Olympus XA shutter problem

gliderbee

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I have a problem with a XA I bought S/H: after advancing the film, it doesn't always react when I press the shutter.

When trying without film, if I open the back and just only touch the film advance sprocket down at the right side, and "turn" it back just a fraction, the shutter works.

If usually (but not in a predictable way) also works when I "turn" the film advance knob back a little bit, probably because then, the film pushes back a bit against the sprocket.

Is there any DIY solution to this ? I just bought a second XA, just to be on the safe side (I like this camera :)), but I would rather have both working as they should.

Thanks,
Stefan.
 
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The XA has an internal switch (not the sliding cover switch) which sometimes gets corroded or doesn't open all the way when you wind the film. Top cover switch could be dirty, magnet position could be bad (and it's not the magnet that you can see when you take the bottom cover off.) John
 
Mine was like that when bought new, many years ago.

It pays to give the film winding knob an extra push (as though winding on) when getting ready to fire the shutter. It's as though it wasn't fully wound, at times.

Regards, David
 
I found a very detailed repair manual on a site (77 pages ...); about every single detail is explained and it includes diagrams for problem solving and possible solutions. Since I have bought another XA that works fine, I can risk trying to repair the other one (and anyway, they are not that expensive; I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for all suggestions,
Stefan.
 
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