Help...Shutter Won't Trip When Using Shutter Cable

Hello,

I have an AE1-P that I have been using for over a year now, and a lot of what I

do requires the use of a shutter cable. In the last few months, I've noticed

that I've had to press down further on the shutter plunger to get the shutter to

release, and now, the shutter won't trip at all using the cable.

If I press the shutter release button with my finger it works fine, its just

when I use the cable.

Is this common?

Can it be easily fixed?

Are you always using the same cable? That sounds a lot more like the innards of your cable are screwed, not the camera. If a cable trip has too much elasticity when pressing it, it has problems. It could be bending inside, hence not transmitting the pressure to the camera shutter release. It could be the camera, for example, if the camera needs cleaning, the cable could not be strong enough to trip a shutter mechanism stiffened by dry grease, for example (the cable could have been damaged this way, now you'd have both problems) but if this was the problem, you should feel at least some stiffness when depressing the shutter release with your finger.

I've tried using another shutter cable and its the same result.

Its almost as if I've pushed whatever the shutter button pushes down too far and too often, that maybe its been worn down.

I wonder if this can be pried back up.

I heard once that A series Caonons have problems with sticky shutters and I was wondering if THIS was the problem?

 

Does the F-1 have any problems?

I may be wrong, but I am under the impression that the trigger is actually an electric one and not a mechanical one. In other words, when one uses a cable release one is completing an electric circuit and not actually pressing a mechanical button.

 

What this leads me to think is that a contact may be dirty. It may be that this can be cleaned with something like alcohol or lighter fluid. The problem will be getting into the part. The last thing you want to do is pour any liquid anywhere near the camera, but if you can manage to swab the contact with something like a cotton ball dampened with alcohol that may do the trick. The problem though, as I said, is getting something like that into the hole that the cable release fits into.