Ready, Set and... MP Jammed !!

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oleg C

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I believe in "Murphy's law". I really do.. This time yesterday I was getting ready for my four year old girls first big on stage performance. I loaded a roll of film in my couple of years old a-la-carte MP and then ... JAMM !!! Shutter release got stuck!! It just wouldn't move. I had no other camera on me, so you can probably understand how disappointed I was. I tried to fiddle with the parts inside by pulling and pushing the shutter itself with my fingers (oooops), spinning everything I could see and reach, but no joy.. Xmas is coming up and I have to send MP to Leica, which means that I may not have a camera for the holiday season. If anyone has had a similar experience, or know a quick fix, then please let me know..
 
No quick fix likely.

The classical M jam is the fuzzy strips at the top and bottom of the film chamber light shield fall off due to old age, and get entangled in the shutter tapes.

Hopefully a new MP shouldn't suffer from that.

Where is the shutter with regards to its tensioning? Fully wound on? Half wound? That would yield clues.

If the shutter is tensioned, then there is a cutout at the film takeup that must clear to allow the shutter button to be pushed. If it isn't aligned to clear, then the button won't be able to be pushed.

I don't recommend that you pull on the shutter curtains - you could accidentally pull it off the shutter bar, making things much much worse.

Best you could do, is to send it in for competent service.

Vick
 
Had similar problem with my MP3
Solms was the only way. Turn around was about 2 months
 
Vickko said:
No quick fix likely.

The classical M jam is the fuzzy strips at the top and bottom of the film chamber light shield fall off due to old age, and get entangled in the shutter tapes.

Hopefully a new MP shouldn't suffer from that.

Where is the shutter with regards to its tensioning? Fully wound on? Half wound? That would yield clues.

If the shutter is tensioned, then there is a cutout at the film takeup that must clear to allow the shutter button to be pushed. If it isn't aligned to clear, then the button won't be able to be pushed.

I don't recommend that you pull on the shutter curtains - you could accidentally pull it off the shutter bar, making things much much worse.

Best you could do, is to send it in for competent service.

Vick
Click to expand...


Shutter button stuck on the top
 
The shutter on my M4 jammed today. It was overhauled in July which makes it a bit frustrating. The place that did the overhaul has a 6 month warrantee so that's good. Still a bummer.
 
andredossantos said:
The shutter on my M4 jammed today. It was overhauled in July which makes it a bit frustrating. The place that did the overhaul has a 6 month warrantee so that's good. Still a bummer.
Click to expand...

Andre, that really sucks. Your M4 looked in such great condition.

My M3 jammed last year in the way Vickko described. It needed a new first curtain because the dislodged light shields cut into the curtain. It is happy now, but it was a frustrating ordeal.
 
When mine was first repaired, the new curtain totally let go of the leading metal clip after a week. The second repair is holding out. Fingers crossed.
 
So Much for the legendary leica reliability, chuckle chuckle......... I had one of the shutter ribbons go on a Zorki 4k I owned after many years of use, Fedka fixed it for 100 bucks and it was fixed in 2 weeks (Thanks Yuri, nice work........) I say switch to Russian cameras at least you won't wait 2 months to get it fixed and it will be a lot cheaper too!!!!!!!!!!! - Kievman
 
My MP jammed too a while back. Sent it to Sherry Krauter and got it back in about three weeks if I remember correctly.
 
One body, one lens ...

Just say'n.

Kievman, surely you aren't suggesting FSU cameras are more reliable. That certainly hasn't been my experience.
 
Last edited:
FrankS said:
One body, one lens ...

Just say'n.

Kievman, surely you aren't suggesting FSU cameras are more reliable. That certainly hasn't been my experience.
Click to expand...

I know what you're saying... and I'm working on it.. I suppose that I was lucky and never had a camera failing on me before.. I still LOVE my MP and to me it's the best camera in the world, but again it's the only camera I have 🙂
 
Does anyone know's what would be the best place to send my MP for repairs in Australia? I have been told "Camera Clinic" in Melbourne. But I don't think they will send it to Solms, as they will repair them selfs. Wonder if it makes any difference ..
 
Last edited:
Recently had a jam such as this on my M4-2. The shutter would fire if I held the advance lever in tension. Could have been used like that but I sent it in to DAG a few weeks ago and it will come back someday.
Funny thing, the thing would fire fine with no film but once film was in there it wouldn't fire after being cocked unless I held tension on the lever.
 
oleg C said:
Does anyone know's what would be the best place to send my MP for repairs in Australia? I have been told "Camera Clinic" in Melbourne. But I don't think they will send it to Solms, as they will repair them selfs. Wonder if it makes any difference ..
Click to expand...

I suspect the MP jam is just gears getting stuck or knocked out of alignment.
If you are brave, I would suggest opening it yourself to see if you can fix it yourself.
If you can fix it yourself, that's great, you got a working camera for your christmas. If not, you will send it off and wait anyway, so why not give it a shot. The worst case is you break something more, but spare parts aren't that expensive anyway, so I think it is worth a try.
 
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