Minox 35 TOURING / MB shutter speed timing

<p>I don't know why I continue to buy these little trouble prone cameras, but maybe it's the same reason my wife keeps me around? LOVE! Yes, I love the little buggers, but hate the nagging little things that go wrong with them. I have two EL's, one GT, one Kiev 35, and now a newly purchased Minox Touring camera(for next to nothing). All of these I have had to repair except the Russian. Go figure? I just bought the Touring/MB and the first thing I did was check the shutter, which seemed to be working, but I never checked it for slow speeds. Next, I put 12 exp roll (I roll my own) of Delta 100 B&W film in it and went shooting. I processed the roll and found the 10th frame blank and new I had the dreaded shutter/magnet problem. I then loaded a roll with 10 exp and shot it. This time they were all blank. Oh shucks! Well, there was only one thing to do and that was try to adjust and clean things up in the shutter department. I adjusted and cleaned things up and it now works, but then I developed another problem. My LED's in the view finder stopped working. Oh shucks again! I've only been under the hood of my GT so this Touring/MB would be a whole new ball game. I carefully tore it down, discovered the cause and fixed the problem. Whew! Now, it seems I have a shutter timing problem and may have had it all along and not noticed it. While the exposures seemed well exposed at moderate shutter speeds and apertures maybe all was not well. From what I have gleaned from this site and others is that the shutter speed should go down to 30 sec. if I have the ISO dial set at ISO 25 and the aperture at f16 when in low light. Well, I used those settings and covered my meter window and the slowest speed I can get is 4 sec. I guess I'll come right out and ask the question, "HOW DOES ONE ADJUST THE SHUTTER SPEED TIMING"? When I had the cover off I cleaned everything and removed the three screws holding down the small printed circuit board under the rewind knob. When you flip this board over there are three(if I remember right) TRIM POTS on the underside. I'm wondering if they have anything to do with the setting/lengthening/shortening the shutter speed? Or maybe it's under the face plate and window of the meter cell itself? All I know is that I need to see if I can get longer shutter speeds in very low light conditions. Can anyone steer me in a direction/link to help me figure out what does what on this camera? Martin or anybody? <br>

JohnW</p>

<p>John, have you check out<br>

<a href="/minox-camera-forum/00MCL2">http://www.photo.net/minox-camera-forum/00MCL2</a></p>

<p>Martin,<br>

I had already read through that one, but didn't find anything to address my problem of being 26 seconds to fast on the slow speeds. I should be getting 30 seconds or close to it at ISO 25 with the f-stop at f16 and the meter cell covered. I only can get 4 seconds or maybe 5 seconds sometimes. I sure would love to find a manual, but they seem to be scarce as hens teeth. I could send it in for repair, but will wait and see what the shots look like that I took today. In average light it seems to be close to what it should be, but in dim light it doesn't go slow enough. I might just take it back apart next weekend and ply with those trim pot's to see what happens. I'll keep you posted. John</p>

<p>John, the slow speed long shutter feature is not a specified feature, (so called "Undocumented" feature)I don't have manual at hand, but I remember, that the longest shutter is only specified as 1 second only.</p>

<p>Martin,<br>

I have no manual either and I was just assuming it would be as long as my GT or thereabouts. There I go assuming again! Somebody else has also informed me that the slowest shutter speed on the MB/Touring was not 30 seconds as on the GT. I'll do some more searching and let you know what I find.<br>

John</p>

<p>Well, I just found and pulled the manual up online and the slowest shutter speed at ISO 25 is said to be 4 seconds. So I guess I was worried about nothing. Well, we'll see how long this one stays up-and-running.</p>

<p>Few cameras have long exposure feature as Minox GT/GTE. For instance the longest shutter speed of Contax T2 is only 8 seconds. Contax T3 has extended exposure up to about 2 minutes, still far short GT/GTX. </p>

<p>Martin,<br>

I just automatically figured the MB or Touring model was newer and better than the old GT I have and would have at least the same shutter speed range. There I go again, assuming something. I processed another short roll of iso 100 film and things look just fine. JohnW</p>