I see
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Unless you need 4000 speed? there is very little you can’t do as well or better with the better build, more reliable, lighter, cheaper and more numerous other FD cameras.
No PC port either.
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I discovered this tiny ball bearing in my T90 spare parts.
I don't know where it was installed.
It's unbelievable what has been achieved mechanically here
Regardless of what I wrote about the actual camera, that is very, very interesting.
Since you have seen the inside of more cameras than any of us probably have or will, what is your opinion of the general build quality of the T90 and/or Canon cameras of the era, as such?
I think the T90 is a solidly built camera.
The mechanics and chassis are solidly made, the plastic housing is durable, even if the front panel is thin and the battery compartment looks a bit cheap. But as a unit, the T90 rightly deserves the nickname “the Tank,” I would say.
I only know the T70 from my school days.
The angular design is 80s-like, the overall impression is solid. This also applies to the Minolta 7000 of the same era, which is often underestimated.
Plastics bring many advantages in camera construction.
They can be shaped as desired, can absorb shocks and impacts, are corrosion-free and your hand won't freeze on them in winter.
I therefore think plastics deserve more respect, and today they are standard anyway.
A known problem with the T90 concerns the adjustment wheel behind the trigger button, which sometimes skips click positions.
For example, with aperture priority in aperture priority mode.
It should be possible to change from 2.8 to 4 with one click, but sometimes it takes another or more spins.
That's unconfortable.
So I took a closer look at the wheel.
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The assembly with wheel, trigger and spot measurement button is screwed to the handle.
After removing the glued-on leather covering, three screws can be reached.
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The assembly can then be removed ...
View attachment 353824
... however, this will loosen the soldered delicate wiring in the handle.
The camera is now inoperable.
Re-soldering is possible (you would have to check the service manual to see which cable needs to be soldered where), but the cables are so tight that they would have to be lengthened in order to be able to reassemble the unit.
I refrained from doing that and decided to repurpose this T90 as a spare parts depot. Also because of the EEE error which I cannot fix.
Now that the assembly is gone, it can at least be studied.
View attachment 353826
The assembly
Top front: trigger button
Behind: adjustment wheel
Right: spot metering button
View attachment 353827
View from below
The arrow points to the contact plate that rotates with the wheel.
Above this are the wipers that switch with the contacts.
Contact errors can occur here due to contamination or corrosion.
View attachment 353828
Rear view
The contact plate is not sealed to the outside.
This allows dust and dirt to accumulate. Moisture can also penetrate and lead to corrosion.
This example of an otherwise dirty T90, which is clean on the inside, shows that the protection anyway is still good. Nethertheless the wheel was concerned by the skiping issue.
Electronics cleaner would help here.
I tried spraying it along the shutter release button and the spot metering button when the camera was not disassembled, but none of it reached the contact plate.
The only thing left to do is to get the contacts clean again by turning the wheel several times.
This worked successfully on another T90.
It could be that the second shutter curtain is damaged, see arrow. The dent would be an explanation for the curtain not closing. But I'm not sure if it's a rivet on the slat like underneath. I'll check this on a working T90.
An SMD diode in this area could possibly be defective.
I see a SOT23 part and a SOD part just above it (the little glass one). The SOT23 may be a diode; if it is, it's likely a double diode. Might be something like a TVS diode with basically two fast diodes in series. The other one might be a zener diode, but also a regular or Schottky one. Putting a meter on both of them in various ways should give some insights.
It's also possible the SOT23 is in fact a transistor; the combination of a 3-pole part and a diode in series with it reminds me of a low-side coil driver with a bucking diode on top of it. If this is the case, you should be able to measure a low resistance of the coil in parallel with the diode. If the SOT23 part is indeed a transistor, it's much more likely to have failed than if it's a diode. The latter are pretty robust, the former much less so.
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