Help: Mamiya RB67 Pro S Cable release not closing lens shutter

Hello, I’ve been trying to take long exposures with my RB67 with mirror lock-up. I set the lens to mirror lock-up, screw the cable release into the lens, set my shutter to T, and then fire the shutter on the body. Then I press the cable release shutter and the lens shutter opens. So far, so good. But when I release the cable release, the lens shutter stays open. I read somewhere that you need to depress the cable release again. Tried that, still no luck. The only way I’ve found to end the exposure is moving the lens off of T mode. This is ok, but will still introduce some camera shake, which is not ideal. Is there a way to close the lens shutter with the cable release? Thank you!

This is from RB67 manual:

 

"Time Operation

 

1. By setting the shutter speed scale on T (time) and releasing the shutter, the shutter will remain open for an extended time exposure.

2. To close the shutter, turn the shutter speed ring toward the 1 sec. mark or press down the shutter cocking lever about 30 deg.

 

* Do not move the shutter cocking lever until just before closing the shutter.

* When the shutter is closed by the shutter cocking lever, the light baffle in the camera body drops slightly lower; however, since it is an extended time exposure, fogging over the actual exposure does not occur.

* When the shutter is closed by the shutter cocking lever, the lever is locked by the reverse motion stopper and does not return to its original position. When the shutter is cocked by further depressing the lever, the lever returns to its original position."

I THINK that the two methods depend on the lens and body in use. I'm not sure but I remember it that way.

 

If your exposures are only two or three seconds, turning the speed ring doesn't work well because of the potential for movement. However, if you are going to five or ten seconds, any movement in the short time it takes to close the shutter shouldn't be an issue.

 

You can also use the "bulb" setting which closes the shutter when you release the cable. This works great and you can get a locking cable release if that works better for you.

Hey oleksandrk, thanks for the reply. That’s definitely one way to end the exposure. But as per my post, I’m trying to see if there is a way to close the shutter with the shutter release cable. Even my K1000 allows the shutter release cable to both open and close the shutter. So it would surprise me if that’s not possible on the RB.

I THINK that the two methods depend on the lens and body in use. I'm not sure but I remember it that way.

 

If your exposures are only two or three seconds, turning the speed ring doesn't work well because of the potential for movement. However, if you are going to five or ten seconds, any movement in the short time it takes to close the shutter shouldn't be an issue.

 

You can also use the "bulb" setting which closes the shutter when you release the cable. This works great and you can get a locking cable release if that works better for you.

 

Hey Ed, thank you for the info. The “bulb” setting you’re talking about sounds exactly like what I need. I’m not seeing that on my lens though, just T, so I think that may be on one of their other lenses like you said. I have a 127mm Sekor C for reference, after some light googling it seems that the K/L lenses have the B mode. Very weird!

 

I think for now I’ll just be capping the lens and then turning the shutter speed dial to end the exposure. Thanks for the help!

When on T mode, you can also slightly depress the shutter release button a second time when you're ready to close the shutter to end the exposure.