Canon F1 new sticky light meter needle

Hello everybody!

I own a beautiful F1 new, I bought it some 13 years ago at the Leica shop in Vienna.

It never showed any signs of failure, always very reliable and I travelled a lot with this camera, as it was my mein shooter for over 10 years. Recently I aquired also a Contax RTS II, so I don't use the F1 new that often anymore.

So it was last used in summer 2019 and sat unused in my camera shelf since that time. Yesterday I wanted to try it out again and I had to find out, that the meter needle does not react when you press the shutter button, but only if you give the F1 a slight shake or bump with your hand. After that the needle moves freely and fast, only to stick again if it drops down to its resting position.

The same happens when I press the battery level button, so I do not think it is a Problem with the metering circuit. It seems more like the galvanometer needle is a bit sticky at its resting position.

I had a look under the cover of the rewind side, and if you blow on the meeter needle it seems to move without any hesitation. So maybe a problem within the galvanometer?

Did anybody else encounter such a problem before?

I want to bring the camera to a technician, however it is not that easy to find a reliable tech-shop and even more difficult to find somebody with a lot of experience in Canon F1's.

Ken Oikawa is out of question unfortunately, as I would have to pay import taxes again when receiving the camera back from the US.

Thank you for your suggestions and tips!

Moriz from Vienna

I am just a user, I do not fix the cameras, so my suggestion is very naive: have you checked or replaced the battery? Weak battery often makes the camera "annoying". Also, the New F1, A1, AE-1 do not like being fed with weak batteries and letting sit around for a long time.

To help other members who are more technical, to be able to help you, please explain a few things: What is the "battery level button"? What do you really mean by "the same happens"? you "look under the cover of the rewind side"? How? you opened the top cover? you blew on the meter? How? could you touch the meter?

I am just a user, I do not fix the cameras, so my suggestion is very naive: have you checked or replaced the battery? Weak battery often makes the camera "annoying". Also, the New F1, A1, AE-1 do not like being fed with weak batteries and letting sit around for a long time.

 

To help other members who are more technical, to be able to help you, please explain a few things: What is the "battery level button"? What do you really mean by "the same happens"? you "look under the cover of the rewind side"? How? you opened the top cover? you blew on the meter? How? could you touch the meter?

Battery is fresh, contacts in battery compartment are clean.

The battery level button is.on the left side of the lens mount, it indicates your battery level by moving the meter needle in the viewfinder.

Because the needle is sticky when pressing this button I suppose it is not a faulty contact in the meter circuit.

And yes, I do have experience with repairing an F1 new, so I took off the wind side top cover and tried to blow out any dirt with a blow tool (those rubber things to blow dirt off lenses etc). I did not touch the meeter needle, as it is very fragile.

I do not know why but the manual said "Press the battery check button FOR ABOUT 3 SECONDS". Is that possible to make you feel the needle is stuck?

Hi,

my New F-1 (FN standard prism) seems to have the same problem. Sometime the needle doesn't move when I half press the shutter (as if it was sticky).

When I aim upward, the needle usually move on half shutter press.

When I aim downward, the needle often doesn't move on half shutter press.

It seems to work a little better recently, maybe the way of storage helps (left camera side down ?)

Hi Moriz,

never have had to deal with this issue. But this is what I would consider in an attempt to track it down:

Both, "battery check switch pressed" and "brightness value" are processed through IC2 and IC2 is then driving the meter. So the common components I would concentrate on are IC2, the galvanometer and the wiring inbetween.

I would unsolder the galvanometer wire and try to check the current flowing through the meter. I would also try driving the meter using a separate power supply. (A current flow of 459 microampere (microampere not milliampere!) at about 2V should drive the meter needle to "f8"). I would hope to understand whether to further look into the galvanometer or to continue with IC2 and SV board to main board connector.

Dirk

Hi Moriz,

 

never have had to deal with this issue. But this is what I would consider in an attempt to track it down:

 

Both, "battery check switch pressed" and "brightness value" are processed through IC2 and IC2 is then driving the meter. So the common components I would concentrate on are IC2, the galvanometer and the wiring inbetween.

 

I would unsolder the galvanometer wire and try to check the current flowing through the meter. I would also try driving the meter using a separate power supply. (A current flow of 459 microampere (microampere not milliampere!) at about 2V should drive the meter needle to "f8"). I would hope to understand whether to further look into the galvanometer or to continue with IC2 and SV board to main board connector.

 

Dirk

Hey, thank you all for the replies, somehow I did not get notified and forgot about this thread!

As Alain wrote, my meter needle also moves more freely or less depending on position of the camera (shooting up or down). That really makes me think it's rather a mechanical problem than electronic.

Thank you Dirk for your diagnostics! I have to say, I never was good with electronics and the few times when I tried to solder wires in a camera or a lens it did not end too well... I have the service manual at home, so I'll give it another look.

But I really already decided to bring the camera to my local repairman in february... however, I am not sure he will be able to repair this problem for a reasonalbe amount of money, als diagnosing is the main issue here I am afraid...

If the shop was able to fix it, please post how they did!

So, I just got the quote from the repair shop, it'll.cost me 330 Euros to fux and complete service. I did not talk to the repair man, but it seems the complete.galvanometrt has to be removed and cleaned.

The camera.is in really good shape though and buying another used one will set me back about 300 anyways, not knowing if it works accurately, so I'll go for the repair. Unfortunately not an easy fix and definitely nothing for me to try...