>>Right, my Mrs took her MX out on a photo trip to Oxford with one of her >>students and his Minolta <blech>. She was disappointed to discover that >>one of the rolls of film had about a dozen frames with nothing exposed! >>Not even the hint of a frame line, nothing on the neg, not even a hint of >>light. Yet after that, the exposures are fine. What gives? >> >>She remembers taking the shots, so she could see the subjects and so the >>lens cap was not in place on the front <g>. Nothing overtly untoward was >>experienced, hence the mirror appeared to pop up and back when the >>shutter was pressed. Hence I thought that the shutter itself might be >>faulty, not firing when requested. I checked out the camera just now and >>it appears to be working perfectly.... > >I'd definitely check the shutter. Perhaps the shutter curtains are >moving together (rather than sequentially) so there's no gap between >them. I've seen this with other horizontal cloth focal-plane shutters.
also >Sounds like the shutter. Open the back and take a few shots at different >shutter speeds. See if the shutter opens properly below and above >1/60th. If you look through the shutter (and lens) from the back while >you do this it will be obvious if there's a major problem. Thanks Mark. I took the lens and back off and fired it at all speeds inc B and it appears okay... It's the first time it's done this, so sticking shutter could be the fault - tho intermittent. She tells me that she used a 50mm and a 35mm. Hang on...more info coming in...she says that before the clear frames, there was a B and W roll in the camera that had been in there for some months (so the camera hadn't been used for all that time) - she finished that roll off - about 6 frames left - took it out, put in the colour neg, then the clear frames. The B and W is waiting for development - what's the betting that if I put the B and W through the soup, the last 6 frames will be clear? It would more or less prove a sticking shutter, eh? > > . now assume the camera *is* faulty. > >> >> Cheers, >> Cotty > >Should that not be,*ist faulty.:-) > >Dave(sorry) (Three Stooges - Mo - accent): Oh, a wise guy huh?? :-) >I have played with the insides of a couple of MX's, and the shutter release >assembly is very much of a knife-edge type arrangement. The tiniest bit of >misalignment of the shaft that's pushed by the shutter release, and the >shutter will go off but the mirror won't lift. It's possible that the >linkage in your wife's camera is a bit loose, and shaking puts it in/out of >alignment. Thus, it could fail to work for several shots, and be OK again >later. Aha! I wondered about this. And it would block off enough light to produce a clear frame? She didn't notice that the mirror had any problems lifting - although now she is not certain - could be.... >The good news is that it shouldn't be too hard to fix yourself if you open >the camera up carefully. HAAAAAAAAR! Might be a good time to add a few switches here and there - maybe a digital back.... >Are you sure the mirror went up??? I have discovered that the MX has a [snip] >I suggest you use the MX making sure you wind on fully to the stop every >time and see if the problem disappears. With patience you can induce the >fault by deliberately winding on to just before the stop (this is very >fine but strangely very easy to do when you're winding on for real) and >then firing the shutter (if you can't fire it, wind on just the tiniest >bit more) if you get it 'right' you'll hear the click of the shutter but >the mirror sound and movement will be absent. Interlock appears okay - just tried it. Mirror lifting okay, shutter appears normal, but it's been cfired loads of times in a few days now. I'm beginning to suspect a sticking shutter after prolongued inactivity - bit like me really... >Ah... final someone raise this strange behaviour of MX. I discovered this >few months ago after 2 skipped exposures in one roll. After inspecting the >mechanism in detail, I believe this is a design flaw which could only be >minimized, but not elimated. To simulate the problem, set the shutter speed >to the lower speed, say B or 1s. Wind the film very slowly until you hear >the 1st "click" (the orange indicator in place) and stop instantly, then >fire the shutter. If you wait till the 2nd "click", the mechanism was >properly winded and the shutter will act "normally". I tried the above Alan, and it appears to work fine. At the first click (orange indicator flips in) and fire, the mirror pops up and the shutter operates. The interlock seems okay. Thanks to all who have replied. PS - 1 and 1/2 bottles??? My God Anton, I could when I was younger - that would put me under! <g> Cheers, Cotty ___/\__ || (O) | People, Places, Pastiche ||=====| www.macads.co.uk/snaps _____________________________ Free UK Mac Ads www.macads.co.uk
