Canon early f1 - back popped open

Hi to all,

I had a strange happening today. I use an early Canon F1 without the film tab holder on the back, and I use an Optech strap with it. I strap it across my self, and then swing it forward to take a shot, then put it back on my side. I ride a bicycle to and from the subjects that I find to shoot. On the way back from my photography, I heard a noise. I thought I'd dropped something, so I stopped immediately, and found my camera back had popped open. I had carefully loaded the film, and about 2 months ago, I put thru a roll of film thru with no issues. I've just put 2 rolls thru it since it's come back from Ken Oikawa. Has anyone had this happen?

Thanks

Over the decades I've gone through dozens of cameras (Leica R3, Canon F1, Nikon F2 and F3HPs, etc)

and I've never had a back pop open on me. I wonder what caused it.

The locking mechanism is pretty simple. As you know, you press in a release button then pull up the rewind knob to open the back. If you look at the edge of the opened camera back, you’ll see a sliding “bracket” in the body that engages a stationary latch on the back door. My guess is your camera body bracket is sticky and not fully engaging the back door latch. Maybe add a few drops of light oil to the sliding camera body bracket.

This is definitely not normal behavior-I'd probably call Mr. Oikawa and ask him about it. I wouldn't attempt any fixes myself without first talking to him, and letting him fix it if it's not 100% correct. It's been a long time since he's done any work for me, but I seem to recall a 1 year warranty-that would probably be void if you attempted a DIY fix not under his direction.

 

I could see it being the case that if he installed new light seals(which he likely did) that perhaps the back is difficult to latch all the way. Pro cameras like the F-1 are built with an interlock(press the button to pull up the rewind knob) for a reason and it's to make absolutely sure this doesn't happen.

Yes, he did install light seals, and I was wondering about the light seals being involved. I'll contact Mr. Oikawa and find out what he'd like to do. Thanks for all the advice.