gerryk
Newbie
I'm a newbie to this forum and the rangefinder world in general, so I'd beg your patience.
I recently acquired a GSN off eBay, and due to inexperience, didn't know what questions to ask to ascertain working order. When it arrived, all it would do is click when I tried to fire the shutter. On recommendation from Yashica Guy (and taking inspiration from this post) attempted the Pad of Death replacement. Sadly it doesn't seem to have worked... here is the story so far
1. The shutter does not fire. There is a little click which can be felt through the lens.
2. When winding on, the click was fairly loud. Since replacing the pad, it is much quieter.
3. The battery check light worked at first, then stopped working. I attribute this to the battery running down as a result of the original pad being degraded, which it was.
4. The 'over' and 'slow' lights seemed fine at first... using easy to predict lighting conditions, they seemed to indicate exposures that were reasonable. After a while, they became less predictable... sometimes not lighting at all, even on 'B'.
5. All other mechanics seem to work fine... aperture, focus etc.
Since the second pad replacement, the shutter release seems a little stiff. Is it possible that the dimensions are still a little off? Exactly what sort of tolerance are we dealing with here?
Aside from that, I'm pretty blown away by the build quality of this camera. In terms of construction, it's almost overengineered... it wouldn't surprise me if these are still in use many years hence. Overengineered apart from the plastics that is, but we are talking '60s - '70s plastics technology here... they did well with what they had
Any advide would be greatly appreciated.
I recently acquired a GSN off eBay, and due to inexperience, didn't know what questions to ask to ascertain working order. When it arrived, all it would do is click when I tried to fire the shutter. On recommendation from Yashica Guy (and taking inspiration from this post) attempted the Pad of Death replacement. Sadly it doesn't seem to have worked... here is the story so far
1. The shutter does not fire. There is a little click which can be felt through the lens.
2. When winding on, the click was fairly loud. Since replacing the pad, it is much quieter.
3. The battery check light worked at first, then stopped working. I attribute this to the battery running down as a result of the original pad being degraded, which it was.
4. The 'over' and 'slow' lights seemed fine at first... using easy to predict lighting conditions, they seemed to indicate exposures that were reasonable. After a while, they became less predictable... sometimes not lighting at all, even on 'B'.
5. All other mechanics seem to work fine... aperture, focus etc.
Since the second pad replacement, the shutter release seems a little stiff. Is it possible that the dimensions are still a little off? Exactly what sort of tolerance are we dealing with here?
Aside from that, I'm pretty blown away by the build quality of this camera. In terms of construction, it's almost overengineered... it wouldn't surprise me if these are still in use many years hence. Overengineered apart from the plastics that is, but we are talking '60s - '70s plastics technology here... they did well with what they had
Any advide would be greatly appreciated.
gerryk
Newbie
I'll try making another, with better precision this time... .078 - .080 thou is the same as 1.98 - 2.03mm (since I'm more metric aligned)
I'll check the wire you mentioned. I still get the occasional yellow/red light on testing exposure though, so it might not be this. The battery reads 3v +/- after being left in a couple of days. This is the 6V alkaline Yashica Guy supplies, so I'd say it's safe to assume the battery is toast at this point
I'll check the wire you mentioned. I still get the occasional yellow/red light on testing exposure though, so it might not be this. The battery reads 3v +/- after being left in a couple of days. This is the 6V alkaline Yashica Guy supplies, so I'd say it's safe to assume the battery is toast at this point
gerryk
Newbie
I didn't mean to give the impression that Y-G supplied me with a dodgy battery... far from it... it was the full 6V when I got it, but a day in the camera killed it.
gerryk
Newbie
Thanks for all your advice. I'll give it a shot in the near future.
I've learned a valuable lesson though... ask all the right questions before buying. Thankfully, this lessons wasn't too expensive, and even if I never get it repaired, I'll have a good spares camera for when I get an actual working one
I've learned a valuable lesson though... ask all the right questions before buying. Thankfully, this lessons wasn't too expensive, and even if I never get it repaired, I'll have a good spares camera for when I get an actual working one
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