Ashley Pomeroy
Regegisterd Ulser
Hello there chaps, I'm new. Carry on. I recently picked up a Yashica Electro GS in a second-hand shop here in Salisbury, England. I recognised the name from the internet, because it is a distinctive name. The camera was £10 (about $19) and seems in good nick. I am impressed with its weight and its looks. It is very unlike modern cameras. It is also a hit with the ladies in my office. They flock to my Electro like moths to a flame. It had the appropriate mercury battery, still with charge, although I have ordered a replacement from Mr Yashica-San. There was no corrosion in the battery well.
However the camera didn't seem to play ball during slow-speed exposures and low light, which is unfortunate for something with a good fast lens. That was probably why it was on sale for £10. So I popped onto the internet and found this place. I learned that the problem was probably the "Pad of Death". I am a mechanical incompetent, but thanks to this place, Matt Denton's website, another website that had macro shots of an Electro's innards, and the Yashica Bloke's page, I managed to find the pad, scrape it off with a bent paperclip, and glue in a new pad. I was absolutely amazed that it worked, and I am still floating on a cloud of euphoria, which is why I am writing so much. I replaced the pad with a small piece of plastic that I broke off a CD case*, and I used a standard lateral approach, lifting off the top cover but not the front of the camera. The "microsurgery" technique as Mr Al-Yashica puts it.
Apart from a tiny screwdriver, the only tool I used was a paperclip. I bent it into a U-shape in order to unscrew the rewind lever and the film speed dial; I used it to scrape off the gooey residue of the pad; and I used it to shove in the replacement pad, which I had lightly glued to the end of the paperclip. The process took about an hour, in two sessions. The only problems were getting the rewind lever off (it was sticky) and prising open the lid (which was stick around the left side). And it was hard finding the actual pad - none of the above links have a clear, labelled shot of the component. For the record, it is above the letter "A" in the Yashica label on the front of the camera.
Now my Electro seems to work. It is like a big, heavy Olympus XA with a mad lens, and I expect that it will give me masses of photographic love. It makes a sharp clack noise when I wind the shutter, and it feels tight. I am a convert. I'm going to make the shutter go off right now (does so) yes. Clack, clic-click (pause) whirr click. Beforehand, it went into "B" mode whenever the shutter speed was too low. Now, it works just like my Olympus XA, and seems to fire off with the same exposure time as well. My only worry is that my current state of agitated bliss will wear off, and I will sink into a deep funk. The Electro is not exactly a pocket camera. It doesn't seem any handier than an Olympus OM. But how many other cameras are named after a genre of music? Apart from the Graflex Speed Garage. And the Ensign Emo. I can feel the cold starting to creep back in.
But I digress. I'm having a heck of a time with the screw-on battery cap. It seems to be fractionally too small for the thread. It screws in, but the battery tends to make it pop out again. It also tends to come off when I screw the Electro into a tripod - any pressure on the cap seems to make it loose. After a lot of turning and twisting I can get it to stick, but is there a knack, do I have to push it in really hard, is the battery pushing out too hard? Should the metal disc inside the cover be bent? Is there a handy way to keep it steady (perhaps with rubber bands or tar) without using gaffer tape (which probably wouldn't work anyway)? I assume that the Electro's battery cap is mucho rare and very valuable - was it a standard part fitted to other cameras? Perhaps other mercury battery cameras, listed on eBay as junk, have the same cap, because the battery at least is a standard size.
* In fact it was some of the grey plastic from the double-CD box for the original Playstation version of Doom.
However the camera didn't seem to play ball during slow-speed exposures and low light, which is unfortunate for something with a good fast lens. That was probably why it was on sale for £10. So I popped onto the internet and found this place. I learned that the problem was probably the "Pad of Death". I am a mechanical incompetent, but thanks to this place, Matt Denton's website, another website that had macro shots of an Electro's innards, and the Yashica Bloke's page, I managed to find the pad, scrape it off with a bent paperclip, and glue in a new pad. I was absolutely amazed that it worked, and I am still floating on a cloud of euphoria, which is why I am writing so much. I replaced the pad with a small piece of plastic that I broke off a CD case*, and I used a standard lateral approach, lifting off the top cover but not the front of the camera. The "microsurgery" technique as Mr Al-Yashica puts it.
Apart from a tiny screwdriver, the only tool I used was a paperclip. I bent it into a U-shape in order to unscrew the rewind lever and the film speed dial; I used it to scrape off the gooey residue of the pad; and I used it to shove in the replacement pad, which I had lightly glued to the end of the paperclip. The process took about an hour, in two sessions. The only problems were getting the rewind lever off (it was sticky) and prising open the lid (which was stick around the left side). And it was hard finding the actual pad - none of the above links have a clear, labelled shot of the component. For the record, it is above the letter "A" in the Yashica label on the front of the camera.
Now my Electro seems to work. It is like a big, heavy Olympus XA with a mad lens, and I expect that it will give me masses of photographic love. It makes a sharp clack noise when I wind the shutter, and it feels tight. I am a convert. I'm going to make the shutter go off right now (does so) yes. Clack, clic-click (pause) whirr click. Beforehand, it went into "B" mode whenever the shutter speed was too low. Now, it works just like my Olympus XA, and seems to fire off with the same exposure time as well. My only worry is that my current state of agitated bliss will wear off, and I will sink into a deep funk. The Electro is not exactly a pocket camera. It doesn't seem any handier than an Olympus OM. But how many other cameras are named after a genre of music? Apart from the Graflex Speed Garage. And the Ensign Emo. I can feel the cold starting to creep back in.
But I digress. I'm having a heck of a time with the screw-on battery cap. It seems to be fractionally too small for the thread. It screws in, but the battery tends to make it pop out again. It also tends to come off when I screw the Electro into a tripod - any pressure on the cap seems to make it loose. After a lot of turning and twisting I can get it to stick, but is there a knack, do I have to push it in really hard, is the battery pushing out too hard? Should the metal disc inside the cover be bent? Is there a handy way to keep it steady (perhaps with rubber bands or tar) without using gaffer tape (which probably wouldn't work anyway)? I assume that the Electro's battery cap is mucho rare and very valuable - was it a standard part fitted to other cameras? Perhaps other mercury battery cameras, listed on eBay as junk, have the same cap, because the battery at least is a standard size.
* In fact it was some of the grey plastic from the double-CD box for the original Playstation version of Doom.
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Ash
Selflessly Self-involved
Ooo.. Salisbury. Only been there once. That was enough for me 
Good luck using the camera!
Good luck using the camera!