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Agfa Isola aperture jammed


juierie

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<p>Hi All,<br>

This is my first time posting. I recently bought an <strong>Agfa Isola II</strong>. It looks new and in mint condition. However, The <strong>aperture blades</strong> doesn't seem to move. I guess the blades are<strong> jammed</strong>. I live in India. I have no way of getting the Isola repaired here. Has anyone had issues like these before? If yes, <strong>How can I fix it?</strong> I have never repaired any camera before. But I'm willing to try. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.<br>

Thank you all.</p>

 

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<p>What exactly happens when you press the shutter release? Are you able to depress it all the way down, and if so do you hear/see anything happen in the shutter? Can you see that the shutter blades are stuck completely open or closed (or perhaps part way)? Any difference if you set it to bulb (B) mode?</p>

<p>I have a few ideas about what might be going on depending on some of those kind of details, so let me know and I will see if I can point you in the right direction. The Isola II that I purchased a couple years ago had its share of issue too, and in the end I performed a complete overhaul of the thing, including tearing down and rebuilding the shutter. It really is a great little camera in a lot of ways, so I hope you will persevere in getting it working again.</p>

<p>Jeff</p>

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Hi Jeff, I went through the

camera to check again. I am able

to press the shutter all the way

through. Once I wind it, the

shutter is ready to release

again. But I don't see any

movement in the blades. I

released the shutter in bulb mode

and I saw no opening. I don't

know if the issue is with the

shutter blades alone or aperture

too. Thanks for the help.

 

-Rohan

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<p>Well that was the first thing I was hoping to hear - you know that you have to wind the film knob before you can actuate the shutter (due to the doube-exposure prevention mechanism). So that's a good start!</p>

<p>There are quite a few potential causes for the shutter blades not responding - something in the shutter mechanism jammed, a broken spring, the blades themselves might be popped off their pins, something broken in the linkage from the release button to the shutter, etc. In all likelyhood you will have to disassemble the shutter/lens assembly to troubleshoot the problem. But the last possibility I just mentioned is worth checking first: if you open the camera back and look into it while pressing the shutter release, you should see an inner barrel within the lens tube which rotates to trip the shutter. Is that happening? If not then there is a linkage problem in the shutter release mechanism, in which case the shutter itself may be completely fine.</p>

<p>In the end if you have to disassemble and repair the shutter to fix this, I can provide some guidance and tips, and might even have a picture or two of from when I overhauled mine. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.</p>

<p>Jeff</p>

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Hi Jeff, the inner barrel within

the lens tube does indeed rotate

but ever so slightly, maybe a

centimeter. I will be travelling

on a shoot for the next one

month. How about I msg you when

I'm back so you can share the

images and I'll go about fixing

it. Thank you for all the help

and your generosity with your

time. I appreciate it.

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  • 1 month later...

<p>Welcome back Rohan. It's a bit late at the moment for me to give a very detailed response, but while you're waiting you might want to have a look at <a href="https://www.flickr.com/groups/agfaisola/discuss/72157624213302904/">this post on Flickr</a>, which is what I just remembered was the reference I found before starting the repair on my Isola. Actually, there is some pretty good information in there that I had forgotten about! :)</p>

<p>Jeff</p>

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