Konica Auto S2 repair adventures + question

Dear Friends,

Yesterday evening I spread out my cheap screwdrivers and pliers in

front of me and installed the brand new loupe-lamp for a surgery on

the Konica S2 that I bought on payBay a while ago. The aim was to

take off the top cover to see why there was 1mm of play between the

right side of the chrome top and the camera body itself and to check

why the meter is a couple of stops off. I badly needed a success

after I partly ruined a $20 Nikon EL2 during my first 'serious'

repair attempt over the week-end. Here is the story and also a couple

of tips for those who have an S2 in need of CLA.

Following instructions on this and other sites I succeeded to remove

the top and discovered that the play was in fact in the square metal

platform over the counter/winding mechanism (tip 1). I tightened two

screws and checked if all the wires were still well soldered. I did

not touch the protected rangefinder unit which is clear and working

well enough anyway.

Next I took off the lens hood and the beauty ring around the lens,

removed the front lens component (easy!) and tightened the flat

serrated ring around the lens fitting to cure most of the lens

wobble. This also seems to have affect the tightness off the shutter

speed ring, which now needs more force to move. So I loosened the

tightening ring a bit in order to obtain a reasonable compromise (tip

2). The blue and the black wire to the metering cell seemed well

connected here too. When re-installing the beauty ring (with cell)

you need to make sure that the square hole of its perforated ring

mates with the ASA pin on the left side of the lens (tip 3).

Final intervention : taking off the bottom cover to check for dirt

and unsoldered wires. Everything seemed OK there but I glued a rubber

washer on the central metal plate that sits under the tripod screw

(tip 4) because there is quite a gap between those, where dirt can

easily get into the camera. Voilà!

Meanwhile it had become too late in the evening to replace the foam

strips in the back, so that will be the final thing to do. I did not

discover why the meter seems to be off, nor do I feel qualified to

start turning small potmeters if there are any (tip 5). I guess I

will simply have to run a test film through the beast and take a

handheld lightmeter with me.

And now the question : on inspecting the aperture blades from the

back I discovered that these would not fully open and only started

closing from f5.6 or F8 onwards. What a disappointment - after all

that work I would not be able to use the camera after all ! Then I

found that the aperture does indeed fully open when cocking the

shutter and then stops down to a calculated value when depressing the

shutter button halfway. After depressing the shutter button a couple

of times the aperture suddenly returns to its weird previous

behaviour... Is this normal for an Auto S2?

I hope this was interesting to someone and thanks in advance for your

thoughts. Images from the S2 to follow.

Quite a few of those cameras with shutter priority AE, i.e. automatic aperture, seem to suffer from this problem, and I experienced it myself with my Auto-S2.

 

You might be seduced to take off the shutter assembly (it is attached to the body by a big ring nut around the rear shutter collar) and rebend the closing spring of the aperture mechanism, but this might lead to problems since the springs in the AE mechanism are matched, i.e. maybe it will not work correctly then. It is better to separate the diaphragm assembly from the shutter and clean the blades as good as possible. But this is not a very easy job.

Thank you Winfried. I could perhaps try to remove the rear lens group from behind and gently wipe the iris blades? BTW, is the procedure for curing the loose lens barrel the same on a Yashica Electro 35 GSN?

You can try to wipe the blades, I hope that you'll be successful. Most lens barrels are attached to their mounting plates in a similar way, I think you will find a ring nut to tighten the lens barrel on the S2, too.

Bravo Benny! I applaud anyone who is not afraid to get into the guts of their classic cameras to get them working again. Gotta keep them out of the dump!<p>I have a GSN on the way myself and have been googling sites for repair info. If you haven't seen it, Matt Denton has a great page on fixing up the GSN <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/mattdenton/photo/cameras/electro_inside/index.html" target="_blank">here.</a>

James, thanks for the link. I knew Matt's site but not this particular page on the Electro 35 (perhaps it's a new addition?). Anyway, it is great info - just what I needed. I feel confident to tackle the wobbling Yashica lens barrel now. I can hardly wait to get home and open up the patient. Just a last tip to everyone : don't buy those cheap jeweller's screwdriver sets (a six-pack for $2.00). Perhaps you all knew that already - I know now. My Nikkormat EL has been scarred for life when one of those suddenly bent 90 degrees under pressure!

"Next I took off the lens hood and the beauty ring around the lens, removed the front lens component (easy!) and tightened the flat serrated ring around the lens fitting to cure most of the lens wobble. This also seems to have affect the tightness off the shutter speed ring, which now needs more force to move. So I loosened the tightening ring a bit in order to obtain a reasonable compromise (tip 2). "

 

You'll have to undo this again, and carefully turn the aperture selection ring, and you'll see a lever/pin around the 2 or 3 o'clock, and this pin needs to be in the right place, otherwise you'll get the problem you're describing. Then the aperture will work correctly.

Kin : Oh no, tell me it isn't true...

BTW, I did the same surgery on the Electro a few minutes ago, but the scalloped/serrated ring doesn't cure the lens wobble here. In the Electro you need to push that ring over a fixed little bump (unlike the Konica S2, where it is a fixing screw) and this makes it easy to scratch or damage the ring when you push it along with a srewdriver. So I am not tempted to take that ring off to dig further into the lens barrel. Patient released uncured.

Benny, I hope you're still following this thread. <i>Don't keep using your Electro with the lens wobbly.</i><p>I partially disassembled my fixer-upper Electro GSN and I think I know what's wrong with your camera. The front part of the lens is attached to the shutter and the shutter in turn is held onto the rear part of the lens with 3 or 4 screws. All of my shutter screws have fallen out so I can't be sure, but it looks like the screws come through from the back of the shutter (meaning they can't be tightened up from the front).<p>I've only recovered one of the screws so far, I think the rest are jamming the focussing helicoid. Those same screws are probably loose on your camera. It looks like the previous owner kept shooting the camera after the screw(s) came loose. One of the loose screws then got into the shutter blades and knocked them all off their pivots. So, if you keep shooting your camera, you could be looking at the same mess I have.<p>I haven't yet figured out how to access the shutter blade assembly without cutting all of the wires off(!!!), I think the access may be through the back and I'll have to remove the camera's front plate and the lens rear elements to get to them. Well, I'll have to do that anyways to retrieve the rest of the wayward screws. That's a project for another day.<p>BTW, my camera doesn't have any fixed bump blocking the scalloped ring.