6x6Thor
Newbie
Hi,
I'm new here.
While out shooting the other day I experienced some problems with the shutter that I've never seen before. The camera is a IIa from 1953 and has been fully overhauled by Henry Scherer. I was using the 50/1.5 Sonnar at the time.
What happens is that when I pressed the shutter, I didn't get a click and hear the shutter fire, it was more like a mushy feeling and nothing happened. However I was able to advance the film, but the same thing happened again. Next time I advanced the film, the shutter fired while advancing, and the problem continued off and on until the end of the roll. A few shots would fire correctly, but mostly I ended up winding through most of the roll (Kodachrome 64).
At one point I removed the lens to have a look, and the shutter seemed slightly buckled or bowed in the middle. When I replaced the lens, the camera functioned normally for a few frames, then started acting up again.
Since the film got wound past so quickly, I picked up another roll at a shop and tried it - everything worked fine for the first 5-10 exposures, then the problem returned.
The camera has been very reliable as long as I've had it (about 4 years or so) and I wouldn't expect problems to start after a full overhaul by Henry. Is this a typical problem for these cameras, and if so, how can I avoid it in the future. I'm hoping that I don't have to send it back to Henry, as it might be a while before I see it again (although I do have a R2C as a backup body, it's nowhere near as nice in use).
Best regards,
Thor
I'm new here.
While out shooting the other day I experienced some problems with the shutter that I've never seen before. The camera is a IIa from 1953 and has been fully overhauled by Henry Scherer. I was using the 50/1.5 Sonnar at the time.
What happens is that when I pressed the shutter, I didn't get a click and hear the shutter fire, it was more like a mushy feeling and nothing happened. However I was able to advance the film, but the same thing happened again. Next time I advanced the film, the shutter fired while advancing, and the problem continued off and on until the end of the roll. A few shots would fire correctly, but mostly I ended up winding through most of the roll (Kodachrome 64).
At one point I removed the lens to have a look, and the shutter seemed slightly buckled or bowed in the middle. When I replaced the lens, the camera functioned normally for a few frames, then started acting up again.
Since the film got wound past so quickly, I picked up another roll at a shop and tried it - everything worked fine for the first 5-10 exposures, then the problem returned.
The camera has been very reliable as long as I've had it (about 4 years or so) and I wouldn't expect problems to start after a full overhaul by Henry. Is this a typical problem for these cameras, and if so, how can I avoid it in the future. I'm hoping that I don't have to send it back to Henry, as it might be a while before I see it again (although I do have a R2C as a backup body, it's nowhere near as nice in use).
Best regards,
Thor
My Contax IIIa did something similar at 1/500th and 1/1250th, bunched up a little at the bottom and did not Cap when winding, so it got streaks across the image. I bought it ~6 years ago, and I doubt it had ever been serviced. An $80 trip to Eddy Smolov in New York, and a two week wait took care of the problem.