Afaik all post war f4.2 lenses are marked with a red dot or circle on the fore name plate, indicating they are coated. Infact, afaik all post war lenses were coated. My f4.2 specimen has some fine scratches typical of old lenses, but nothing out of the ordinary, I suspect a good clean is all it needs to bring it up to its full function, as do most of the lenses I have. It's good to hear you're learning how to service these lenses and cameras, as such a service is hard to come by it seems and could prove invaluable were you to offer it on commision.
As for the springs, please do enquire about both the default and the focal plane ones. I am an engineer my trade, and have access to both proffesional drafting software & manufacturing leads, so if I was given dimensions, or better yet physical articles to inspect, I could prepare drawings and help find someone to manufacture them without breaking the bank. Similarly if you need any help making your custom 65mm back do let me know.
Two f4.2 copies i have do not have a red dot indicating a coating, but they are definitely coated(removed the coating of one because if had too many scratches).. But recently, i purchased a Makina IIIR, which came with a lot of accessories i didn‘t own yet, including a f4.2 Anticomar with the red circle indicator.
It also came with the wide angle and tele lens, with all of them looking in great condition. They especially don‘t seem to have any cleaning marks
The lenses are quite greasy and need a proper clean and lubrication, and they are the „more modern“ examples of the lenses, which means there will be definitely something to learn for me. It seems that the engineering of these lenses has evolved over time, as most lenses i worked on, even when being the „same lens“ had been machined or designed differently, with different levels of quality, sometimes added mechanisms, or even just different tolerances.
As for the Makina parts, i was at Wiese Fototechnik, but they said it‘s unlikely they have many parts, as they acquired the parts and tools of Plaubel when they closed mostly for the Makina 67 parts.
I will measure the springs myself and do some trigonometry to figure out what kind of adjustment would be needed to allow for using the focal plane shutter. If i have spare springs, i could also send them to you for measuring and possibly re-producing. Adjusting the spring, after properly measuring the difference between the flange focal distance of the wide angle orthar and the Focal Plane Shutter width, it should then be easy to produce focal plane Shutter springs.
I though however that maybe some kind of inlay should also be possible..
Also, i have started work on a Makina IIIR, which has several problems. I made tools and figured out how to disassemble almost every part of it, cleaned some very old grease(even the rangefinder has some grease that probable was never cleaned/renewed after it left the factory).. and also figured out how to clean, wax/treat and re-blacken the leather and also the bellows.
I am thinking about also removing the leather, which would allow me to disassemble the camera even further, and fully lubricate the entire mechanism with fresh lubricant. It would make operating the makina much easier(i noticed that some examples are very difficult to operate). In some instances the mechanism also just needs to be adjusted slightly, as some parts have bent slightly over time, still need to figure out how to determine this, other than just „feeling“. I have a few examples now so it should not be a problem to compare them.
And lastly, about the film back: With motion picture film being so difficult to come by now, i am currently not spending so much time on the idea, but, my main goal was to allow for it to be adjustable, similar to how the Hasselblad XPan is adjustable, to shoot in different motion picture formats(not just IMAX) Which would probably mean either IMAX(horizontal) or Panoramic(vertical).
If i come around to it, i will 3D print examples first in a larger scale to confirm operation, and then try to learn some machining skills to make an example for myself. If i feel like this could actually be useful for others, i would make a new design that would be easier to make. A simple 3D printable version would probably be the easiest, but for myself, i would definitely want something that looks more like Plaubel designed it.
1936 Plaubel Makina II Brochure 2 by Nokton48, on Flickr
