Nikon F2 Shutter issue

Timmyjoe

Timmyjoe

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My beloved F2 has an intermittent shutter issue that's driving me nuts. Wonder if anyone else has dealt with this. My best guess is that intermittently the first shutter curtain is hanging up for a split second at just about the end of it's travel (as seen by the dark part of the image below, on the right edge of the image). With the back of the camera open I can't seem to make this happen, but from studying the images, that looks like it might be the issue.

F2Shutter.jpg


Anyone have any thoughts on this? The camera was serviced less than a year ago and this will happen on two or three frames, every second or third roll of 36.

Thanks for any and all input.

Best,
-Tim
 
Hi Tim,
It looks to me like your shutter is tapering. The sky on the right side of the picture (on the left of the original film in camera), is progressively getting darker until that noticeable band of increased darkness on the edge. If the shutter was being held back in some way, there should be overexposure instead of underexposure.

Sover Wong is the master with the F2 shutter. He tries to get the shutter times within 1/6 f/stop, which is better than Nikon's own specs.
 
Hi Robert,

I was not familiar with the term "shutter tapering" so I looked it up. Also shutter capping. From the descriptions I found, my intermittent issue looks like shutter capping, where the second shutter curtain catches up with the first shutter curtain before the first curtain is completely out of the frame. Therefore leaving an underexposed strip on the edge of the image (in the case of this Nikon F2, on the right hand side of the printed image).

The light values of the blue part of the sky are pretty consistent across the image (it's a little optically deceiving with all the dark foliage on the right side of the photo), A and B are pretty consistent. It is when you get to C that everything goes down hill.

F2Shuttera.jpg


So now I just need to figure out why it only happens a couple/three times every second or third roll of film.
 
Hi Tim,
Usually the tapering or capping is more evident only on the high shutter speeds with a narrow slit, such as 1/250 or faster.
 
I don't write down my shutter speeds when working with this camera because it's my "walking around, Sunny 16" shooter. But I know the last five frames of the roll the above picture is from, were shot at 1/2000th of a second, and those images are fine. No capping, smooth exposure all the way across the image. Weird.
 
Can you correlate to "bad shutter behaviour if the camera sits for a day", versus "nice shots if I shoot 5-in-a-row"? The shutter might be intermittent, but works okay for a blast of shots, then gets stiff again.

I recall that the shutter tension adjustment is easily accessible, but, to deal with this properly, the shutter system needs to be cleaned, relubricated and re-tensioned.
 
Vickko said:
to deal with this properly, the shutter system needs to be cleaned, relubricated and re-tensioned.
Click to expand...

Thanks Vick,

What bums me out is that was supposed to be done last year when I had the camera completely rebuilt. The company that did the work has a 90 day warranty, but that has since expired.

The more I study the last few rolls I shot with the camera, the more I notice the shutter capping is on more frames than I thought, it is just not as pronounced as the image above.

I think it's going to need another CLA, or maybe I should say, a PROPER CLA.
 
Well now I'm really upset. Went back and checked the service record on the camera, it was serviced last November 2014, and they put in (and charged me for) A NEW SHUTTER MECHANISM.

I would think that a new shutter on a Nikon Pro camera would last more than ten months, of fairly light use.
 
I still recommend Sover Wong.
My F2 was serviced in 2011 by the former midwestern US Nikon service center. They did a fine job, but I've decided to add a few upgrades to my F2A, and it is now with Sover. He rebuilds from the ground up, including pulling the lens mount / mirror box off the main body of the camera.
 
I think the design of the F2 shutter is that at 1/2000 it triggers the 2nd curtain straight away so I don't think you'd see it. (but that might be the F3? I think as well)
My sover-ed F2A was rebuilt in 03 or 04 and is still right on even with extended sittings.
Fix it right and they stay that way.
 
Timmyjoe said:
Well now I'm really upset. Went back and checked the service record on the camera, it was serviced last November 2014, and they put in (and charged me for) A NEW SHUTTER MECHANISM.

I would think that a new shutter on a Nikon Pro camera would last more than ten months, of fairly light use.
Click to expand...

That's a very minor shutter problem! I had a similar problem (diagnosed as shutter bounce) with a Nikon F2 a few years back, and the Nikon Service Center in Tokyo adjusted the shutter and had my camera back to me in five minutes. The camera worked fine after that.
 
Hmmm... in 5 minutes? I'm guessing that they popped the bottom internal cover off, and increased the tension on both curtains. Hopefully that timed the shutter properly, but now it is operating in a higher tension regime, and hopefully overcomes the friction and tension mismatch that is causing the issue.

And hopefully they re-adjusted the shutter brake too, as now it is operating at a higher tension and the brake might need adjustment to ensure that there is no bounce when the shutter slams to a stop.

But the key is that if the shop knows what they are doing, and that adjustment can be done quickly, they'll do it quickly. The key is "know what they are doing".
 
Vickko said:
Hmmm... in 5 minutes? I'm guessing that they popped the bottom internal cover off, and increased the tension on both curtains. Hopefully that timed the shutter properly, but now it is operating in a higher tension regime, and hopefully overcomes the friction and tension mismatch that is causing the issue.

And hopefully they re-adjusted the shutter brake too, as now it is operating at a higher tension and the brake might need adjustment to ensure that there is no bounce when the shutter slams to a stop.

But the key is that if the shop knows what they are doing, and that adjustment can be done quickly, they'll do it quickly. The key is "know what they are doing".
Click to expand...

Vick, I would certainly hope that Nikon know what they're doing with an F2 :)

I recently had a chat with one of the repair guys at Kiitos Camera Repair, a specialist Nikon repair shop in Tokyo with very close ties to the Nikon factory (he's an ex-Nikon repair guy who set up his own repair business after retiring from Nikon) about a Nikon F he overhauled for me. He said after overhauling a camera with a mechanical shutter (F, F2, Nikon RFs) its normal for the settings to drift a bit until they "settle in", so they keep a camera for an extra week after its been overhauled and check the shutter daily to fine tune it before returning it to the owner. Perhaps the repair shop that replaced the shutter in the OP's F2 just returned the camera to him before the shutter had fully "settled in"?
 
Been out all afternoon and missed all the posts. Thanks for everyone's input.

I did send an email to Sover Wong and his opinion was that it was shutter bounce. I sent the same image to the local shop who serviced the camera and they agreed that it was shutter bounce. They said they could adjust it for me while I waited, so that is one option.

I would like to get it "fixed for good" because it has become my "Walking around camera" that I have with me every day. I think I would be okay with losing it for a week if it then is reliable for the next number of years.
 
Built a shutter tester and was surprised to find that the shutter bounce only occurs at certain shutter speeds. No bounce at 1/2000th, 1/1000th and 1/500th.

1/500th, no bounce
500th.jpg


1/250th, considerable bounce
250th.jpg


1/125th, bad bounce
125th.jpg


flash sync speed, bad bounce
90th.jpg


1/60th, less bounce
60th.jpg


1/30th, even less bounce
30th.jpg


1/15th, bounce gone
15th.jpg


All the slower speeds were clean. Wonder why it's only on the middle shutter speeds?

Best,
-Tim
 
Sounds like the rubber first and/or second brakes are worn. You'd have to remove the bottom cover to access them so it would probably be better to let a tech replace them..
 
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