Bessa -r shutter

[daveozzz]

Hi there - unfortunately it looks like the shutter on my shiny new bessa R has locked up 🙁
Shutter about a quarter open behind the lens and film advance lever stuck dead.
I don't *think* I did the advance-during-exposure thing that can cause these but couldn't swear to it so this may all be my own stoopid fault.

Has anyone discovered any top tips as to how to recover from this..? Or does it look like I need to send off my poor 4-roll-old camera for repair already?

Thanks in advance,
Dave.

 

[tedwhite]

Well, umm, let's see. I believe I read about this. Open camera back, see if you can rotate the shaft with the teeth on it that's located just before the take-up spool. Some times that will free everything up.

I am sure others infinitely more knowledeable than myself will soon respond. But try that for starters.

(once spent a week in Edinburgh, then wandered off to Inverness on my way to John O'Groats (hope that's it) but never got there. In Inverness, a medeival city if there ever was one, I ventured into a Chinese restaurant, having heard the local food was somewhat tasteless, sat alone at a table. Also alone at a table across from me was a comely lass, as they say. So, having not much to lose, I spoke to her in my obvious American accented English. Turned out she was a nurse at the local hospital. You can probably figure out why I never got further north).

 

[daveozzz]

Ah cool - Inverness in where I spent the first 18 years of my life so I'm glad you have good memories of it... even if it is just because of our accomodating nurses!

On the camera front I saw some stuff about how to free up a bessa L with a stuck shutter - try to advance.. switching to B mode.. and ive tried rotating the takeup sprocket and the shaft next to it - they both rotate freely. Still refusing to do anything - very very frustrating (and my red filter and IR film just arrived today to rub the salt in!).

What exactly happened - I was shooting off shots with no film inside cos I was trying to work out what sort of shutter speed I would be getting with IR film and red filter at different ISO settings... and suddenly the advance level stuck halfway through a sweep. What immediately occured to me was that maybe the frame counter had reached 36 and I would just need to pop the back. I wish!

 

[Jim H.]

I experienced a shutter freeze once with my Bessa R. I called and spoke with Steve about the problem. What he told me was that the majority of shutter problems with the R he had scene were from people trying to advance the film (or film lever) before the shutter had finished cycling on longer shutter speeds. After speaking with him I decided to try to deal with the problem myself instead of sending the camera to him. I gently assisted the shutter in re-opening via my finger. It worked and I haven't had any shutter issues since. It sounds like this may be your problem. You might give Steve a call. I don't want to give anyone bad advise so please don't take my word for it on the do it your self fix. I'm just passing on my own experience. Good luck.

 

[daveozzz]

It's working again! Took it to my local repair guy in Edinburgh... apparently some sort of link had broken (between the shutters? not sure of the details) so he ordered the part from Cosina and sorted it... JP Camera repairs - love em!

 

[tedwhite]

Great news! How long did it take to get the part? And what does ..."sorted it." mean. Does that mean figured it out and fixed it?

Ted

 

[daveozzz]

Cosina sent the part the next day... so he ordered it on Monday, got it on Tuesday (he's closed wed, thurs), did the work on Fri.
Sorted it = made bad camera work again. He told me what was broken (which I didn't understand) and replaced it... obviously as far as I know he could have poked it with a stick for 3 days until started making noises again but I trust the guy. Super cheap too.