bessa-r meter damaged

[benjamins]

Hi all, hoping you can advise:

The meter on my Bessa-R was working perfectly until I put a Summitar on it, and collapsed the lens into the body. Since then, the meter has started to behave erratically, rapidly blinking when I'm just under or over exposed (circle & triangles), but will go solid when exposure is correct. Other times, usually after I've shot a few frames, the meter will stop activating altogether. And then start up again some minutes later. The batteries are fresh.

Looking at the meter itself, it appears to be slanted back toward the shutter curtain, and depressed, leading me to believe it's been knocked off its mount, though I can't remember what it should look like normally. I've attached a picture.

If anyone could suggest a home-fix, or whether this would be a complicated/expensive repair for a technician, I'd appreciate it.

 

[MrFujicaman]

That's the way it's made. The metering cell looks at the shutter to determine the exposure. The cell doesn't retract or anything like that.

 

[ForestCap]

... rapidly blinking when I'm just under or over exposed (circle & triangles), but will go solid when exposure is correct...

I had this when the battery was weak. I put new battery in and it stopped.

 

[rfaspen]

Sounds like weak battery. I had that with my R some time back when I put in weak batteries.

Meter cell looks correct to me. It looks at the white area of the shutter curtain and measures the light reflected off that white area. A tried and true and reliable system. Same as the M6.

Did you feel or hear something "wrong" when you collapsed the summitar? I don't remember if I've ever collapsed a lens in my R, so I don't know if its safe or not. I haven't used my R for a couple years now....that's not good, but totally unrelated to the situation at hand.

Try some really, really, fresh new batteries. Preferably silver oxides.

 

[MrFujicaman]

And don't assume new batteries are fine...I once bought a 24 pack of AA.....well in date, sealed.....and every last one of them was no good. After I tested them , none of them read over .5 volt on a volt meter.

 

[traveler_101]

Sure, replace your battery and see if that helps.

Here are some other points:

1. I read never to collapse lenses into the Bessa-R or use lenses with large rear elements like the Jupiter 12.

2. You - or someone else - has damaged the well in which the light sensor sits. The damage appears not to have affected the sensor - though I can't tell for certain. I notice on my camera that the sensor is angled toward the back of the camera making damaging it very difficult. My guess is that the light sensor is undamaged.

3. However, looks like your shutter curtain is cracked.