DeeCee3
Established
I'm unfamiliar with Canon rangefinders but I was under the impression that they used metal shutter curtains. Perhaps only later models did? Anyway, I'm considering buying one which has been described to me by the owner as "in excellent shape except the curtain is wrinkled". It's a 7. Is this a deal-killer?
DeeCee3
DeeCee3
peterc
Heretic
Wrinkled shutter curtain is pretty much normal for the Canon 7. Depends on the amount of wrinkle if it will cause problems.
jlw
Rangefinder camera pedant
No, as long as the shutter travels evenly it should be fine to use. If the wrinkles are really bad, it could hurt the resale value, but it's unusual to find a 7-series camera that doesn't have at least one or two shallow wrinkles or pinpoint dents.
If it gives you any perspective, reflect that these wrinkles are often caused by localized heat of the sun being focused on the curtain, and that when the same thing happens to a cloth-shutter camera (e.g. a Leica) you don't just get a wrinkle, you get a burn hole.
Incidentally, the metal curtains came in during the run of Canon's V-series models; earlier ones (II, III and IV-series, and early V-series) did have cloth curtains, so your impression is correct. Just to make this a bit more complicated, during the era when factory service was available for these models, it wasn't unusual for a cloth-curtain V-series camera sent in for shutter repairs to have its curtains replaced with metal ones. Conversely, an independent repairperson might have replaced a hopeless set of metal curtains with cloth. So don't get too weirded out if you ever encounter a model that "should" have cloth curtains but has metal, or vice-versa.
If it gives you any perspective, reflect that these wrinkles are often caused by localized heat of the sun being focused on the curtain, and that when the same thing happens to a cloth-shutter camera (e.g. a Leica) you don't just get a wrinkle, you get a burn hole.
Incidentally, the metal curtains came in during the run of Canon's V-series models; earlier ones (II, III and IV-series, and early V-series) did have cloth curtains, so your impression is correct. Just to make this a bit more complicated, during the era when factory service was available for these models, it wasn't unusual for a cloth-curtain V-series camera sent in for shutter repairs to have its curtains replaced with metal ones. Conversely, an independent repairperson might have replaced a hopeless set of metal curtains with cloth. So don't get too weirded out if you ever encounter a model that "should" have cloth curtains but has metal, or vice-versa.
dexdog
Veteran
To echo what others have already said, wrinkled curtains are the norm in these cameras. Even really bad looking wrinkles usually do not affect camera performance. I have had a number of Canon 7s, and only one had any issues related to wrinkled curtains, an intermittent light leak. However, the curtain on that particular camera looked like the Grand Canyon, and was much worse than the run of the mill wrinkles normally seen.