I have a weakness. Several, actually. But in this forum, this post, I'll only reveal 1.
I like a miserable camera. The Fujica AX-3
I have had 4 of them and all were junk. The latest was seriously gummy - the seals and mirror bumper had turned to sticky goo - but all else seemed to work fine. I replaced the seals Friday night and put a roll of film in. Weird stuff began. The first shot, the mirror hung up and the flash didn't fire. I wound the film, shot again, and everything worked fine. Shot two more shots. Kewl. Works. Then a couple hours later went to take another shot -same error. Subsequent shots went fine. Exact same problem happened several times - first shot after not being used a while seems to hang, stick, like the shutter is set to Bulb.
I rewound the film and have been trying to duplicate but here's the kicker - with no film in the camera it works every time. I let it sit all night and it fired properly first thing in the morning.
Anyone have a clue what might cause this nehavior on this, or other cameras? It isn't worth a CLA at a camera repair joint.
I like a miserable camera. The Fujica AX-3
I have had 4 of them and all were junk. The latest was seriously gummy - the seals and mirror bumper had turned to sticky goo - but all else seemed to work fine. I replaced the seals Friday night and put a roll of film in. Weird stuff began. The first shot, the mirror hung up and the flash didn't fire. I wound the film, shot again, and everything worked fine. Shot two more shots. Kewl. Works. Then a couple hours later went to take another shot -same error. Subsequent shots went fine. Exact same problem happened several times - first shot after not being used a while seems to hang, stick, like the shutter is set to Bulb.
I rewound the film and have been trying to duplicate but here's the kicker - with no film in the camera it works every time. I let it sit all night and it fired properly first thing in the morning.
Anyone have a clue what might cause this nehavior on this, or other cameras? It isn't worth a CLA at a camera repair joint.