Konica Auto S3 meter stuck

Hello!

 

I bought an Auto S3 recently - very happy as i wanted one ages ago and never got around to finding a good one.

 

It arrived, wobbly lens as expected (any tips welcome) - with the rangefinder slightly off, and lots of dust inside the VF. Fixed all these things, put new light seals in. It's now basically like new.

 

Then, I dropped it on the carpet, from knee height. A very soft landing. But it's ruined.

 

Meter through the VF says T4.0 all the time. If I shake it a little sometimes it changes and says another stop for a while. The aperture always opens to the same place no matter where I'm pointing it - maybe 2.8 or something. Battery change does nothing. Changing shutter speed from 500 all the way to ⅛ does nothing. Always the same aperture.

 

I was about to take it back apart in the hope the needle was just caught on something. But the fact the aperture is always closing to the same stop makes me confused what could be the problem.

 

Id love to hear this is fixable. It seems quite illogical to me.

 

Hope you guys can help! And thanks for reading :)

It sounds like the meter is a trap needle type. The needle is trapped at the correct value and that value is transferred to the aperture mechanism. So an unresponsive meter will give an aperture at whatever the needle indicates regardless if it's correct or not. The fix is to unstick the meter, which may be difficult. Have a look and see.

The trap needle system was used on many shutter priority fixed lens rangefinders. I hope you can get the needle unstuck.

Thomas Tomosy's second book on camera repair has a section on the Konica Auto S2, which also used a lock-needle auto exposure system. Though a different camera design, the information may be close enough to be helpful.