gsn slow shutter speeds

[normb]

Hi all,

I recently dusted off my fathers old yashica electro gsn and was messing around with it. I noticed that the longer shutter speeds always seem to default to "B". For instance, if I meter a scene that should expose for 1 second at f8, the shutter stays open for as long as I hold the shutter release button down. I also noticed that if I moved the camera closer to a light source while keeping the release depressed, the shutter would close. Anyone run into anything like this and have any suggestions or reccomendations?


-Norm
http://www.normbarnard.com

 

[RichardS]

Is the battery working?

Dick

 

[jon_flanders]

Could be the "pad of death". Check the threads here for more on that.

 

[normb]

The battery is good, I did check that and it's registering good voltage. I was wondering about the POD, but wasn't sure if this was a symptom. I'll try looking at the pad and see what I can come up with..

 

[Jeroen]

With mine, the shutter sometimes stays open at f16. POD?

 

[sljm]

Yeap mine too been wondering about that... but when the shutter is stuck and i move the camera to a brighter light source (Shining a biright torch at the light meter), sometimes the shutter will close.

But i only happens at F16 all other F stops work well

 

[Jeroen]

Not that I shoot it at f16, anyway. Come on, it's an f1.7 lens ;-)

 

[normb]

My gsn will do this at any fstop setting. As long as I release the shutter in a dimmly lit area the shutter will stay open indefinitely, if I move it to a brighter area it will close, regardless of f/stop. Another thing I noticed, is that the flash sync setting always defaults to the "B" shutter speed behavior. I figured later today, I'll take a look at the POD, but I'm not sure where to look or even how to clean the sliding contacts in the lens. Anyone have a link to some instructions for cleaning the contacts?

 

[Twigs]

I had the same problem with the shutter, and I'm pretty sure the POD is good (greyhoundman checked the camera when he fixed a stuck film advance for me). That makes shooting in low light very difficult.

edit: ah... after more tries it's working again (shutter stayed open even if i let go my finger, and closed after the metered exposure). I guess the GSN is not too consistent...

 

[Ricohman]

I had these same problems and they all related back to the battery voltage.
Pull the top cover off and start looking for a break in the wiring at the top of the battery.

 

[reub2000]

At about 3 stops past "slow" the shutter will stay open on mine, until I turn the film winder.

What is the pod, and how hard is it to change?

 

[john neal]

edit: ah... after more tries it's working again (shutter stayed open even if i let go my finger, and closed after the metered exposure). I guess the GSN is not too consistent...

I have worked on many GS series cameras (not as many as G'Man though) and have found them to be excellent performers, if a little tempramental. I have had ones where this has been a problem, even after cleaning every contact, checking every solder joint, etc, etc. I think there can sometimes be resistance problems either in the physical resistors inside the lens - swapping resistor boards has sometimes fixed things, or in the control module itself. There are 3 different control modules and two different styles of lens resistor board - you need to swap them about in matched pairs, and watch out for the older modules that only run up to 400 asa.

Sometimes the PoD can cause this if it is in need of replacement as the sliders inside the body will be out of registration when the shutter button is fully pressed. Check when you wind on to see if you get a fairly healthy "thunk" when the wind lever is about 10 to 15 degrees into its stroke. If you get no noise, that's a fairly sure sign of a PoD that's dissolved into a sticky mass. A sharp metallic "click" or "clack" can mean that the PoD has gone awol. Difficult sound to describe, and a good one has a certain "feel" to it as well.

It is just possible to replace the PoD by taking only the top plate off and using a pin to guide a new pad with one small drop of cyano into position, but I don't like the risk - plus you don't know where the bits of the old pad went, or whether the sliders are clean and bright or bent out of shape completely. I had one body where the third contact on the slider did not have enough tension - that took me nearly 2 weeks to find and sort out!

Serch around on cameraquest and rick oleson sites, I think that's where I found the instructions. Also check out roger provin's site - he has the workshop manual as a big pdf to download.

If anyone needs spares, send me a PM, I have 2 or 3 nice battery compartments and a couple of bodies in stages of stripping. Bits can be yours for the cost of postage.

 

[tunznath]

as far as i know - If the wind clunks as you cock the shutter the pod is OK.
at f16 lets say asa 25 the shutter will stay open for as long as it needs to expose as long as you hold down the shutter release button, if you point it at a light and it closes it is compensating for the new light and will reduce the time the shutter needs to stay open. You need to hold the sutter release button down throughout the exposure, the camera meters and compensates as it goes - Your camera sounds fine, My 3 electros all do that. (unless they are shot - I think not)

2 do it one doesnt
JUST Checked
If I shoot on a small fstop say f16, my 2 cameras shutter stays open even when finger is not on release until it has exposed correctly, however my oldest one needs to have my finger on the release throughout - weird

If you start at a fast shutter speed - just after the red light goes out you should hear a shutter release try again as you move towards a smaller aperture(bigger number) you should hear the time get longer - should double or almost double - next smaller aperture, should be twice as long and so on, carry on all the way to f16 and see what happens, also try at 500 or 1000 asa and se what happens.

 

[reub2000]

It clunks. If the exposure should be a half second, shouldn't it close after a half second, instead of waiting for me to wind to close the shutter? Seems like that would be a problem to me.

Another problem thing is my rewind knob is tilted, and the little handle inside of the rewind knob likes to flip out. Annoying but not major problem. Is there an easy way to fix this?

 

[tunznath]

Where do you get the reading that says it needs to close in 1/2 sec - from another camera?
You could probably check it against another one

 

[reub2000]

I'm not getting a reading. But Yashica considers 1/30 of a second the slowest hand holdable shutter speed. Turn the aperture dial a stop and it's 1/15, a second stop and it's 1/8, three stops and it's 1/4, and 4 stops would be 1/2 a second.

 

[luketrash]

Several of my Yashicas do this same thing. If the 'slow' light is illuminated, the camera acts like it's in Bulb mode.

If you have enough light, the shutter seems to automatically fire between 1/500th-1/30th.

It sounds like CLA is the solution to the problem, but I've been itching to find out the exact cause of the problem???

All three of my Yashica Gs do this and one GSN... Basically my Yashica GS that I initially bought (and gave me the addiction) is the only one that works right.

I need to get brave, or sacrifice one of six for the greater good.

I have replaced the light seals and taken the tops off of most of them to clean the rangefinders out, but haven't done a pad of death inspection/fix.