Pen FT shutter cock smoothness

[fer_fdi]

Just got an FT in very good condition and would like to know if it's normal that when cocking you feel a sort of soft bumps, regularly spaced. As if when cocking is rubbing against something.

I'm used to the smoothness of my CLE when cocking the shutter, which sounds/feel like a precision zip.

This one feels like one of those oversized zips, you feel some sort of mechanic steps/bumps

I'd like to know if this is normal or not

thanks

 

[mpaniagua]

I wont say its normal, but FT shutter arent as butter like as Leica's. I own 4 Pen's and all of them a distinct feel to it, some smooth, some more rough. Perhaps a CLA would make it smoother?

 

[fer_fdi]

gracias,

unless I find someone that CLAes film Pens in Spain (which I doubt), it's too expensive right now to send it away etc... 🙁


When cocking, it doesn't feel rough, just "d.d.d.d.d.d" instead of "rrrrrrrrrrr" or "zzzzzzzzz", if that makes sense...

I can't record the sound since it is too low frequency, you feel it mechanically

 

[mpaniagua]

gracias,

unless I find someone that CLAes film Pens in Spain (which I doubt), it's too expensive right now to send it away etc... 🙁


When cocking, it doesn't feel rough, just "d.d.d.d.d.d" instead of "rrrrrrrrrrr" or "zzzzzzzzz", if that makes sense...

I can't record the sound since it is too low frequency, you feel it mechanically

I suppose it sounds more like rubbing sound rater thatn scratchy sound umm? One of mine sounds like that.

 

[zuiko85]

The advance lever is moving the film (easy) and winding up a mighty spring (hard) that will drive the rotary shutter at a very fast rate on the high speeds. This part of the design was the part that gave Maitani a lot of headaches. First, to find a spring powerful enough and durable enough, and second, to find a thin, light weight metal that could take acceleration and come to a stop without folding up like a fan. In the first Pen F the effort was divided between two strokes of the advance lever. By the time of the FT he felt the parts were strong enough to preform the whole operation in one longer single stroke. That one stroke does a lot of work.

 

[fer_fdi]

mpaniagua: yes rubbing, thank you

zuiko85: thank you, that is my intuition, but I'm checking in case someone's problems with an FT started like this...


I'm shooting a roll of Ektar with it, let's see...

 

[splitimageview]

Normal. Lots of gearing in there, it's not particularly smooth. I rebuilt a wind mechanism a while back, not much fun. 🙁 I've worked on lots, they are all similar.

 

[fer_fdi]

Normal. Lots of gearing in there, it's not particularly smooth. I rebuilt a wind mechanism a while back, not much fun. 🙁 I've worked on lots, they are all similar.

thanks a lot splitimageview

Now I've got what seems to be a potential problem :S

I loaded the film. Start shooting. When counter reached "4" it didn't advance any further (I'm in frame 14, I keep detailed notes of every shot)

At frame 12, seeing that the counter wasn't advancing I used the rewind crank to add a bit of tension (I forgot to do this just after loading the film so I did this just in case) and from that moment the counter moves backwards! on it's way to "S"!
But I didn't push the rewind button.

I kept an eye on the rewind knob every time I cocked and it turned normally...

scary!

 

[fer_fdi]

and now the counter is advancing again... no idea what is happening.

frame 28 and counter marks 12

 

[fer_fdi]

the film counter advanced and went backwards randomly while shooting the whole roll.
At the end of the roll it marked 24.

When rewinding the roll all felt and sounded smooth.
I'm processing this roll in the following days and will see but,
anyone heard of a Pen FT faulty counter before?
anyone knows of related problems?

thank you

 

[fer_fdi]

All went fine! The camera works very well and photographs with 38/1.8 and 25/4 look excellent, sharp, with very organic OOF. Amazing on Ektar.

So as mpaniagua said cocking the shutter feeling "granular" is perfectly normal.
The frame counter is not always advancing but the experience is so positive that I really don't mind (of course seller honored a partial refund because of this)

So very happy with this wonderful camera and lenses! Thank you all!

38/1.8 wide open on ektar

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