Altix IV Altissa - Shutter speed repair / Disassembly request

[Allo1010]

Hello,

This is my first post on the forum and I really only came here because I was trying to find a user who talked about repairing it on another forum but it was moved here.


So recently my Dad was trying to sell this camera on eBay, but it turns out that the shutter is broken so we issued a return. After looking into how to fix the camera my Dad told me that it used to belong to my grandfather.

So now I'm sitting with a camera that is broken (and gladly so because otherwise I would have lost it) and have no idea how to repair it.

The shutter doesn't go off at the speeds it should and sometimes it doesn't move at all. Often I have to reset it using the little shutter release button at the bottom and even then it struggles.

On the other forum it mentioned that they managed to open it, but I don't have the know-how on how to do it correctly and have struggled to find a manual.

If anybody can be any of help at all, I'd greatly appreciate it.


If you need anymore info, all the details for the camera are here. I have the exact same model.

 

[02Pilot]

Can you post a photo from directly in front of the camera so that it is possible to see the shutter assembly in detail? Is there are name on the front of the shutter (just below the lip of the lens)? More than likely getting into the front of the shutter is not difficult, but if the problem lies deeper it may require removal from the body. Do you know what the specific problem is?

 

[Muggins]

How your sins come back to haunt you!

I'm the Adrian in that thread... I wish you good luck!

Adrian

 

[Allo1010]

Can you post a photo from directly in front of the camera so that it is possible to see the shutter assembly in detail? Is there are name on the front of the shutter (just below the lip of the lens)? More than likely getting into the front of the shutter is not difficult, but if the problem lies deeper it may require removal from the body. Do you know what the specific problem is?

Hi,

So this is the direct front of the camera it reads "Vebur" underneath,

This is the shutter loader thingimajig. I'm not sure what the name is, but you have to pull that back in order to take the picture.

And in this picture you can see the shutter release on the right, it's the little metal nub. I initially thought that the screw under the shutter loader would need to be undone to be able to release the shutter, but I tried undoing it with the right screwdriver size and it's almost impossible. The metal gets in the way and I worry that I might scratch the screw.

The problem is that sometimes the shutter release doesn't work, or gets stuck at the top. It worked briefly, but then started to get stuck (which is my Dad put it on eBay in the first place).

After some fiddling (just repeatedly trying to take photos, and pushing the shutter release) I even managed to get the timer working again. 250, 100, 50, 25, and 10 worked reasonably well enough (I think they were working to the right times), but as soon as I put the speed to 5, the shutter started getting stuck and delayed before it finally released. Same for the 2, 1 and B settings.

 

[02Pilot]

It sounds like it's just in need of a standard CLA (clean/lubricate/adjust) due to dried up lubricants in the slow speed escapement. The Vebur is an East German shutter; I can't find any specific references for it, but I suspect it's a pretty standard arrangement. Any decent camera repair service should be able to handle it.

If you want to tackle the repair yourself, you'll need some special tools and a lot of patience (assuming you've not done this before). Once you've removed the shutter assembly from the body, you'll need to partially disassemble it, clean the various parts, and reassemble. If you go down this route, come back here for guidance.

 

[hanskerensky]

Indeed probably only dried out lubricants so a clean would probably do the job.

For people who can read German, here a pdf with a bit of history about DDR Shutters (including the Vebur) :

http://www.camarassinfronteras.com/articulos/obturadores_DDR/Detektivjagd.pdf

 

[Allo1010]

It sounds like it's just in need of a standard CLA (clean/lubricate/adjust) due to dried up lubricants in the slow speed escapement. The Vebur is an East German shutter; I can't find any specific references for it, but I suspect it's a pretty standard arrangement. Any decent camera repair service should be able to handle it.

If you want to tackle the repair yourself, you'll need some special tools and a lot of patience (assuming you've not done this before). Once you've removed the shutter assembly from the body, you'll need to partially disassemble it, clean the various parts, and reassemble. If you go down this route, come back here for guidance.

Thanks for all your help! I think I'll look into taking it to a repair service as it seems like it could be a delicate process. If that doesn't work I'll report back.

Thanks again!