Photographic equipment of the 1980s: Projects and topics

[Andreas Thaler]

The Canon EF is a beauty. How well have these stood up to the decades? The batteries were supposed to be mercury, but that is manageable.

Both of my EFs work, only in one the battery indicator light no longer lights up. I should be able to do that.

For testing purposes I will sacrifice two Weincells:

WeinCell Batteries

Wein Cell mercury free replacement batteries for cameras and photo equipment

www.weincell.com

 

[Andreas Thaler]

That's really good progress Andreas. I need to go through my own progress and document it as well as you have. I've typically tried to document everything I do, but have been lazy lately. I've had a bunch of CLA's done for family members that are typically, just a lubrication, light seal replacement and a deep clean of a couple of decades of dust and grime. I just did the same thing to my very first camera last night. It is the A-1 that I bought sometime around 1979 while I was in high school.

I gave that camera to my son a couple of years back, so it was late to get a bit of maintenance done. While I have it for about a month, I'll run a few rolls of film through it just to enjoy that camera again. I've also done a CLA on a couple of Pentax SLRs.

With your focus on Minoltas, you would love digging through the broken camera bin at my local camera shop. Roberts Camera in Indianapolis has a bin with about 40 broken SLRs and rangefinders. $10 each and it seems about 1/3 of them are Minoltas. There are a couple Zenits, Practikas and a Nikkormat in there right now. I saw a Canon Q9 in there yesterday too.

Thanks, Tim!

I'm particularly looking forward to your next report on Canon A, that will be a milestone for me.

Thank God I have enough exercise equipment stored away, I wouldn't have room for any more.

But there are paths in Vienna that always lead me to certain shop windows ...

Now that I've reached a certain point in my photography budget, I don't plan on making any further purchases.

 

[88E30M50]

I have two Canon A-1s on the bench at the moment. One is beautiful but had electrical issues that I was not able to identify when I had it opened up the first time. The second is interesting in that it's a fire damaged camera that I bought for parts, but then thought that there's a chance I may be able to fix it. After lubrication to loosen it up a bit, I found that I could get the shutter to fire once in a while. I have the parts needed to replace the fire damaged components, so I was hoping for a quick fix. I have not had that much luck yet. I think that the camera has one or more of the metal finger plates that drive the speed dial changes coming loose and giving bad readings.

Maybe this weekend, I'll put some more time into it. Right now, my time is mostly being spent behind a camera instead of poking around the inside of one.

 

[Andreas Thaler]

For everyone who also likes to turn screws, here is an overview of the topics that I would like to report on in the near future.

If there are any special requests to shed more light on this or that, I would be happy to respond

• Minolta X: Revival after electrolytic replacement - not every X makes it back. Causes and solutions. The Xs are sometimes vulnerable to problems with the shutter.
• Minolta Auto Winder D and G, Motor Drive MD-1: Make the gearbox work, repair corrosion damage, restore/replace the leatherette, analyze and resolve contact problems with the camera, explore the electronics.
• Minolta XG-M: Electrolytic capacitor check and replacement - probably every copy is affected by now.
• Minolta XD-7/XD-11: Investigation of the electronics/circuit, cleaning the pneumatic mirror shock absorber
• Minolta XE/XE-1/XE-7: Insights, investigating electronic issues.
• Canon AE-1 and AE-1 Program: The classics and their problems from A to Z. A model series where electronics and mechanics still work together in a balanced manner and, in particular, electronic processes can be understood because they are not that highly integrated.
• Canon T90: See previous reports. A solution for the non-functioning locking magnets (EEE, HELP) still needs to be found
• Canon EF (camera): The battery control LED should light up again at the push of a button.
• Canon Power Winder F for the F-1: Two examples with stiff gearboxes await cleaning and new lubrication. Insights into electronics in the 1970s.
• Nikon F3: Advance into mechanical depth, continue with the topic of LCD, insights into electronics.
• Nikon MD-4, the motor drive to the F3: Continuing the repair of battery acid damage - among other things. Replacing a corroded circuit board, maintenance work, fixing tired shutter buttons and mode dials. Possibly also revitalizing resinous gears (if I have a copy with this problem).
• Nikon F4: Expedition to the resinous aperture mechanism which prevents the small apertures from being formed.
• Nikon FG with MD-14: insights, function check, possibly service
• Nikon EM: A battered specimen awaits treatment.
• Nikon MD-E: The motor for the EM, here with corrosion in the battery compartment, probably more of it inside.
• Nikon MD-12: See report. A second specimen with an unknown defect is awaiting treatment.
• Tamron lenses: Service and repair. Tamron has always made great lenses.
• De-oiling of aperture blades, cleaning of cloudy lenses
• Miscellaneous: Whatever else comes from the contents of my repair box.

For all of this, I collected more or less devices with issues for over a year in order to practice.

I have already written some reports on these topics previously, which I would like to publish in the coming weeks.

Work purely private, exclusively on my own inventory, no orders, no commercial interest, independent, driven only by my interests

I have looked through my list of projects and marked the projects that I have already worked on here in the forum as GREEN.

I would like to ask you what topics I should continue with. I am also happy to go into GREEN again or go into more detail.

Otherwise, I have

Minolta XG-M: Adjusting the shutter

At the end of last year I tried to solve a shutter problem on my Minolta XG-M. It got stuck when winding and the shutter blocked: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/minolta-xg-m-shutter-problem-resolved-but-be-careful.203843/ I was able to solve the problem, but I also worked on the two...

www.photrio.com

as my next project.

 

[bernard_L]

I have looked through my list of projects and marked the projects that I have already worked on here in the forum as GREEN.

I would like to ask you what topics I should continue with. I am also happy to go into GREEN again or go into more detail.

Here is my vote. A fairly obvious and easy choice.
Canon AE-1 and AE-1 Program
Second choice:
Canon EF (camera)
A minor point, and I don't (yet??) have a black beauty, but this should be an easy repair for you.

Thank you for your structured and illustrated reports.

 

[Andreas Thaler]

Here is my vote. A fairly obvious and easy choice.
Canon AE-1 and AE-1 Program
Second choice:
Canon EF (camera)
A minor point, and I don't (yet??) have a black beauty, but this should be an easy repair for you.

Thank you for your structured and illustrated reports.

Thanks for your feedback!

I'm starting from scratch with the Canon A series and I'm a bit wary of it, because the mechanics predominate here.

On the other side the electronics should be „clearer“, which, considering the ICs, rightly deserves quotation marks

This also applies to the EF (from the 1970s), where I hope to be able to get the battery control lamp working again.

Tim @88E30M50 is already much further along here, I hope for support!

In any case, I have collected a considerable number of repair candidates and there are very good repair videos and reports on Canon A in the specialist magazines.

 

[Andreas Thaler]

@bernard_L

Agreed with Canon A!

But first let me try the Nikon EM with winder MD-E and flash SB-E, I hope it won't be quite so difficult.

Then I'll concentrate on the Canon EF and Canon A

 

[Andreas Thaler]

• Minolta X: Revival after electrolytic replacement - not every X makes it back. Causes and solutions. The Xs are sometimes vulnerable to problems with the shutter.
• Minolta Auto Winder D and G, Motor Drive MD-1: Make the gearbox work, repair corrosion damage, restore/replace the leatherette, analyze and resolve contact problems with the camera, explore the electronics.
• Minolta XG-M: Electrolytic capacitor check and replacement - probably every copy is affected by now.
• Minolta XD-7/XD-11: Investigation of the electronics/circuit, cleaning the pneumatic mirror shock absorber
• Minolta XE/XE-1/XE-7: Insights, investigating electronic issues.
• Canon AE-1 and AE-1 Program: The classics and their problems from A to Z. A model series where electronics and mechanics still work together in a balanced manner and, in particular, electronic processes can be understood because they are not that highly integrated.
• Canon T90: See previous reports. A solution for the non-functioning locking magnets (EEE, HELP) still needs to be found
• Canon EF (camera): The battery control LED should light up again at the push of a button.
• Canon Power Winder F for the F-1: Two examples with stiff gearboxes await cleaning and new lubrication. Insights into electronics in the 1970s.
• Nikon F3: Advance into mechanical depth, continue with the topic of LCD, insights into electronics.
• Nikon MD-4, the motor drive to the F3: Continuing the repair of battery acid damage - among other things. Replacing a corroded circuit board, maintenance work, fixing tired shutter buttons and mode dials. Possibly also revitalizing resinous gears (if I have a copy with this problem).
• Nikon F4: Expedition to the resinous aperture mechanism which prevents the small apertures from being formed.
• Nikon FG with MD-14: insights, function check, possibly service
• Nikon EM: A battered specimen awaits treatment.
• Nikon MD-E: The motor for the EM, here with corrosion in the battery compartment, probably more of it inside.
• Nikon MD-12: See report. A second specimen with an unknown defect is awaiting treatment.
• Tamron lenses: Service and repair. Tamron has always made great lenses.
• De-oiling of aperture blades, cleaning of cloudy lenses
• Miscellaneous: Whatever else comes from the contents of my repair box.

The current status of my project list.

• GREEN: completed
• ORANGE: partially completed
• RED: pending

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I plan the following order in the processing of the not yet completed projects

1. All of my Minolta XD-7s work so far. I can therefore only show how to clean the pneumatic mirror shock absorber on a discontinued XD-7 that still works. This is one of the more common problems where the mirror moves only with a delay. We already discussed what it looks like under the hood and how to remove a dent on the top cover.
2. Canon EF: It remains to be seen whether the battery control is actually easy to repair.
3. Nikon FG with MD-14: The condition of both devices is still unknown.
4. Canon AE-1 and AE-1 Program: This will be a larger project. I am currently working on the topic with a focus on digital camera control with a microprocessor.
5. Nikon MD-12: I don't want to use my mint Nikon FMn for intensive testing again. Maybe I'll get a FE or FM, which we can also look at then.
6. We have discussed the Minolta XE and its electronic problems using the similarly constructed Leica R3 MOT ELECTRONIC as an example. However, an attempt to repair an XE remains a separate project.

It will continue soon.

---

What happens next when all projects are completed?

I still have enough of most cameras and winders/motors in stock that we can repeat repairs on or discuss solutions to new problems.

It also offers the opportunity to explore the devices further in terms of technology.

After that, these options are conceiveable:

1. Examining SLRs that were built after the 1980s and that already have highly integrated electronics. Clarifying what is possible in terms of DIY.
2. Working with older cameras, where the focus is primarily on the mechanics.
3. Service for additional lenses.