On 8/29/05, Scott Loveless <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Howdy gang! > > A coworker, Ashley, purchased a Honeywell SP500 at a thrift store over > the weekend. Cosmetically, it's near perfect. No dents, no bright > marks, all the paint is intact. The shutter is consistent, if not > accurate, the film advance works well, the interior is clean. She > paid $4 for it (count 'em, four)! But the mirror stays up. When I > move a little lever out of the way the mirror can be pulled down, but > it springs back up. Any thoughts on adjustments or simple repairs > that may correct this? I'd really like to save this little beauty. > (A big thanks to Mark for making the service manual available. > Unfortunately, I'm just a bit too dense to make sense of it.) >
Scott, I've got an SP500 and a couple of SP's. What you described happened to one of them, and it was a jammed shutter. Even though the shutter appeared to complete it's travel, a small film chip was caught somewhere in the film mechanism preventing completion of the cycle. Since the shutter didn't complete it's cycle, the mirror stayed up. I was told that a CLA would cure it, which it did. It's worked fine ever since. I'm sure that since she paid only $4 for it, she won't want to pay $100 (or whatever) for a CLA at a reputable shop, but really, any camera that old needs one anyway. No guarantees that it will solve the problem, but I bet it will. <g> BTW, tell her about the "phantom 1/1000th" shutter speed. It's there, it's just not marked. Great story, if you (or she) are interested. cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
