Author Topic: Help me fix my Himatic7! (was: basic repair question)  (Read 15062 times)

Indofunk

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Re: Help me fix my Himatic7! (was: basic repair question)
« Reply #50 on: September 25, 2014, 05:21:25 PM »
I'm not sending my Leicas to you for a CLA

 ;D why not? For you, special deal! I'll only lose 6 screws!

gsgary

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Re: Help me fix my Himatic7! (was: basic repair question)
« Reply #51 on: September 25, 2014, 05:40:16 PM »
I'm not sending my Leicas to you for a CLA

 ;D why not? For you, special deal! I'll only lose 6 screws!
I'll send my Zorki 4:D

Bryan

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Re: Help me fix my Himatic7! (was: basic repair question)
« Reply #52 on: September 25, 2014, 06:13:35 PM »
The entertainment value of this thread is great.  Will it end with pictures from the Hi-matic 7 or pictures of the Hi-matic 7 in the dumpster.  Stay tuned for the dramatic conclusion. ;D

gsgary

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Re: Help me fix my Himatic7! (was: basic repair question)
« Reply #53 on: September 25, 2014, 06:24:41 PM »
I think it will end in tears

02Pilot

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Re: Help me fix my Himatic7! (was: basic repair question)
« Reply #54 on: September 25, 2014, 06:40:18 PM »
OK, I looked at the photos again and have a little better concept of how that shutter works. The first plate you removed controls the speed. The ring cocks the shutter. The slow speed escapement and the self-timer constitute most of the gears you see in there - they are not the problem, as they are not in play here. If you don't have the speed selector plate in place, do that first; at least then you have some idea what to expect from the shutter when you fire it, and it may even serve to position something else relevant to the basic operation of the shutter. Make sure it sits flush (in Compur shutters it's possible to end up with it off-kilter resting on the B lever if you don't set it down in the right spot) and in the correct orientation.
Any man who can see what he wants to get on film will usually find some way to get it;
and a man who thinks his equipment is going to see for him is not going to get much of anything.


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Indofunk

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Re: Help me fix my Himatic7! (was: basic repair question)
« Reply #55 on: September 25, 2014, 07:03:16 PM »
I think it will end in tears

I'm afraid Gary may be correct here  :'(

Indofunk

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Re: Help me fix my Himatic7! (was: basic repair question)
« Reply #56 on: September 25, 2014, 07:05:47 PM »
OK, I looked at the photos again and have a little better concept of how that shutter works. The first plate you removed controls the speed. The ring cocks the shutter. The slow speed escapement and the self-timer constitute most of the gears you see in there - they are not the problem, as they are not in play here. If you don't have the speed selector plate in place, do that first; at least then you have some idea what to expect from the shutter when you fire it, and it may even serve to position something else relevant to the basic operation of the shutter. Make sure it sits flush (in Compur shutters it's possible to end up with it off-kilter resting on the B lever if you don't set it down in the right spot) and in the correct orientation.

Preeeetty sure I got most of that sorted. When I was doing my recent tests, it was with the plate on (as well as the aperture and shutter speed rings). The one odd thing was that I noticed the aperture lever doesn't actually extend past that first plate, which doesn't seem right. I thought I had it akilter, but I looked carefully and it looks pretty damn straight. I'll check that out again.

Francois

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Re: Help me fix my Himatic7! (was: basic repair question)
« Reply #57 on: September 25, 2014, 09:42:38 PM »
Well, I have the feeling that Leicas were actually made with repairs in mind... not so for Minoltas which can be some of the most sophisticated mechanical and electronic contraptions someone can think of.

I once repaired a Minolta AF-C which wouldn't trigger even with good batteries. I had the top opened and just couldn't find what the heck was wrong with it.
At some point, I decided to also open the bottom to see what was there. And what was there was the problem. The shutter button was attached to a long pushrod that went all the way to the bottom to trigger the shutter. All that was wrong is that there was a small catch that didn't grab the lever. I triggered it by hand when I re-hooked it and the camera has worked ever since...
Francois

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Indofunk

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Re: Help me fix my Himatic7! (was: basic repair question)
« Reply #58 on: September 25, 2014, 09:48:15 PM »
The shutter button was attached to a long pushrod that went all the way to the bottom to trigger the shutter.

Hey, my HiMatic has that long rod too! But it seems to serve no purpose whatsoever. It is "D" shaped, so that it will clear a small gear and not hit it. Could that be a vestige of the AF-C technology that they just decided not to remove?

Terry

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Re: Help me fix my Himatic7! (was: basic repair question)
« Reply #59 on: September 26, 2014, 05:24:07 PM »
If it's there it has a reason to be there.  Could that be your firing problem?

Francois

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Re: Help me fix my Himatic7! (was: basic repair question)
« Reply #60 on: September 26, 2014, 06:16:37 PM »
The shutter button was attached to a long pushrod that went all the way to the bottom to trigger the shutter.

Hey, my HiMatic has that long rod too! But it seems to serve no purpose whatsoever. It is "D" shaped, so that it will clear a small gear and not hit it. Could that be a vestige of the AF-C technology that they just decided not to remove?
The AF-C is more recent than the HiMatic, so the rod is there for a reason.
I found through my slim minolta repair knowledge that they tend to have stuff on top that hooks up to drive shafts to activate stuff on the bottom. That's the way they managed to make things more compact. It also makes it so that you really need to follow things closely to figure out how the darn thing works.
Francois

Film is the vinyl record of photography.