Kat said:
My camera came with several problems--the shutter blades are stuck, the shutter button does not seem to trigger anything in the camera, and the advance lever advances endlessly even without the shutter being triggered.
I got one of these -- wow, almost 2 years ago -- that had some similar problems. Yes, an ebay special.
With the help and encouragement here and some web surfing for similar problems, I was able to get it operating quite well, and I got my baptism by fire in camera repair in the process.
🙂
The stuck shutter came to life with just a wee bit of Ronsonol (lighter fluid, naptha) on a q-tip. There were some bent linkage parts in the f-stop and shutter speed dial assemblies, I guess the previous owner tried to force it. Once these were fixed, all of the shutter and winding stuff worked fine and (knocking on wood) have worked ever since.
The worst part of the whole ordeal was removing of the old grunged-out light seals. It was like removing tar.
Thankfully, the meter appears to be working. I'll be sending it out to a repair person, as its ailments are beyond my rather limited capabilities.
If you don't want to try fixing it, Greyhoundman here used to fix them, but I heard he may not be doing it anymore. There are a couple others here who do it as well.
I'm not going to suggest you try fixing it if you're not comfortable, but I was able to do it and I am surely not an expert by any means. What it really takes is a steady hand and a lot of patience. The only oddball tool I needed was a lens spanner wrench, and I was able to get one from a co-worker. Since then I've actually seen these in stock on the pegboard rack at a local camera shop.
Another problem that came with the camera is a missing part--the black plastic frame of the VF and the battery test buttons beside it. Does someone, by any chance, have one of these for parts? This is what the back of my camera looks like now...🙁
When I was fixing mine, some of the others here said they had "parts cameras" like that if I needed any odds and ends. Hopefully somebody will see your note and respond.
A good resource for finding hard to get things like this is the Classic Camera Repair Forum:
www.kyphoto.com/classics/
The people over there (like the people here
🙂 ) are good at responding to beginner questions.
Good luck, and do remember to post some photos when you get it working. It's really a very nice camera and I'm glad the people here talked me in to getting one.
🙂
Kat, Kitty or Doris--I respond to all.
Denise, Dee, Annie, or "Hey You" -- I respond to all.
🙂
