Ihagee EXA 1 Mirror is stuck and I have no idea to fix it (SOLVED/FIXED)

[ferbert72]

Hello film camera forum! Recently I bought a Ihagee EXA 1 at a flea market whilst in europe. For a while I used the camera taking photos during my trip and when I went back to my home country of Indonesia, I planned to use the camera and take photos of the city. So I loaded up my film and I moved through the first 2-3 shots to get rid of the exposed first shots when the mirror suddenly got stuck when I hit the shutter button. I tried advancing the film, but due the the mirror being stuck I couldnt advance. Worst part is in my city, there are no dedicated vintage camera repair stores in my area atleast to my knowledge. I ask for help if anyone who lives in Indonesia specificaly Jakarta if there are any dedicated places to repair vintage cameras or if anyone could help diagnose the cause of the mirror being stuck. Thanks!

 

[snusmumriken]

I don’t know that camera, but can you rewind the film? In my experience of stuck mirrors in other SLRs that can reset the mechanics - and anyway your film will then be safe!

 

[ferbert72]

I managed to take out the film by rewinding it as per usual, however I had to take out the spool and rewind outside the camera since the mirror caused the film advancing part to be stuck and if its stuck I cant rewind it inside the camera, which means that rewinding the film doesnt reset the mechanics and makes the mirror unstuck. A little bit sad since a few frames of the film were exposed, but I still have over frames to use in my point and shoot. So far I plan to take it to a camera repair shop and hopefully they can fix the issue, thanks for your advice however!

 

[snusmumriken]

Sorry to hear that. I hope you get it fixed.

 

[ferbert72]

Sadly the camera repair shop refused to repair it for some reason so its broken or stuck for now. If anyone knows any person or any store in Southeast Asia particularly Indonesia that would be great.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

I am afraid you will have to do the repair yourself. The Exa repair manual is available on-line https://archive.org/details/exa-repair-manual but it's pretty useless - the manual assumes you have the previous manuals as the newer manuals only cover the changes from earlier cameras, you will need the whole stack of manuals in the end. There are also web pages describing the disassembly of Exa cameras and there may be a YouTube video or two.


You will need a set of fine "jewelers" screw drivers, a dental pick (or something like it), tweezers, a small file and a few small tools that will need filing into odd shapes.

 

[ferbert72]

Good news, I found a small store somewhere near me in those tiny malls with a man who gladly excepted the camera. He said it could take a week which is good considering he was willing to repair the camera and clean the lense.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

... I found a small store somewhere near me in those tiny malls with a man who gladly excepted the camera. He said it could take a week which is good considering he was willing to repair the camera and clean the lens.

Wow. Congratulations.

With a bit of web advertising and word of mouth he could have an international clientele.

Of course, this would mean in the future he would only service high end cameras and repairs would take 6 months.