozes personality. I really love my Helios-44M, and the rest of the selection of quirky lenses available for the M42 mount. The Bessaflex knows its a novelty, and if you do not plan on collecting old soviet and east german lenses I can’t see why you would buy it, but I am very happy to have it.