Problem with Ricoh GXR...Need Help

[blumoon]

I recently acquired a Ricoh GXR with 2 camera bodies and GXR mount A12.
The A12 mount is for Leica M lens. I don't have any M mount lenses, so I ordered a Nikon F mount to M mount dumb adapter.
After mounting a Nikon Nikkor 50mm 1.8 to the Fotasy adapter and focusing, I found the shutter button not moving at all on both bodies,
Any Ricoh GXR users that can suggest what the problem might be?
Batteries are fully charged and I did a restore defaults, and formatted the SD card.

 

[FrozenInTime]

I presume live-live is working, showing the lens modules are correctly inserted.
Did you try a older small capacity SDHC card e.g. 8 or 16 GB. Try shooting without the card inserted to internal memory.
Sorry, sold my GXR a couple of years ago, so can't check anything directly.

 

[blumoon]

Live view is working. I have an 8GB SD card in it. I tried shooting with no SD card, but the shutter button doesn't move.

 

[FrozenInTime]

Maybe try to free up the release button cap by pulling on it and twisting with self-adhesive tape.
Try the CA-1 remote release or cheap clone from Amazon/ebay.

 

[jankap]

I tried my GXR a minute ago. It even works without lens and without SD-card.
I have no idea, what the problem is with yours. Does the shutter button move?

PS
If I take off the A12 Leica mount, the shutter does not fire!
The contact strip contains many contacts.

 

[blumoon]

The shutter buttons don't move both camera bodies.
I'm wondering if I need to use a genuine Ricoh battery. I'm using two new fully charged aftermarket (Kastar) batteries.
Could it be that the A12 Leica M mount will only work with an M mount lens, and adapters don't work?

 

[jankap]

If life view works, the battery is not the problem.
The Leica mount is the problem, it carries the shutter. Lots of contacts between this and the GXR, that can go wrong.

 

[jankap]

Leica M lenses don't have intelligence. They carry the focal length to the body, and that only if they carry the 6 bit coding.
The advantage is, that they can be used on many bodies, but manual use.

 

[jankap]

This is a coded Leica lens. On the left side, one sees 6 coloured fields, black and white. The Leica M camera (starting with the M8) reads them with photo cells to identify the focal length and the version (Elmar, Summicron, ......). From above, bwbbbw, for this lens.

The A12-mount of the Ricoh does not read this code, one has to remember the used focal length.

 

[sojournerphoto]

I suspect the problem is with the A12 adapter and not the lens adapter. As someone suggested, might need contacts cleaning. Have you another lens unit to try on the bodies - if that worked it would narrow the problem to the A12. At the moment we’re just relying on the idea that it’s less likely to be both bodies than one A12.

Mike

 

[blumoon]

I don't have another lens unit, just the A12.
I do see that when I put the adapter on the A12 , the locking pin does not come up to lock the adapter in place.
I wonder if that could be the problem.

 

[sojournerphoto]

I don't have another lens unit, just the A12.
I do see that when I put the adapter on the A12 , the locking pin does not come up to lock the adapter in place.
I wonder if that could be the problem.

If it was me I’d start by trying to make sure the adapter and everything fits together properly. Only then look at other stuff.

Solved a warning light in the van tonight by pushing the seatbelt pretensioner connector together🙂 often it’s simple stuff.

 

[shawn]

The shutter buttons don't move both camera bodies.
I'm wondering if I need to use a genuine Ricoh battery. I'm using two new fully charged aftermarket (Kastar) batteries.
Could it be that the A12 Leica M mount will only work with an M mount lens, and adapters don't work?

The shutter buttons don't move at all? They should just be 2 position micro switches where you have a half press to AF and a full press to take the shot. There should be no mechanical linkage from the shutter button to any other part of the camera, or at least I've never seen/heard of that on any digital camera. If they truely aren't moving at all I'd think you have a problem with the shutter buttons themselves. Being that it is happening on both bodies is odd unless the person you bought them from busted one shutter on a body, got a replacement body and then wore that one out too.

No way the camera would only work with M mount lenses, there are no electronics in M mount so the camera has no clue what type of lens is or isn't mounted to the adapter.