CLE dancing led lights! Proper fix?

fluffthecat

fluffthecat

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Jun 30, 2006
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Hello,

I have a Minolta CLE, it is starting to suffer from the dancing led lights, initially from the top then downwards and then settles on the meter reading. It goes away when I turn the shutter dial to and throw a few times but the next morning it begins again. I would ideally like to try and clean whatever contacts that need cleaned.
I've read how easy it it to remove the shutter dial parts but need to know where to approach the actual cause of the problem or which part to clean/adjust. Could it be directly under the chrome shutter button? Anybody with repair experience to help please? Thanks.
 
Le Fix

Le Fix

The solution is well-reported in CLE posts on this forum. The dancing lights are the result of poor contact on wipers beneath the shutter speed dial. The dial needs to be removed and the contacts cleaned.
 
Well, here I am dusting off an old thread. I was moved to deal with the "dancing LED" problem on mine the other day, and I thought I had taken care of it -- I unthreaded the collar holding the shutter release button in place, lifted off the shutter speed dial and film speed dial, and used a burnishing pen to clean the copper-colored spring underneath, which I assumed was where the faulty contacts were (referred to in the post above).

Things were OK for a few days, but now the dancing LEDs are back. They will stop if I turn the shutter dial back and forth a few times, but it seems to me I shouldn't have to do this. Was I not getting at the source of the problem? Can anyone post pictures of the procedure, or provide written instructions -- for me and all who deal with this problem?

It's a great camera -- it has maybe the best viewfinder of any M mount camera I've seen. But this problem is really making me not like it.
 
Be sure to give the ASA dial a workout not just the shutter dial. Go through all the ASA speeds allowing the dial to click down into place each time. Do this a few times and see how you go. The dancing LED problem although usually a shutter contact problem it can also occur with the ASA dial through general lack of use as we often stick to one speed film and the LEDS go up and down as the camera is having problems registering what ASA its set on.
 
Hi guys,
I bought a CLE on the bay for a very low price, it arrived yesterday and I just love how compact it is compared to my M2.
Besides that it also has the problem of the dancing leds, I mean every shutter speed fires properly and the automatic mode seem to deliver correct exposure, but when i put the finger on the release the led near 1/60 lights, then the 1/30, 1/15/, 1/8 to the bottom of the scale.

The fact that I can't see the shutter speed in automatic mode is not a big problem for me as long as the camera works, I just want to be sure that this is not the first symptom of a faulty CLE and that the shutter is not going to break in the near future.

I'd like to hear from the experience of others who had this camera and this problem. Thanks!
 
Have fixed several CLEs with this, just oxidation on the contacts under shutter dial, nothing at all to do with the shutter mechanism
 
I'd love to see a picture of those contacts -- I removed the shutter dial once and cleaned what I thought were the right things, but it made no difference. So what I find myself doing as a matter of course is to turn the shutter dial back and forth a few times until the LEDs stop dancing, but I'd greatly prefer to just correct the problem.
 
I'd seen this before, thanks. No clear indication of what should be cleaned under the dial, other than a reference to "the copper ring under the ISO selector" -- which I don't recall seeing when I did this. A picture would have been very helpful.
 
Hey everybody again!
I'm back from more than a year of very satisfactory use of this camera. Unfortunately after developing two rolls from my last trip I'm noticing a problem I never had before.
In fact a lot of photos show a gradual underexposure on the right side of the frame, here are a pair of the incriminated ones:

https://500px.com/photo/292075221/img-by-sasha-zemliakov

https://500px.com/photo/292076111/img-by-sasha-zemliakov

while only one frame is half black, as if the curtains have stopped halfway

https://500px.com/photo/292075105/img-by-sasha-zemliakov

I was wondering if someone has ever ecountered this problem, I will surely try the camera again with fresh batteries but I don't think this is the problem, maybe a small piece of film could have fallen in between the curtains mechanism? :(
The strange fact is that only some photos present this issue, while others are perfectly exposed, could it be that only some shutter speeds are not firing properly?
 
If anyone's interested in the issue, I got the camera back today from the local repairer.
He was able to fix the uneven exposure at higher speeds, which must be a purely mechanical problem called shutter tapering, solved by calibrating the curtains mechanism.
However it wasn't possible to adjust the 'dancing leds' in the viewfinder; as he stated the contacts inside the camera are oxydated and it should be fully dismantled to clean them, increasing consistently the cost of the repair.

In the meantime the CLE was taken care of I temporarily got the Leica M4-2 out of the box, but after more than a year with the little CLE with its A mode I can't really find comfortable the M again, especially comparing weight and sizes. I even started thinking about selling the M4-2 to get a good 28mm for the Minolta's finder. :angel:
 
ale_f said:
However it wasn't possible to adjust the 'dancing leds' in the viewfinder; as he stated the contacts inside the camera are oxydated and it should be fully dismantled to clean them, increasing consistently the cost of the repair.
Click to expand...

That's exactly how this issue needs to be fixed. Dave Easterwood fixed my CLE doing that, as well as fixing it's jamming shutter issue at the same time.
These cameras suffer from deep oxidation after all these years.

Of note, he was the only person in the USA that I could find who would undertake this work. I got the 'no parts available' line from everyone else. Even though what was needed was a deep cleaning.
 
Huss said:
That's exactly how this issue needs to be fixed. Dave Easterwood fixed my CLE doing that, as well as fixing it's jamming shutter issue at the same time.
These cameras suffer from deep oxidation after all these years.

Of note, he was the only person in the USA that I could find who would undertake this work. I got the 'no parts available' line from everyone else. Even though what was needed was a deep cleaning.
Click to expand...

Hey Huss, I also had the shutter getting stuck halfway a couple of times, do you think this is linked to the curtains mechanism, or could also be because of the oxydated contacts?
 
Very odd. The dancing LED problem is an easy fix, never seen one that needed a complete dismantling to fix this.
 
ale_f said:
Hey Huss, I also had the shutter getting stuck halfway a couple of times, do you think this is linked to the curtains mechanism, or could also be because of the oxydated contacts?
Click to expand...

Mine was oxidized contacts. Not saying your is too though. Only way to fix it right is to have Dave Easterwood check it. Only problem with him is delays, communication etc etc..
 
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