Bronica GS-1 Shutter problems

[travis_bushue]

<p>I have a Bronica GS-1 that seems to be having shutter problems. The camera has a non-metered prism finder, a 120 back, and the Zenzanon PG 100mm lens. This camera has been trouble free for me for about three years now. I have not used this camera in a few months, and took it out to shoot some studio work recently. This is when I noticed the shutter seems to be stuck at the 1/500th speed no matter what the shutter control is set to.<br>

With correctly loaded film in the back, the back mounted correctly, dark slide removed, lens cap off, power to the "on" position, half pressing the shutter release causes the prism finder led's to blink at the appropriate speed as selected on the body. There is also a solid lit led to the right of the blinking speed led's.<br>

With the camera in this operating condition, mounted on a tripod, and a shutter speed selected to 16 seconds, it is very obvious that the shutter does not stay open as the speed was selected for 16 seconds. After some research on this I have not turned up much information on what could be the source of this problem.<br>

The corrective action that I have taken was to replace the battery with a brand new one even though the previous battery measured 6.3vdc. I have also removed the prism finder to inspect all the contacts as well as the contacts on the film back. I am really at a loss what could be the cause of this problem when all the operating conditions are correct, and the only failure symptom is a very fast shutter operation.<br>

I would certainly welcome any suggestions for things I may have not known about this Bronica before I ship it off to be repaired by the shop.<br>

Thanks in advance...</p>

[jerry_staniszewski]

<p>Travis-<br>

There are a few more things you might want to check before sending it off to repair. The solid led light next to your shutter speed is a warning light and would indicate something like your dark slide being inserted, film not advanced or completely exposed, lens not fully attached, or shutter not cocked. Now that I think about it though, the shutter should not release in any of these cases. Are you using the MLU? I had a similar problem with my GS1 but it involved the MLU. I never figured out what was wrong and it has since corrected itself. Have you tried removing the back, flipping the multi-exposure lever and running through your shutter speeds that way to see what's going on inside. I'd be interested in hearing about what the actual problem turns out to be. Good luck.</p>

 

[travis_bushue]

<p>Hello Jerry,</p>

<p>While I have been having this problem I have not used the MLU feature. I just set the MLU feature and no change to my symptoms at all. The shutter speed flashes in the prism with the speed that is selected on the body, but the shutter still fires the same fast speed. <br>

You mentioned something about the multi-exposure feature so I also tried this. When the multi-exposure lever is positioned to allow multi-exposures, the shutter fires the same, however, the solid lit LED goes out. This makes me wonder if an interlock on the back is contributing to this fault in the single exposure mode. Unfortunately I only have the one back for this camera so I cannot try another back.<br>

I may hunt up another back to see if it will change my symptoms any. What puzzles me the most is that this happened while the camera was sitting dormant. I process my own films, and certainly would have noticed huge exposure problems with my film if this was happening the last time I used it. Thanks for the suggestions Jerry.</p>

[jerry_staniszewski]

<p>The fact that your prism shows a different speed than it's actually firing at makes it sound like there's a bad connection somewhere, but I don't think it would involve the back. Back to my suggestion regarding the multi-exposure lever, can you fire the shutter with the back removed and multi-exposure flipped (so you can wind and reset the mirror)? If it continues, that would eliminate the back as the cause of the problem. Again, good luck.</p>

[travis_bushue]

<p>I think I misunderstood your suggestion before. When I set the multi-exposure lever I did not remove the back to see if the symptoms changed. When I did that test it was with the back still attached, and the symptoms didn't change. I will give that a try and see if I can fire the shutter without the back on the body.<br>

I think I also didn't describe the LED scenario well. The LED readout in the prism matches every shutter speed that I select on the body. I did check all the shutter speeds to verify that the LED readout matched them all. So in that respect, the only failure is that no matter what shutter speed is selected on the body, and displayed in the prism LED's, the shutter fires at the fastest speed.<br>

Thanks again for your suggestions.</p>

[travis_bushue]

<p>Jerry,</p>

<p>With the multi-exposure level set, the back off the body, the shutter fires as before. No matter what speed is selected on the body, the shutter fires at the same fast rate as before. I suppose this can effectively eleminate the back as the source of this problem.<br>

Just for the sake of testing, I did remove/unseat the lens and the prism to ensure they were in the correctly seated positions as well as the aperture being set firmly on a detent. I checked all the shutter speeds to make sure the symptom was consistent and it is. <br>

Thanks again for your suggestions.</p>

 

[dave_wilson1]

<p>You might have some light condensation or corrosion making a residue on the lens body contacts. Hold the lens mount button in and rotate the lens back and forth a few times in the mount so the contacts of lens and body can cross ove each other a few times, this may resolve the problem. If not, use a soft Q Tip cotton swab and clean all the contacts with some alchohol or high grade contact cleaner. DO NOT use anything like emery cloth, sand paper or small files to clean them. Of course, evaluate everything carefully and use your own best judgement on this, or go to a repair shop. Keep us posted</p>

[travis_bushue]

<p>Dave,<br>

Thanks for the suggestion. I did as suggested and rolled the lens back and forth exercising the contacts without romoving the lens itself. The symptoms have changed a little, but it's still not operational. I did remove the lens and clean the two sets of three contacts with isopropyl alchohol. The problem still exists.<br>

The change to the symptoms is this; when allowing the camera to sit for 10 minutes or so, the shutter will fire correctly on the first or second try, but then will not fire at the slower speeds selected until it is turned off for a while. The condition of the camera while trying this is to have the multi-exposure lever set, darkslide out, power on etc. The battery that is in the body is two days old, and measures 6.3VDC. The previous battery that measures 6.28VDC does not change the symptoms at all.<br>

With respect to the lens, and body contacts for the lens, those are bright gold and I cannot detect anything on them when using magnification to view them. When installing the lens, it is smooth and does not bind at all. The lens snaps into the lock position firm and crisp. There does not seem to me any play or slack present when the lens is locked onto the body.<br>

At this point I am ready to box it up and send it off to be checked out. Thanks for all the suggestions.</p>