film transport not working in Konica Auto S2

[f1.0]

On my Konica Auto S2, the film does not spool on the sprocket when I advance the lever.

It usually works for a the first couple of frames, but thereafter I can feel that with every advance the things are not working right.

I tried with a bad roll to see what was wrong. What was happening is that the the gear roller right after the aperture rotates alright, but the main spool which takes up the reel on advances is not taking it up properly. In fact, looks like the take up spool is not rotating with the film in it. Without any film, however, the take up spool seems to rotate properly.

This is an old camera but otherwise works properly, including the meter. I have replaced the seals and corrected the focusing and rangefinder. In the past, I have also cleaned up shutter and adjusted the auto -exposure setting in another copy of the camera that I have.

Given the problem, I am willing to open this one up and to try to fix it. But what am I looking in this case? Any help in this is really appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[mooge]

whatever causes the friction that turns the take-up spool is worn or something. (the take-up spool is never geared directly, as film accumilates on the take-up spool,the spool needs to turn less to move the film the same distance)

this is probably going to be alot of work, take-up spools are almost always buried in the mechanism. you might need to remove alot of stuff.

good luck!

 

[f1.0]

[SOLVED] film transport not working in Konica Auto S2

[SOLVED] film transport not working in Konica Auto S2

Solved! Searched the internet and got some information about take up spools.

It works at least for now, but I can be sure only after several hours.

You are right that the take up spool is driven by friction and there is no direct gears linkage with it and the advance lever. I was noticing it carefully as I rotated the spool (the outer has pastic bars along it, as does the inner), and noticed that as I advance the lever, the take up spool also rotated with no film. However, another copy of the same camera that I have did not do so.

So, I worked the outer take up spool by hand several times in both directions. This seems to have made it a bit free. Apparently it was sort of jammed, in the sense that it was gripping the axle a bit too tightly. I also put a couple of real tiny drops of naphtha on both ends of the spool. Working it some more loosened it a bit more and the problem went away.

So far, with film in the camera, it is working like clockwork. But I need to verify this tomorrow and in a few days time to see if the spool remains free enough to continue functioning properly. I will post here if the problem returns.

 

[Brian Legge]

Heh. I've been working on a Auto S2 on and off for a week now.

The rangefinder mirror had fallen off, the lens was really loose, the electronics were dead, the mask over the sensor was loose, etc. I don't really have a reason to restore the camera - they are cheap enough buying another would have made sense - but it seemed like a good practice.

Its a decent camera to work on. The screws haven't taken too much work to loosen safely and nothing seems too little to easily deal with.

 

[f1.0]

Brian, let me know if you need any help. I restored a Konica Auto S2 a little while ago which I had obtained from ebay. The camera is quite easy to work with. Fairly straightforward.

It has a wonderful lens and well worth working with. Besides, one gets quite a useful experience with this one. Apparently, Canonets are very difficult to work with.

 

[f1.0]

Just to recap. The problem was that the outer take up spool was sort of jammed due to long disuse. This spool is supposed to slip as film is wound on (the spool rotates at different speeds with different thickness of film on it, that is why it needs to slip). However, the increased friction was preventing the spool from rotating. This resulted in the film not moving with this spool. The inner spool actually moves with the advance (also with friction). If the outer spool does not rotate, the film does not wind around it (and doesn't move) the inner spool also can't rotate.

At the same time, the gears on a roller (between the take up spool and the aperture window) were rotating (they are connected with advance lever with gears). This forced the film to be fed towards the take up spool which was, however, not taking any film due to it being stationary.

The outer take up spool should have been free enough to move with the slight push from the film (from the roller gears) and the slight pull from the inner sprocket.

Freeing up this outer spool (a bit of naphtha and rotating it back and forth manually) was the solution.

 

[f1.0]

Just to recap. The problem was that the outer take up spool was sort of jammed due to long disuse. This spool is supposed to slip as film is wound on (the spool rotates at different speeds with different thickness of film on it, that is why it needs to slip). However, the increased friction was preventing the spool from rotating. ....
Freeing up this outer spool (a bit of naphtha and rotating it back and forth manually) was the solution.

Yup, that was it. It's been a couple of days and the problem is completely gone! The rewinding knob also rotates normally now (it was hard to rotate earlier).