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Adrian
Tinkerer
Username: Adrian
Post Number: 224
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 22, 2009 - 05:34 am: | 
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I've just borrowed the mother-in-law's (no jokes!) camera - being an ecologist by trade, she has a very nice macro lens, and now that spring flowers are appearing... It's a Centon DF-300, a Minolta x-370 licence-built in China.
Unfortunately I think the meter has gone belly up, but I thought I'd check here in case anyone has a solution, or if there are any "gotchas" that might produce the same effect. In short, according to the instructions, in Auto mode there's a little red LED in the viewfinder that points upward and flashes to indicate over-exposure (paired with another pointing down for under-exposure). In manual, the speed set will flash and you should get a steady bar showing the meter reading. That's not lighting at all, whilst in auto the LED blinks whatever the light and aperture setting shutter just trips at what sounds like 1/1000 all the time.
I've tried new batteries (fresh from the pack), I've cleaned the contacts, removed and re-mounted the lens, with and without film - everything I can think of - with no joy.
Has anyone any bright ideas, or is it out with the hand-held lightmeter?
Adrian |
Msiegel
Tinkerer
Username: Msiegel
Post Number: 83
Registered: 03-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 22, 2009 - 06:24 am: |
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Hi Adrian,
have a look at that site:
http://www.geocities.com/eskoufos/fmm.html
You can find a x-300/X-370 service manual there. It's about 110 pages and has quite a large trouble shooting part naming all kind of misbehaviour and possible causes. Detailed drawings of the circuits are included. Maybe it helps.
Regards
Martin |
Adrian
Tinkerer
Username: Adrian
Post Number: 225
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 22, 2009 - 08:35 am: |
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That's great, Martin, thank you very much. I'll see if I can find a fix. Failing that, the original Minoltas aren't expensive on you-know-where, and the Centon version is even cheaper.
Adrian |
Msiegel
Tinkerer
Username: Msiegel
Post Number: 84
Registered: 03-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 22, 2009 - 01:33 pm: |
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You're welcome.
My clone is labelled Carena SX-300 - just in case you need another search string for you-know-where.
Martin |
Harlee
Tinkerer
Username: Harlee
Post Number: 47
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 22, 2009 - 05:38 pm: |
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Does your 370 clone advance the film or is it locked up - can't trip shutter, can't advance the film. You might try this. Remove the bottom plate and on the left side try and move some gears while advancing the film lever and/or pressing the shutter button. This will fire the shutter so you can advance the film. My Vivitar V50 [Chinese clone of 370] sometimes locks up and thats what I do to free it up. It's worth a try! Once they work, they do just fine. |
Adrian
Tinkerer
Username: Adrian
Post Number: 226
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 23, 2009 - 03:43 am: |
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Harlee, as far as I can tell without actually shooting a roll (I've put a junk roll in to check whether it needed film in, and it wound on OK) everything works except the meter.
So Minolta made them under two names... Then there's Centon, Carena, Vivitar V50... Is this the most cloned camera ever, I wonder?
Adrian |
Msiegel
Tinkerer
Username: Msiegel
Post Number: 85
Registered: 03-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 - 08:52 am: |
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..and of course Zenit DF-300 (quite popular in South America) Revue DF-300 and various Seagull versions (DF-300 and others). Most of the Chinese clones come from Seagull and it looks like they stuck every label on them the customer wanted.
Minolta had the habit of naming models differently for different markets.
X-300 (Europe) - X-370 (USA)
x-500/x-570 (as above)
XD-11 (USA) = XD-7 (Rest of the world)
Or even the later autofocus cameras
Maxxum (USA) - Dynax (Europe)
Sometimes confusing - as there are a lot more than the above examples. |
Adrian
Tinkerer
Username: Adrian
Post Number: 227
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 - 12:40 pm: |
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Ow! I make it 16 possible failures that could cause the symptoms, according to the instructions - and I haven't been near a PCB with a soldering iron since I built a radio at school.
I think it's going to get used in manual mode with a hand-held lightmeter and, if she wants it sorted (luckily she rarely uses it - though that might be why it's died) I'll hit ebay. At least I have no shortage of brands to search for! |
Harlee
Tinkerer
Username: Harlee
Post Number: 48
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 - 06:46 pm: |
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I'm curious Adrian, will our shutter trip and can you advance the film? Very often, the 370 clones have a habit of locking up and you have to dislodge the gears so that you can trip the shutter and advance the film. If that's the case with your clone, the meter may be OK, but you may have to dislonge the the locking mechanism by moving a pawl which presses up against a winding gear. This will free up the camera, IF that's the problem! |
Leesobing
Tinkerer
Username: Leesobing
Post Number: 13
Registered: 01-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 - 11:41 pm: |
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it may be electrical Capacitance may be problem since CHinese's no so good compare with Japanese in end of 80's to 90"s frist.
the out of order electrical Capacitance will affected the shutter does not work. |
Adrian
Tinkerer
Username: Adrian
Post Number: 228
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - 08:04 am: |
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The shutter does work, and it does wind the film - I've just unloaded the film, set it to 1/4, and there is no doubt at all that the shutter opens and closes, and the mirror flaps, as they should. It seems to just be the meter that's misbehaving, nothing else. It sounds as though I've managed to find a unique malfunction - just my luck! |
Adrian
Tinkerer
Username: Adrian
Post Number: 233
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 10:34 am: |
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Well, I've just got a roll of film back with 20-odd perfectly exposeed negs, one a little under-exposed, and two weird ones that I think might be a problem with the scan before printing. So the shutter definitely works, and my hand-held metering isn't too far off either. |
Msiegel
Tinkerer
Username: Msiegel
Post Number: 87
Registered: 03-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 12:33 pm: |
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Good news then.
rgds
Martin |
