michael_harris14

Definitely. I'm not really trying to fix it because it is the cheapest way, more because I like to see if I can fix things, I like to rescue things from the landfill when I can, and if nothing else it can serve as a learning experience for when I come across something truly worth the effort/expense and am able to fix it. Or to know that I certainly can't!

Thanks for that link, I'll check it out before I dive in again. This is an exact description of me with this camera, at least now that I know that it is likely "buggered" as Joe has said, and so I have nothing to lose. The worst that could happen is that I end up with a parts camera that is already partially disassembled. My FE still works fine (I'd say perfectly, but I've never actually timed the shutter speeds), so I'll just use that.

That's weird, I shot them in landscape. I guess I didn't pay close enough attention to how it uploaded. Thanks for the multiple exposure tip, unfortunately it doesn't seem to be that. I've also tried to play with the self timer a bit, because I had also thought perhaps it hadn't quite finished winding down and that was why the shutter curtain couldn't catch. As far as I can tell, the self timer winds all the way down, but I'm not sure how I'd confirm that. I did give it a little helping pressure once it had stopped, but it didn't go any further.

Yeah, the 58 1.2. Thanks for the encouragement that it isn’t too complex. Can you tell me if the angle on the smaller pin is normal, or if it got bent somehow? I think you can see it in at least one of the pictures.

Are the video links in the first post working? One is of the mechanism under the baseplate as I advance the lever. I don’t see anything obviously wrong, but I don’t know quite what I’m looking for. Most of what I had found online was for one or another of the electronic shutter models, and so was different. Do those of you who have had these open before see anything apparent?

Interesting. Still worth playing with to see if I can loosen it up, but maybe I’ll think twice or be careful putting it on my FTb. Thanks for that explanation. I played around with it a bit, and I have been able to move the larger lever. It's a bit stiff, but it will move. I think I hear something trip then when I move the smaller lever, but the larger lever doesn't return, and nothing happens with the aperture blades. It isn't that they don't stop down, it is that they are stuck at f/11 or so. don't take that aperture value as gospel, that's just me guessing. Not near as tight as you'd expect at minimum aperture, but pretty tight. Definitely not open to f/1.2 It hadn't struck me until I read this, but this lens behaves differently from the only other two-ring lens I have used (which is an old Takumar lens). On that one, the manual ring (the one that actually moves the blades) will stop when it gets to the same stop the first ring is set at. I've assumed that this was so that you could set one ring at the aperture you wanted to shoot at, focus at full aperture, and then stop it down without having to count clicks or take your eye away from the view finder. basically, the two rings won't pass each other, and in fact you can (although I've always avoided doing it) push both using just one or the other ring. On this Canon lens, the rings pass each other without any change in feel. ++Is that the way it is supposed to be, or does that indicate something has decouplled?++

I tried that first. Most of the advice centers on prying the mirror loose from the goo, which isn’t my situation. Googling about the advance lever returns information about cameras that won’t advance, again, not mine.

Thanks for reminding me of that. I should have mentioned, the mirror isn't stuck in that sense. I can gently pull it down slightly and it goes right back up. I just tried releasing it using the lever inside the mirror box and that works (didn't a couple of days ago) but I can still advance repeatedly. I should refoam it, but there does still seem to be a deeper mechanical issue somewhere.

This Nikon FM (thrift purchase) was supposed to partner with my FE, but it has a few (maybe really just one?) problems. The mirror is stuck up (no pic, didn't figure it would be helpful) I can advance the advance lever repeatedly without firing the shutter. As you can see in the video of the rear of the camera, when the advance lever returns from a full pull, the curtain goes back where it came from, basically, it doesn't "catch." And, well, pressing the shutter button doesn't actually do anything, I'm assuming because it is never cocked? I'd welcome any advice. This will be a "slow repair," meaning that it will be sitting on my bench, but I will only intermittently be sitting at my bench. I hope those of you who are gracious enough to offer advice will be patient with the fact that it may take me a few days to getting around to implementing it and asking the inevitable follow up questions! I'm inserting links to two videos, hopefully that will work. https://i.imgur.com/FRQ6Jes.mp4 https://i.imgur.com/jZgWM1B.mp4

Posting here because it seems like the closest match, after all, apparently you can use R lenses on at least some FD cameras. I can't seem to find much information about the R mount, or at least I can't filter it out from the noise ever since Canon reused the letter R recently. The reason I am looking is because I bought an R lens, but the aperture blades are stuck closed. The aperture lever doesn't move. The aperture rings do, but they don't affect anything. The other pin on the back is looks bent, but not having seen another example, I'm not sure what it is supposed to look like. Here are a couple of pics:

Sadly, I was supposed to meet him Sunday afternoon, but it sold Sunday morning. I think though that I've added the EF to the list of cameras that I'd kind of like to get my hands on (assuming I can get one for a deal like this one). Seems like a really cool camera, with a lot of advantages in spite of potentially glitchy electronics. Thanks for the advice, all.

I am meeting someone to look at an EF, but don't have proper batteries to check it out. My understanding is that the camera operates mechanically on speeds faster than 1 second and so doesn't need a battery. I don't want to buy a door stop, but I also don't want to cheat him or spook myself out of a good sale. Am I correct to understand that if I operate the camera in manual and set the shutter speed to something faster than a second with the aperture manually set that I should be able to release the shutter and advance at will? I know in cameras like the AE-1 or AE-1 Program that I can't do anything without a battery up to strength, which is why I'm curious. Seller says that he hasn't been able to test it because he doesn't have batteries (which would be valid for an AE-1) so: my current understanding is that if I cannot operate the shutter without a battery at, say F/4 1/250, the camera is busted and I should walk away. Is that correct?

The first guy I talked to was surprised that I was able to put the plate in backwards at all, in fact he got a Manfrotto head from the display and showed me that you couldn't even insert my plate into the head backwards. It just wouldn't go in at all. He called another guy up from the back who said that when my model first came out you could do that, but there was a slight design change fairly early on making it impossible. I just have one of the early versions.

I may end up doing that too. In the meantime I did what I should have done in the first place but for some reason didn’t occur to me: I went to an honest to goodness camera shop. They looked at it and said it all seemed secure enough to them, and that there was no reason against using it “backwards” since my model head will allow that (current ones don’t, apparently that was a characteristic of the period when mine was made). I was fully prepared to by yet another plate if they said there was one that was more correct, but they advised that I was fine as is. It will be a sad day when these places all close and we’re stuck with Amazon or whatever Best Buy it Walmart stocks.

I got the real one. The major problem of the d ring sticking out to much when a camera was mounted is totally taken care of. Manfrotto designed it right, the knock off doesn’t even try. Strangely though, it still fits onto the head about the same as shown in the two pictures. And it still clamps down more when mounted “backwards” that is to say when the “lens” arrow on the underside points to the back of the tripod. I’m fairly confident that I have the correct plate—it’s the same one they show for the 141rc on their web site. Is that second pic clamped on enough? I can’t think that it makes any difference if I put the plate onto the camera backwards, allowing me to get that more solid clamping—am I missing anything?