Vintage film cameras

[johnnyrod]

Not sure if yours is the same but this is the ring
Selenium Cell Removal by John Rodriguez, on Flickr

[Kenzie]

Yep, but mine won't move. Don't worry, got it!

Shutter is co-cked but refuses to fire



Guess what I dropped Yoko, yep the aperture ring detent ball. Saw it hit the desk before rolling onto the floor. Found it though.

[Kenzie]

I have got the top plate off and found that the low light shutter lock is working. If I move the needle I can press the button although it still does nothing. I have found if I apply pressure to the lever at the 11 o'clock position that looks like a Penguin or a Seal, I can open and close the shutter. I wonder if the broken/missing blade is jamming things up. No idea how to go deeper than I already am.

[yokohama]

Good luck in there Kenzie, it looks incredibly intricate.
I'm glad you found your ball bearing. I gave up on mine. Unless it's hidden well, it's not in the lens and the hoover trick didn't produce anything. Potential air pistol target I think.

[johnnyrod]

Take out the escapement and you can open the shutter manually. It's fine to leave it co-cked. The escapement is the mechanism sitting over the top and extending rightwards. Remove the silver screw with the damaged head - this does help hold it together but this is not a problem. Also the black one closest to 3 o'clock - the smaller one which again looks to have some damage. DON'T remove the black one just above it or the escapement will come to pieces. These can be stiff, use the widest screwdriver that gives any purchase at all as it wlil mean less damage than a thin one that goes well into the slot. It will then lift out, and you can operate the shutter by the silver peg near 3 o'clock that the end of the escapement is leaning on via the little silver lever with the brass peg. (This switches the escapement between its slow and fast setting if you want to know, like having 2 gears in a car.) The return spring for the shutter operates on that silver post.

[johnnyrod]

Yoko don't fret, I've probably said before that some people de-click them and let the meter sort it out.

Redscale film, had to look that up, proper Lomo! You gonna shoot from the hip too?

Two cameras on their way to me, gifts from a family member. One is a Pracktika SLR I think, maybe BX20, the other a Lubitel 166 TLR. Latter will be interesting to see, they are meant to be hateful cameras.

[Kenzie]

That's nothing Yoko, you should have seen inside my Fujica Auto M!

[Kenzie]

Depends what version of the Lubitel you are getting. Pretty much a clone of the Voigtlander Brillant range. Going to try and keep the redscale as lomo as possible.

[yokohama]

Originally Posted by Kenzie

That's nothing Yoko, you should have seen inside my Fujica Auto M!

Even I can see there's something not quite right there.

[johnnyrod]

PS Kenzie, there may be small shims under the escapement. In the Konica there was a black triangular one with two holes that was from the end nearest the co-cking shaft, and another small black triangle with one hole from the other end (black screw). they just sat under the escapement and the mounting screws went through them.