nateseff

unfortunately i can't take it back anymore for a better repair, however, after watching a mat 124g repair video I'm wondering - is it something that might be causing the blades to stick together? If it were a gear problem, the shutter wouldn't 'fire' right? Which it does every time, just doesn't actually open the blades every time. It would be great to just have to get into the lens/shutter assembly and see if I can clean the blades - unless of course what's causing it to stick is where they all converge - then I would have to take it fully apart which, i would try to avoid if possible lol. once we get there it's a bit out of my wheelhouse

Thank you! It is somewhat comforting to know what to be looking for now. definitely feel like i wont be going in blind at least haha. if it is a broken spring or tooth, not sure what i can do but if it's just somehow off it's mount/post and displaced, then that'd be ideal and can be fixed. i dont have many extra parts laying around and definitely am not one that can fabricate any sort of parts so if it's something that's broken, guess im SOL... As for the medalist, the spring tension is bumped up by a little turning knob that puts additional pressure on the spring. that's what leads me to believe the shutter actuation completely finishes before the blades can even open as if they were stuck. was actually trying that same shutter earlier today and it wouldn't even fire on other slower speeds, giving me a half 'click' sound until finally it "unlocked' itself at 1/200 and after that everything was firing again.

This is probably what's going on with the Yashica. I've given up on the medalist - until i found another one the other day for a great parts price and ended up pulling the trigger. the body was destroyed but somehow the shutter seems intact! switched them out and it looks like i MIGHT have a working medalist. finally. fingers crossed though waiting for my film to arrive next week to test it out fully. As for the yashica, there's a good chance it could be something like that. in fact, im pretty positive since it's so finicky and it does seem to happen every other like 5 fires, which could make sense that it's a teeth issue. will i tear apart another to make this one work? good chance no, but im going to open it up regardless to see since i've already paid for a bad repair job. definitely won't buy another one - maybe i should just stick with the mat 124g. such a shame. Here's a clip of it dry firing, you can see how intermittent the blades are with the shutter actuation -

Probably not at all hahaha only reason why im fairly confident about the medalist diagnosis is because ive just about read everything i can and have watched every repair vid out there for it trying to get it to work again. it's my dream camera, 6x9 + durable design (apparently not this particular shutter though!) and apologies for the late reply, i got locked out awhile back and didnt find the reset email until today.

But nursing vintage gear back to health is why we're here! jk I definitely understand what you mean, probably would've saved a lot of money in the long run if i went this route but as someone who has a working mat 124g, i'd choose this over it time and time again if it worked properly. too much plastic in the new one. And agreed, it's pretty tough to find people who can service things properly especially for these older less known models. this, thankfully, shares most of the same design as the mat 124g so i was thinking it'd be straightforward. apparently not. Also apologies for the late reply, i got locked out awhile back and was just searching through my email today and saw photo.net did indeed send me a reset email.

Yea I might just need to never use 1/400 since all the other speeds seem to work without issue now. Originally when the Medalist came back to me, the shutter blades were COVERED in oil and would open slowly on most speeds and after a few fires, would work up to 1/200 (sometimes the blades wouldn't close all the way on slower speeds), but either wouldn't open at all for 1/400 OR open once or twice after those first few dry fires, and then lock up again. That's what led me to believe that the oil on the blades was causing the issue, so went into it and cleaned them up (other than the inner most assembly). I ended up taking the whole thing apart and it took me days to get it back together the right way. Once all the oil was out, ALL of the speeds worked for about two days every time I dry fired it. Finally, the day I took it out to shoot, the first dry fire at 1/400 the blades didn't open again, but after that it started firing again. To clarify, all of the actions/springs work - you can hear them all working every dry fire, and I could see them work when I had the shutter opened up. For whatever reason though, sometimes the blades just won't open on 1/400 even though everything sounds like it's working when it fires. So back to the Yashica - this seems like almost the exact same problem just on a different speed, and looks like there's no oil on it compared to the Medalist. The Yashica also sounds like everything works inside as you wind and cock it, but then when you fire the shutter the blades don't open only for that speed.

Good to know about that repair success rate - I'll definitely keep that in mind for future repairs should things go south. I've had a few cameras repaired by this guy that have come back fine, he also helped with my Minolta Super A which no one else could. It's a shame because the last few cameras (including the Kodak Medalist) I took to him were fixed about 95% of the way, but there was always just one thing off. He fixed my Rolleiflex and my Retina IIa and haven't (knock on wood) had any issues with them yet. There's definitely no chance he'd work on it again to fix for free, unfortunately it's not that type of repair shop. If it were a well known, reputable repair guy then yes I would 100000% send it back but that won't be the case here. I can get into the shutter and mechanics for the Yashica I might be able to fix it if there's a common issue with leaf shutters like this, I've actually fixed my Mat 124g before but it just needed some lubrication in a few spots once it was opened up. I just want to know if there could be another cause for the shutter failing to open on ONLY that speed and possibly 1/500th? Have had no issues on slower speeds. For the Medalist, it came back to me with a lot of oil on the shutter blades which is unfortunate, because extensive research has told me Supermatic no.2 shutters should always run dry. After I cleaned it up AFTER the repair, the shutter would always fire but the blades wouldn't always open up. I'd have to dry fire it a couple of times and then it started working on all speeds EXCEPT for 1/400th, where it would fire 2-3 times then just stop opening but you could hear the springs working. Since I've opened up the shutter all the way down to the blade assembly (couldn't get in farther because of a stuck screw), I can see that everything with the spring/functions that make 1/400th fire working, just the blades sometimes won't open for one reason or another. Once I cleaned the oil away, it fired every time for about 2 days then when it got cold, it stuck again on the first first but then opened for each shutter press after that. The ONLY thing that makes sense to me is that there's something on the shutter blades themselves that prevent them from opening just long enough for the entirety of the spring actuation. But on all the other speeds it's just long enough to unstick itself and open - so it seems.

Hi all, Thanks for any help in advance. I've acquired a Yashica 12 that was locked up, took it to be serviced, and now everything works minus 1/250th every now and again. I've had a similar issue with my Kodak Medalist at 1/400th, and nearly fixed the issue by removing the oil that was stuck on the shutter blades. Is this what's happening to my Yashica 12? I guess the better question would be, why do some leaf shutters simply not fire at higher shutter speeds? Is it because the blades are stuck for the duration of the spring movement? Looking forward to what everyone has to say - definitely not hoping to pay for another CLA.

It's probably stuck/broken in the pressed in position. I guess I'll have to let it be then, I definitely don't want to have to open it up if the piece can just sit 'freely' inside of the lens without issue.

This might apply to an older Takumar lens, I'm looking at it right now and as m42dave has posted it does have that little extra pin. That being said, when I move the switch off camera, it does go in and out (ever so slightly). So is it even broken? How come the switch wouldn't work off camera at first without forcing it if it still works after? Maybe it was jammed/stuck? But if that's the case then that goes against everything I know about the M - A switch on m42 lenses. Thinking maybe the pin's bent or something (if that's what it is inside) and then I suppose I won't need to open it up to take any broken pieces out. I just checked all apertures as well using B on Auto mode and everything works as it should. On manual mode everything opens and closes as it should both on and off the camera.

Thank you this is a great reference to have...unfortunately it doesn’t go into detail with th switch mechanism but definitely good to have in case I do need to open it up

Drives me 10000% crazy as well aha hoping it’s not broken. Thankfully it’s a lens I could somewhat easily replace down the line but optically it’s very clean and cosmetically it doesn’t have any scratches or dings so I don’t wanna have to go searching again for one as good as this one.

Haha noted! And everything still works, all apertures etc. the ONLY thing it won’t do is lock off camera in A anymore. I’m just hoping it isn’t a piece that can get lodged somewhere in the lens and cause a huge issue.

Driving right now but will get back to this - all good mentions (need to read more closely) BUT I should mention it was in A when I received it and it wouldn’t budge. NOW I realize I should’ve pushed the pin down or have attached it to a lens to switch it but I forced it to M and now it switches back and forth no problem AND still works as it should both on and off the camera, all except for it locking on A when off the camera. It’s a super multi coated Takumar

Hi guys, So being the frantic person I am, I forced the A and M switch on my Super Takumar 28mm f3.5 lens (otherwise in immaculate condition) and now it doesn’t stay locked in A when off a camera body. It works as it should on my Spotmatic, whether in M or A (aperture closes when shot). My question is this - what exactly did I break in the lens mechanism that prevents it from switching when not on a body? Is it worth taking apart to fix? I’m wondering if it’s a piece of metal that I bent or if it’s a plastic tab (if so, would it affect anything or should I remove it?) Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you