film advance doesn't stop

[rachel_sekely]

hi. i was just taking some pictures with my ME super and noticed that i no

longer have to push the shutter button to make the film advance. five minutes

earlier it would only advance on a per picture basis. now i can advance

through the whole roll without taking a single picture. will this have any

effect on the pictures themselves? besides the three shots i just advanced

without clicking the shutter (curiosity) will the rest of the film still be

usable? do i need to have this repaired? thank you for any responses,

hopefully i worded this better than my exhausted mind feels like i did.

[Jochen_S]

I have only other Pentaxes, but this sounds VERY damaged to me. AFAIK Pentax never built cameras which cocked the shutter via the film sprockets. - Such a camera could behave as you told in case of a loading error or a film pulled out of the cartridge, but not a Pentax.

[andrewg_ny]

Though as you surmised it sounds broken, assuming that the film continues to advance (does the rewind knob turn as you advance film?) and that the shutter is still being cocked and firing at the appropriate speed, it would seem that the camera would still work. The broken part may just be an interlock that is designed to prevent wasted shots. From what you're describing I would guess that double exposure is probably not possible--the shutter wouldn't be re-cocked until operating the film advance lever.

 

If things are basically working as described above you'll probably just want to be careful about extra film advances; try to be in the habit of only advancing film immediately before you take a shot--and when you pick up the camera try to use without advancing first and only advance if the shutter doesn't fire.

 

That all being said, if the pictures you're taking now are critical, you might want to seek out an alternative.

[rachel_sekely]

hmm...now it miraculously seems to work right again. i was using it yesterday in flash mode (125x). perhaps that screwed things up?