Mamiya 7 shutter speed LEDs advice

[redtec989]

Hello, to cut a long story short I have a Mamiya 7 with three of the red LEDs in the viewfinder dead. 250, 500 and overexposed indicator don't work. I contacted a repair place who quoted me a little over £450 inc VAT which seems outrageous for soldering 3 little LED lights. When questioned they claimed that a huge part needed to be replaced and would be taken from a donor camera and they wouldn't be able to just resolder the LEDs. Is this correct or would I better off living with it or going to another repair agent? I am competent with electronics, soldering etc so if it was very easy could do it myself? Any advice is helpful thank you 🙂

 

[john_s]

Maybe it is just a soldering job. Maybe it's not. If it were mine I think I'd live with it as is. Getting to the electronics in cameras often isn't easy. I would try to ascertain exposure using LEDs that work (temporarily set smaller aperture whilst metering, then back to where you want it and adjust shutter speed accordingly).

Sorry to be negative!

 

[wolves3012]

The price does seem pretty steep for the job required. However, having dismantled cameras with LED displays, I can say that it's probably the case that these LEDs are tiny and it's physically near-impossible to replace them. The ones in Minolta's X-series (for instance) are well under 1mm in size, maybe 0.5mm max. Try replacing those manually! It may be they have to replace a great chunk of electronics just to do the job.

Must be worth a try somewhere else, see if it's cheaper? If not, it's a case of deciding ifthe camera's worth it (to you).