mzsaunders
Newbie
Hello to forum members from a newbee with A Cautionary Tale and a Cry for Help.
I’ve had an Electro 35GT for several years that I use for indoor natural light monochrome photography. I recently decided to replace the suspect light seals and bought a kit from Jon Goodman. Jon’s kit comes with a replacement Pad of Death so, after doing the seals, I replaced my home-made effort. I now had a perfectly good GT, with fresh seals and POD (and a new battery). However, I couldn’t leave it there. Jon’s instructions included how to adjust the horizontal (infinity) and vertical rangefinder alignment. Mine was a tiny bit out horizontally at infinity, so I tried to adjust it. Once I’d touched that screw however, I was screwed. Nothing I did would bring the images together – the moving one stayed to the right of fixed by varying amounts far greater than the original mismatch, depending on the screw position.
I tried swapping in the good rangefinder from my parts body (after checking it in the parts body) and it was the same. I tried my out of adjustment finder in the parts body and was able to adjust it no problem. I swapped them back and, of course, it was out again.
Next thing I tried was checking focus on the film plane. I used a piece of negative envelope taped across the film plane for this, set camera on B and used a cable release to hold the shutter open. I determined that the focus scale on the lens was out, so loosened the three screws around the ring (I found they were a little loose anyway) and reset it to agree with the focus on the film plane. I was then able to adjust the rangefinder so all three elements appeared to be in line.
So, happy enough with that, I ran a test film. It was mostly good, but I clearly still had it slightly out of adjustment,. Now the story takes a turn for the worse; when it came to loosening the screws on the ring again, one of them was jammed in. I couldn’t shift it and, in the end, had to drill it out. I got it out, but it left an ugly hole in the ring, focus no longer moves smoothly and the end stops at infinity and 2’8” have gone. I could probably live with this, but the saga isn’t over yet.
My problem now is that the camera seems to be stuck in bulb mode. With the battery out it fires as expected, but with the battery in the shutter stays open as long as you hold the button, whether set to B, auto or flash. Yesterday, I took the top and bottom plates off again to see what I could see. All looked fine, POD was still in place, but I found that the rod under the POD wasn't latching on the lever in the base. It was fine before, so maybe being held on bulb stretched something. Anyway, I adjusted it so it now latches. When I reassembled the camera, it’s still misbehaving, but now the shutter stays open after releasing the button and only closes when you wind-on the film.
So, morals of above are ‘if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it’ and ‘when you’re in a hole, stop digging’.
And my question is, does anyone know what’s wrong and how to fix it?
And a supplementary question; I have considered the possibility of swapping the lens, meter and electronic gubbins from the parts body (though I don’t know for sure that one works). The parts body is a series 1 Electro. Will the swapped parts work in the GT body? I know I’ll lose the 1000ASA capability and the word ‘Color’ (it’s misspelled anyway) from the lens. Battery check light isn’t a problem as I’ll just swap the plate with the window for the indicator light over.
I think the silver lens on the black body would look rather natty.
I’ve had an Electro 35GT for several years that I use for indoor natural light monochrome photography. I recently decided to replace the suspect light seals and bought a kit from Jon Goodman. Jon’s kit comes with a replacement Pad of Death so, after doing the seals, I replaced my home-made effort. I now had a perfectly good GT, with fresh seals and POD (and a new battery). However, I couldn’t leave it there. Jon’s instructions included how to adjust the horizontal (infinity) and vertical rangefinder alignment. Mine was a tiny bit out horizontally at infinity, so I tried to adjust it. Once I’d touched that screw however, I was screwed. Nothing I did would bring the images together – the moving one stayed to the right of fixed by varying amounts far greater than the original mismatch, depending on the screw position.
I tried swapping in the good rangefinder from my parts body (after checking it in the parts body) and it was the same. I tried my out of adjustment finder in the parts body and was able to adjust it no problem. I swapped them back and, of course, it was out again.
Next thing I tried was checking focus on the film plane. I used a piece of negative envelope taped across the film plane for this, set camera on B and used a cable release to hold the shutter open. I determined that the focus scale on the lens was out, so loosened the three screws around the ring (I found they were a little loose anyway) and reset it to agree with the focus on the film plane. I was then able to adjust the rangefinder so all three elements appeared to be in line.
So, happy enough with that, I ran a test film. It was mostly good, but I clearly still had it slightly out of adjustment,. Now the story takes a turn for the worse; when it came to loosening the screws on the ring again, one of them was jammed in. I couldn’t shift it and, in the end, had to drill it out. I got it out, but it left an ugly hole in the ring, focus no longer moves smoothly and the end stops at infinity and 2’8” have gone. I could probably live with this, but the saga isn’t over yet.
My problem now is that the camera seems to be stuck in bulb mode. With the battery out it fires as expected, but with the battery in the shutter stays open as long as you hold the button, whether set to B, auto or flash. Yesterday, I took the top and bottom plates off again to see what I could see. All looked fine, POD was still in place, but I found that the rod under the POD wasn't latching on the lever in the base. It was fine before, so maybe being held on bulb stretched something. Anyway, I adjusted it so it now latches. When I reassembled the camera, it’s still misbehaving, but now the shutter stays open after releasing the button and only closes when you wind-on the film.
So, morals of above are ‘if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it’ and ‘when you’re in a hole, stop digging’.
And my question is, does anyone know what’s wrong and how to fix it?
And a supplementary question; I have considered the possibility of swapping the lens, meter and electronic gubbins from the parts body (though I don’t know for sure that one works). The parts body is a series 1 Electro. Will the swapped parts work in the GT body? I know I’ll lose the 1000ASA capability and the word ‘Color’ (it’s misspelled anyway) from the lens. Battery check light isn’t a problem as I’ll just swap the plate with the window for the indicator light over.
I think the silver lens on the black body would look rather natty.
