| Author |
Message |
    
Aoal An
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 08, 2005 - 07:34 pm: | 
|
Hello group,
I am new to this group and am asking advice for a friend and myself.
I have a feeling that the problem I am about to describe may very well be a "simple fix", although I could easily be wrong about that.
Anyway, sure am glad I found this forum.
My friend found a Minolta 9 rangefinder for $3.50 at a used "stuff" store. Absolutely Beautiful camera! (for the price -not a Leica for sure)
The shutter and thumb wind worked for a few times and then just quit. He may have done something to the controls that caused it to lock up. I was not there.
He bought a new battery and the meter works but the shutter still will not work.The thumb wind lever will not move now either.
Most disheartening!
Also, it is missing one of the two screws that hold the baseplate on. Any ideas where one might be found?
Any thoughts or advice on the shutter or missing screw would be most sincerely appreciated.
Ps: I found a scan of the instruction manual for it but found nothing I felt that explained the shutter and thumb wind not working. It was a bit hard to read so maybe I missed something. |
charlie
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 09, 2005 - 05:54 am: |
|
Is there film in the camera? Some older cameras need film to work. On the other hand the missing screw makes me think someone took the baseplate off, probably because of a problem. |
Scott in Taipei
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 09, 2005 - 09:02 am: |
|
Hi,
I have a Hi-matic 9, too, and have gotten some really nice images with it. For a consumer-grade camera, it is a quite well-engineered camera--which, I'm sure, is the reason there are so many of them around.
If the wind mechanism is jammed, the most likely (but not only) reason is that the shutter blades have become stuck shut. The shutter was stuck on mine when I bought it, and I had to clean the blades before I could use it. From my experience, this is by far the most common problem for cameras with between-the-lens metal blade shutters...which is why it is also the most-discussed repair procedure on this forum.
And this camera is not the kind that needs film in the camera for the shutter to "work". Now that I think of it, I've found that characteristic only in German cameras, not in my Japanese cameras.
So, very likely, the blades just need to be cleaned a bit, and then you will have a working camera again. To get a basic idea of what's involved, start by reading through the "Canonet Blade Cleaning" article in the "Camera Articles" section of this site.
I don't think there's a whole lot that can go wrong under the base plate, unless someone has done some damage while trying to fix it. So I don't think it's likely that your problem is there.
To get spare parts like screws, just buy another similar camera (in any condition). Probably almost any Minolta 35mm camera made in the early 60s will have screws of the same size.
If you run into problems, then just post more questions! |
WernerJB
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 09, 2005 - 12:50 pm: |
|
There's lots of info on this type of camera in this forum available via its "keyword search" ! |
Aoal An
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 09, 2005 - 05:21 pm: |
|
Thank you all!
I shall dig into it and see if I can fix it.
A very nice camera it is. |
charlie
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 09, 2005 - 06:26 pm: |
|
(As an aside) Unfortunately German cameras also have the fault of being able to be operated without film. My Leica M and Retina IIa will seem to function normally with no film in the camera or the film not engaging the take up spool. The only clue is that the rewind shaft is not rotating when the advance is opoerated. |
|
