Olympus XA2 shutter button repair

[f16sunshine]

Not exactly a repair tutorial but rather more of a tune up for the shutter.
As many have experienced the XA series shutter button can become unresponsive.
I retired my xa2 last year as a result of shutter button issues.
Recently I picked up a couple of XA2 cameras for a few bucks and wanted to dig into the issue.
It was easy to fix. I'm sorry I did not take better images for a tutorial.
I was not expecting to post a thread but now that things worked out well… I thought I would share my experience and the iPhone documentation images.

In order.

1 Open the self timer lever and Remove the bottom plate (5 screws).
2 Carefully remove the clamshell cover watching not to loose the stop bearing.
3 Remove the rewind knob and top plate. Carefully pull the top plate off.
4 Remove the three screws holding the shutter button assembly together and in place.
5 Clean all contacts with white vinegar and gently pull the 4 contacts of the shutter button outward to re-spring some new tension.
6 Re-assmble. Test the door repeatedly before putting the bottom plate back on. It took me a few tries to get the bearing in the right place.
In the end I found it easiest to put the bearing into one of the stop slots in the clamshell cover and reassemble the camera upside down. Once the door slides smoothly all is good to go.


Here you can see the bottom cover is off as is the top clamshell. The little "barrel" shaped bearing is clear to see. The screw parallel to the bearing does not need to be removed.

Here the top of the camera is removed. Next is to disassemble the shutter button unit (brown board).

Here is the assembly opened up. Clean all the contacts on the underside of the brown board.

Here is the bottom of the red shutter "button". Clean and ready to re-assembly. I gently pulled the tips of those 4 tabs to put a bit more spring in them. Now with new tension the shutter is responsive and feather light as it was when new.

 

[btgc]

Thanks! This may give inspiration to some of who have put them away because of tricky shutter release.

 

[f16sunshine]

Thank you !

I'm not great at tutorials.
This problem is well known but little on how to fix it.
Hopefully someone can find some success with this thread.

Cheers!

 

[btgc]

Just did the same trick and now it is much better than before (I mean I still need to direct fingertip top down on button as my fingers aren't so tiny as camera may require). Thanks for the tip!

p.s. btw there's no need to remove bottom cover fully, just loosened to take out botton slit of front cover.

 

[st. paulitan]

Any tips on how to get the spring back where it needs to be when reassembling the rewind knob (screwing it back in place)?

Thanks!

Bill

 

[st. paulitan]

Just re-assemble my XA2 following the instructions above. The self timer works (beeps, etc.)when I press the red shutter button, but the shutter doesn't fire. So it appears contact is being made, but the shutter won't release. Anything I can do more?

Thanks!

Bill

 

[newspaperguy]

Thanks, Andy.

I'd forgotten that you had posted this... because I didn't need it then.

Now :bang:

And thanks, Solinar, for bringing it to our attention.

 

[corryhully]

thanks for this post. my xa2 is now back in proper working order. much appreciated

 

[MiniMoke]

Hi,

My XA2's shutter button works fine, but I always have to make sure the sliding cover is COMPLETELY open - I mostly have to keep the forefinger of my left hand pushing the lower edge of the door left.

Can anything be done about this? Any adjustment of the contact signalling the cover is open?

Hope someone can chime in with some advice.

 

[Perks]

Thanks Andy!

I got my XA2 firing again. Too easy!

Warm regards,
Andrew

 

[jchabalk]

I'll do my part to keep this thread alive.

I'm going to give this shutter button cleaning a shot in the next couple of days. A friend told me these cameras are becoming popular again. I remembered my mom had one in the 80s / early 90s. I called her up and sure enough it has been sitting in the same spot in a cabinet for ~25 years and she sent it out to me.

The shutter is a bit slow to react - sounds exactly like it needs a cleaning. Otherwise the camera seems to work great. The battery in the flash had an expiration date of January 2000, it was probably put in fresh in January of 1990 or thereabouts. I haven't tried the flash with a fresh battery yet. I shot a roll with the camera last week though and am going to process it later tonight.

 

[hap]

Amazingly, before reading this thread I had randomly taken my XA2 out of mothballs and gave it a walk. the shutter button did not always fire as I anticipated, but was able to use. Now I know why and how to fix.....if I don't ruin the camera.

thanks

 

[jchabalk]

awesome, we're all coming out of the woodwork now 😉


i got this sorted this evening, the shutter appears to be working quite reliably now. It wasn't too bad before but it misfired a few times when i was running the first roll through it (in 25 years) last week.



An intended bonus of doing this is that i got to clean the channel the front cover slides in, and generally remove a bunch of built up dust and grit around the advance wheel and focus lever on the front. My camera is in great shape but it's also close to 40 years old so there's some light debris.


The action of the cover slide is now the way i remember it when i was kid, smooth and precise.



There are a couple of cautions i can come up with - and i'll see if i can post my pictures to illustrate this.
- When removing the top plate there's no need to remove the silver screw that gets exposed when you remove the sliding cover. It holds the tension spring for the slide bearing. There's a small brass nut that falls into the camera body if you remove the screw. It was pretty easy to get out, but if i hadn't noticed it during reassembly it could have gotten frustrating.
- There's a grey gasket visible in the images already posted (there are 2 holes in it and it's on the underside of the shutter button). Keep track of that. Mine stayed stuck to the brown circuit board and then fell off at some point. i couldn't figure out where it came from for a minute but the original set of images made it clear
- Watch the orientation of the red shutter button when reinstalling it, you can see the correct orientation in the original images.



I probably spent 45 minutes on it start to finish and if i had to do it again i'd have it all put back together in 15 minutes or so. It's pretty straight-forward once you figure out how to remove the sliding plate

 

[Flat Twin]

There are a couple of cautions i can come up with - and i'll see if i can post my pictures to illustrate this.
- When removing the top plate there's no need to remove the silver screw that gets exposed when you remove the sliding cover. It holds the tension spring for the slide bearing. There's a small brass nut that falls into the camera body if you remove the screw. It was pretty easy to get out, but if i hadn't noticed it during reassembly it could have gotten frustrating.
- There's a grey gasket visible in the images already posted (there are 2 holes in it and it's on the underside of the shutter button). Keep track of that. Mine stayed stuck to the brown circuit board and then fell off at some point. i couldn't figure out where it came from for a minute but the original set of images made it clear
- Watch the orientation of the red shutter button when reinstalling it, you can see the correct orientation in the original images.

I followed this guide and did the shutter button repair on my XA-2 before Christmas and it worked very well. I completely agree with jchabalk's comments above, these are worth paying special attention too, especially the grey gasket and where it comes from! I spent 2-3 minutes scratching my head until I looked again at the pictures and figured it out... My shutter button now works perfectly, I have put a film through the camera and it reminded me how wonderfully the XA just slips into a pocket! The test film showed some light leaks so my next job is the seals... I also have an XA-4 that might be in need of the same treatment!

Kind regards,
Simon

 

[tbhv55]

I have just done this repair on an XA2 with the sticking shutter problem. I've yet to run a film through it, but it seems to work as it should (without film). The repair took me around an hour, since I made a small error 😱 during re-assembly, and had to re-trace a few steps.

Great advice, on this thread. I'm grateful to the OP, and to those who contributed.