Sporadic issues with Contax iia shutter

[Fiddle64]

Freshly CLA'd from an RFF recommended Contax tech. Everything is beautiful. It was the victim of decades in storage and then a cheap CLA. It was a wreck and now focus, aperture, prism are all smooth and lovely. I'm in love. However, every now and then the shutter won't fire. I push the button and nothing happens except that I have to wind to the next frame. Happens randomly at all speeds. Am I doing something wrong? I'm careful about loading the film and making sure the sprockets engage. Sometimes I change speeds unwound and sometimes after winding. I don't think that should matter (am I wrong about that?) And I never leave it wound for more than a few minutes.

Is this just what it's like owning a 70 year old camera? Am I not paying attention to something important? I wrote to the tech but I know he's busy so I don't expect to hear back soon. Anyone have any wisdom to offer?

 

[Sonnar Brian]

It sounds like you need to contact the person that did the CLA and have them look at it. It should work.

 

[dexdog]

On the Contax IIA, changing shutter speeds before or after winding shutter should not matter, although recommended practice on pre-WW2 Contax cameras was to change shutter speeds after winding. Sounds like your camera should be returned to whoever serviced it, preferably as warranty work if the servicing was done recently.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

As I recall the pre-war Contax manual says it doesn't matter particularly, but the Soviet Kiev manuals says that it's better to set the shutter speed before winding.
But as the Contax IIa is another beast entirely....

 

[santino]

Not normal behaviour. The IIa is a piece of precision crfatmanship and properly clad should work flawlessly.

 

[Tim V]

My iiia did this and my service person said it was due to the shutter timing not being tuned properly during a prior service. He said it’s a very tricky shutter to tune, requiring a lot of patience and subtle tweaking. It took him ten hours to tune mine, using specialist equipment! Although this included extra cleaning here and there.

i think I also remember him saying the shutter break is quite primitive or even non-existent, meaning tuned wrong as above the curtains can bounce back and cause the next frame to misfire due to the shutter winding on oddly for the subsequent frame. Don’t quote me on that though as I may have some details wrong.

Good luck with yours, mine was fixed and now works perfectly so it can be done!

 

[Nitroplait]

Out of a good handfull repairs done by different reputable techs over the past two years, I had to let half go back for further tweaking. It is a drag, and I hate to be the one complaining.
Hopefully your repair guy is recommended for a reason and will make it right with a minimum of fuss.

 

[TenEleven]

Perhaps you have, in these cases very lightly touched the shutter button, considering to take a picture and then thought better of it?

Because in that particular case I'd know what it is. My own experience with fixing my own IIa's is that actuating the shutter release button performs two separate mechanical actions. One is to fire the shutter, two is to release the wind knob locking mechanism, so that the next frame can be wound on. There is, if I recall correctly, an eccentric that governs the wind-on release. It's a bit fussy to adjust but it can be done that both actions happen at the same time as they should.

This one-two shutter button action is the same in a Rolleiflex by the way, there the adjustment is done by bending (yes bending!) a small lever. That seems very crude in comparison, but I guess it makes it harder for it to go out of alignment.

 

[MarcoIIIc]

What you describe is typical of the color dial iia/iiia camera shutters needing service. I am a hobbyist and have serviced at least 5 of these over the last 10 years, sounds like your CLA was not properly done or the shutter release has been over lubricated or lubricated with a oil of too high a viscosity.

 

[Fiddle64]

Oddly, it only seems to happen when there is film in the camera. I thought it was me not winding fully to the next frame so I ran another roll through (being careful to fully wind to the next frame) and part way through the roll it happened again. It's too bad. I'm really falling for this camera. Starting to looking at some Nikon wide angle lenses.... You know how that is.

Anyway, I'm sending it back for adjustment.

 

[flavio81]

Freshly CLA'd from an RFF recommended Contax tech. Everything is beautiful. It was the victim of decades in storage and then a cheap CLA. It was a wreck and now focus, aperture, prism are all smooth and lovely. I'm in love. However, every now and then the shutter won't fire. I push the button and nothing happens except that I have to wind to the next frame.

This is typical of a Contax IIA that needs a CLA.

Just make sure you get a GOOD technician because there are many bad ones out there and the Contax IIa/IIIa can be ruined by bad technicians. Particularly what could -highly likely- happen is that the tech will notice the 1/1250 speed is not working (curtains not opening) and then he/she will increase curtain tension until it works. You'll receive a camera with a loud shutter and a shutter death sentence sooner or later.