R3A skipping frames?

[luketrash]

My R3A started skipping frames back in about February and has not stopped. It happens with fairly regular occurance now.

What happens is when you wind to the next frame after taking a picture, it snaps and you have to wind it a second time to set the shutter.

I've been out of the fray of the RFF forums for a while, so I haven't seen anyone else talking about this before. Have any of you had this happen?

Also, if any of you have had this fixed, how much money did it cost?

It's originally a CameraQuest camera that I bought second hand (working.)

The other symptom is that I never use the speed winder I have for it because in that case, it has been known to overlap frames.

However, that issue existed prior to the frame jumping issue.

Thanks for any info! I'll check back in a while. I have been fairly out of it lately, so I may not see the thread for a bit.

 

[jamesj]

hey luke! sorry about the camera hope you get it sorted out soon...

 

[lshofstra]

Have an r3a, but don't recognize this problem (but overlapping using speedwinder: yes, occasionally)

 

[luketrash]

OK, I'm back with more information.

I have examined the camera and determined that during normal operation, when you take a photo both the front and rear shutters open/close to make the exposure. The front shutter is light gray in color. The rear one is black in color.

Normally when the camera is working correctly, when you wind the shutter to the next shot, the front (gray) curtain remains closed and the rear black one resets.

When my frame skipping problem occurs, the front (gray) shutter opens from the middle and opens all the way once you've made the wind stroke.

At this moment, the shutter snaps shut, as if it has made an exposure. The rear shutter didn't open though, so the film was not exposed.

So something is catching on the inner gray shutter every once in a while when I wind the camera. It is totally random. It might happen every other time, or it might work fine for 40 winds before happening again.

Have any of you dealt with this before on these or any other cameras?