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Flx
Tinkerer
Username: Flx
Post Number: 1
Registered: 02-2010
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 27, 2010 - 09:24 am: | 
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I've recently acquired an old minolta x-700. Through the first roll everything worked just fine, but i accidentally advanced the film while the frame counter already was at 36 and i think that broke the shutter or something.. i didnt even notice, there was no unusual resistance or anything, but pressing the shutter release didn't do anything, nothing happened. i've rewound and removed the film as described in the manual, but still the film advance lever doesnt advance anything (it isnt locked either, it just swings around the full 130 or so degrees without any resistance at all) and the shutter won't fire. everything else is working fine, lightmeter, leds in the viewfinder.. batteries are fresh. i'd really love to get this camera into working condition again. any ideas how to repair this?
Thanks! |
Flx
Tinkerer
Username: Flx
Post Number: 2
Registered: 02-2010
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 27, 2010 - 09:44 am: |
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ok, found the solution myself: slamming the advance lever around really hard did the trick. it seems the shutter wasnt fully cocked and needed an extra tenth of a millimeter at the very end of the lever's range. i just hope i won't have to do this again, it might snap. Weird little camera. |
Mndean
Tinkerer
Username: Mndean
Post Number: 195
Registered: 08-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 27, 2010 - 09:48 am: |
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I don't think it has anything to do with the frame counter going past 36 - I've done that many times in my X-700. As long as you didn't force the lever at the end of the roll, I don't think you could do any mechanical damage. You may have just become a victim of the dreaded capacitor issue. |
Mndean
Tinkerer
Username: Mndean
Post Number: 196
Registered: 08-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 27, 2010 - 09:51 am: |
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Hm, it shouldn't do that, it should ratchet so that you can wind and cock in multiple short strokes. |
Flx
Tinkerer
Username: Flx
Post Number: 3
Registered: 02-2010
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 02, 2010 - 05:16 pm: |
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no, it all works again .. i've encountered the same issue twice since then and it really seems to be the film advance lever that needs to be pushed harder than i'd normally do on something as delicate as a slr camera. the last millimeter needs some heavier pushing, that's all. since there is some kind of resistance i'd stopped there and with the shutter not fully cocked i couldnt fire it. now that i know that everything works just fine, and it seems that it's getting smoother now that i've released the shutter around 100 times.
it would have been really weird anyway had it been the film counter going past 36, since that particular brand of film is good for at least 38 exposures on my kiev 4a, not counting two blank ones at the start of the film.
so, thanks for answering! everything's fine as far as my x-700's mechanical parts are concerned. |
Mndean
Tinkerer
Username: Mndean
Post Number: 197
Registered: 08-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 02, 2010 - 05:52 pm: |
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Good! I wonder if some grease has gotten hard and made the shutter cocking a bit difficult. Not heard that problem related to the X-700, but have on other cameras. |
Flx
Tinkerer
Username: Flx
Post Number: 6
Registered: 02-2010
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 03, 2010 - 08:07 pm: |
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that's quite likely. from what i can tell this specimen must be pretty old (price tag, packaging of the batteries that came along with it and all) and can't have been in use all that much. there are hardly any signs of use, no tiny scratches or anything. not even a single grain of dust anywhere on the whole camera. nothing. so i suppose it's spent a long time sitting on some shelf or in a drawer or the like. but apart from the problem with the rotten light seals everything seems to be ok, i got the first photos today and the quality is so incredibly far beyond anything i'd have expected, beats everything i've ever used, including some pretty expensive digital gear and one very recent canon film slr (don't know which model, but not exactly cheap). this camera (with the 50/1.7 lens) just plays in a wholly different league than my other gear, maybe not in terms of technology, but certainly in terms of what the pictures i take end up looking like. 'impressive' would be a brutal understatement. totally amazing. and that's just the first roll of film that i shot at the university at the bioinformatics department, which is a place that no sane person could possibly find attractive. amazing, just totally amazing. |
Mndean
Tinkerer
Username: Mndean
Post Number: 200
Registered: 08-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 03, 2010 - 09:43 pm: |
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It's a good camera, not as featureful as some of its contemporary MF cameras like the OM-4 or Canon T-90, but there are a lot of them out there, and they're not expensive. The seals breaking down are a bit of a surprise (mine isn't even close to breakdown), but different areas of the world seem to have conditions that encourage breakdown.
Now you have to get more lenses, a motor drive, and a good TTL flash. Great thing is none of those are too expensive either, unless you get some of the speedy/exotic lenses. Have fun with it. |
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