farlymac
PF McFarland
Back in December of 2013, I repaired a smashed in lens on a Minolta Hi-Matic E, but it didn't work after I got it back together. No power to the meter, so the camera was a brick until I could finally get around to fixing what the issue was.
So a couple of weeks ago I was over in Blacksburg at John's Cameras and Records to wish him a Happy New Year, and he was messing around with a Hi-Matic E that was in a batch pf cameras he bought at auction. The winder was stuck, the shutter wouldn't fire, the rewind button was depressed, and the self timer wouldn't run off. He handed it to me and asked what I thought was the problem and I told him it was battery dependent, and they were likely dead. It had a couple of A640's in it, but they don't fit a lot of cameras, so there was no way to see if they were good or not. I asked if he wanted me to take a look at it, so he said "Sure, take it home".
I ordered some new cells, and had to wait a week for them to arrive, then found other things to keep me occupied for another week..Well today I finally got around to working on it. First I opened the top to see if by chance the shutter was jammed because I had read that was a common problem with them, but it just didn't have any power. Then I took the bottom off to access the battery compartment, found the negative lead had gone bad, and I went about trimming the wire back to where it was good and soldering it back on to the terminal. The seals looked kind of dry so I replaced those, and then I banged the dent out of the filter ring. Put the old batteries in it and it works like a charm.
Battery lead terminals pointing down right of center.
DSCN2128_2c by P F McFarland, on Flickr
So I dug out the smashed up E that I owned, and fixed the positive battery lead on it. It too needs seals, but I'm leaving that for tomorrow.
Here's what my camera looked like after I got the lens back to level.
Link to the Flickr album of the repairs done to the first E : https://flic.kr/s/aHsjPnWpT5
PF
So a couple of weeks ago I was over in Blacksburg at John's Cameras and Records to wish him a Happy New Year, and he was messing around with a Hi-Matic E that was in a batch pf cameras he bought at auction. The winder was stuck, the shutter wouldn't fire, the rewind button was depressed, and the self timer wouldn't run off. He handed it to me and asked what I thought was the problem and I told him it was battery dependent, and they were likely dead. It had a couple of A640's in it, but they don't fit a lot of cameras, so there was no way to see if they were good or not. I asked if he wanted me to take a look at it, so he said "Sure, take it home".
I ordered some new cells, and had to wait a week for them to arrive, then found other things to keep me occupied for another week..Well today I finally got around to working on it. First I opened the top to see if by chance the shutter was jammed because I had read that was a common problem with them, but it just didn't have any power. Then I took the bottom off to access the battery compartment, found the negative lead had gone bad, and I went about trimming the wire back to where it was good and soldering it back on to the terminal. The seals looked kind of dry so I replaced those, and then I banged the dent out of the filter ring. Put the old batteries in it and it works like a charm.
Battery lead terminals pointing down right of center.
DSCN2128_2c by P F McFarland, on Flickr
So I dug out the smashed up E that I owned, and fixed the positive battery lead on it. It too needs seals, but I'm leaving that for tomorrow.
Here's what my camera looked like after I got the lens back to level.
Link to the Flickr album of the repairs done to the first E : https://flic.kr/s/aHsjPnWpT5
PF
Moto-Uno
Moto-Uno
That is my backup camera for every trip I've taken in the last decade ! They really are worth repairing .
The only thing I've ever done with mine is remove the batteries after each use and they last for ever it seems !
Peter
The only thing I've ever done with mine is remove the batteries after each use and they last for ever it seems !
Peter
Horatio
Masked photographer
Nice looking copy. Glad you revived it! My first 35mm camera was a Himatic-F.
rfaspen
[insert pithy phrase here]
I think the hi-matic E was my first actual rangefinder. It took me a while to realize that all my best sharp and beautiful pictures were taken by this little guy and not by my SLR with consumer level Tamron zoom. Once I figured this out, I became a fan of rangefinders.....a little while later I became aware of lens quality. The E is a true gem with an amazing lens.
Mine developed a film transport slip and I gave it to a fellow RFFer. I hope he fixed it.
Mine developed a film transport slip and I gave it to a fellow RFFer. I hope he fixed it.
Moto-Uno
Moto-Uno
Moto-Uno
Moto-Uno
^ Probably my absolute favourite picture ( from my Minolta Hi-Matic E) that could only have been taken in the few moments that it happened ! Sapa , Vietnam , 2016 . Peter
farlymac
PF McFarland
I've known these to be good cameras. Believe there are also an F and G around here in a box. I have a 7 S II that I'm waiting on the film to get developed. Think I'll be using it more often as it can be used without batteries.
PF