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Rewind
Apr 20, 2006 8:19:38 GMT -5
Post by herron on Apr 20, 2006 8:19:38 GMT -5
A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-g-g-h!!!!!!! My favorite Mamiya rangefinder, my 35-S, is eating my film! Finally finished that roll I was shooting over the Easter weekend, and when I tried to remove it, I could hear the sprocket holes tearing -- because the rewind did not release! I immediately stopped rewinding, and will now try to remove it from the camera in a changing bag (and manually rewind the cartridge). Any thoughts out there about what I should look for when I (gasp!) open the camera up to see if it can be repaired?
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PeterW
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Rewind
Apr 20, 2006 16:53:34 GMT -5
Post by PeterW on Apr 20, 2006 16:53:34 GMT -5
That's tough, Ron. Would have to be over a holiday weekend shoot.
I'm not familiar with the 35-S, and the designs of rewind clutches are as varied and numerous as there are camera makers. However, they nearly all have a few points in common. I assume the rewind button is on the bottom plate, and not a lever on the top plate. If so, the button will push a central shaft inside the film transport sprocket to free the clutch and it should lock in until you wind on. Not many, if any, cameras made after the 1970s don't have a catch for the rewind button.
I had a camera once - possibly a Yashica but I can't remember for certain - where the lock for the rewind button didn't catch very well. At least it didn't hold the button in far enough to free the clutch properly, so though the clutch freed when you held it right in, when you let go it moved out slightly. Not much, but enough to let the clutch partly engage and stop you rewinding. I had to hold the button in all the time, really firmly, to rewind. That was a case of gunge holding the catch, and a good clean freed it again - but I had to take off the top plate and a couple of gears to get at it.
On that camera the clutch and the catch were at the top of the sprocket shaft. On some, the clutch operates on a an idler gear. Basically what the clutch does is disengage the film advance sprocket from the wind-on and shutter cocking. You may have to take the top plate off to investigate where it is. I don't recall coming across a camera where the clutch was accessible from the bottom, though no doubt there are some. Oh, I almost forgot, on a few cameras the transport sprocket (or sometimes just the rod inside it) moves bodily about a millimetre to disengage the clutch which is built into the sprocket shaft. Of course Exaktas, where everything's over on the left, are totally different, but that's Ihagee for you, easier to work on in many ways, but different from anything else.
Sorry I can't be more specific but I've never handled, let alone been inside, a 35-S, but I've had quite a few cameras to pieces, and rewind clutches are usually very simple and robust dog-clutch arrangements. About the only things that go wrong with them are that they get gummed up, or that a spring breaks. They're easy enough to understand once you get to them. The pain can sometimes be getting to them, or replacing a broken spring that's buried under other things. One last thought. If the shaft through the centre of the transport sprocket has a tiny little screw in it, visible in a slot in the sproket casing, you have to take this screw out to take the shaft out. DONT IF YOU CAN POSSIBLY AVOID DOING SO. IT CAN BE A P-A-I-N TO GET BACK IN!!
Hope all this hasn't depressed you too much! Let's hope the 35-S is easy to get at. Hope springs infernal in the human beast. Er, no, that doesn't sound quite right. Something like that anyway.
Have fun!
Peter
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Rewind
Apr 21, 2006 9:06:45 GMT -5
Post by herron on Apr 21, 2006 9:06:45 GMT -5
The rewind release on the 35-S is a lever on the top plate. I have not opened it up yet to see what the problem might be, but it seems I am going to be busy. The 35-S is going to have company! I was loading a roll in my Mamiya Elca rangefinder this morning, and the film advance jammed on the second pull, as I was getting the film into position. The rewind on that one is working, so I was able to rewind the film leader so I could remove the roll...but the lever is still jammed about halfway through its travel. I guess cameras over 50 years old can be expected to need a little servicing now and again...I just wish they would space their needs out a little bit!
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