Contax S2

santino

santino

FSU gear head
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Mar 5, 2006
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Hello fellow RFFers!

Just won a Contax S2 for a reasonable price with the following problem:

The shutter works but sometimes fires off while advancing the film/cocking the shutter.

Is there an easy fix to this? If not, who would repair such a camera in Europe?

Thanks :)
 
Hi Santino,
I have an S2 too and I paid a bunch of money for it many years ago.
I thought that it would be a reliable and robust camera. Unfortunately this is not quite true.
Recently I have had a bitter surprise, so that I am interested as well in finding someone who repairs these Contaxes.
Sometimes after firing the shutter the mirror does not return. I discovered that the mirror is glued to its tray. So as glue may become weaker with time, the mirror slips a bit forward and touches the mirror box, remaining up. A surprising design flaw.
I find a temporary solution on the net. It consists in warming up the mirror with an hairdrier and push the mirror up over the tray.
It worked temporarily, but I am not using the S2 anymore, because I lost my trust in it
Good luck with yours
Paolo
 
Pistach said:
Hi Santino,
I have an S2 too and I paid a bunch of money for it many years ago.
I thought that it would be a reliable and robust camera. Unfortunately this is not quite true.
Recently I have had a bitter surprise, so that I am interested as well in finding someone who repairs these Contaxes.
Sometimes after firing the shutter the mirror does not return. I discovered that the mirror is glued to its tray. So as glue may become weaker with time, the mirror slips a bit forward and touches the mirror box, remaining up. A surprising design flaw.
I find a temporary solution on the net. It consists in warming up the mirror with an hairdrier and push the mirror up over the tray.
It worked temporarily, but I am not using the S2 anymore, because I lost my trust in it
Good luck with yours
Paolo
Click to expand...

Paolo,

There is an easy, long term fix for the mirror slip issue, which is a known problem with these cameras. You just didn’t find the right internet solution, but it is out there.
If your mirror is slipping, the adhesive holding it to the tray is weak enough that you can gently remove it from the metal carrier tray completely, using the hair dryer as before. The adhesive they used was too weak, so just repositioning the mirror doesn’t solve anything. Use alcohol or acetone to remove the residual adhesive from the tray (easily done). Then coat the chanels of the mirror tray, generously, but not overly generously, with Pliobond and replace the mirror accurately in position.
It is a permanent fix for this problem, and easily done.
The S2 is a nice camera, no reason you can’t trust it. On he other hand, if you doubt the above solution will succeed, and are going to continue not using the camera, I will take this broken camera off your hands and send you $20.:)
 
The S2 is mechanical (except for the light meter), so any competent repair person should be able to fix it - as long as a new part isn't needed.
 
I had to fix a loose mirror on my Contax 159. It would get hung up after the shutter fired when my 45/2.8 was attached but not with other lenses. Easy and permanent fix.
 
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