Anything I can do about bad flash connection on Nikon F2?

[RLangham]

So flash sync was the only thing I didn't check on my F2 before buying. The other day, I came across one of the little cold shoe adapters that fits over the rewind crank for literally two dollars at an antique store.

I bought it and put a PC-socket-to-shoe adapter in it, and now my F2 has a hot shoe!

So I went to test it. The flash wouldn't fire. So I checked it on another camera. Fired just fine with the same adapter. Fired just fine on a different camera with a different adapter. Fired fine mounted in an integral hot shoe.

So I guess that means a broken connection inside the shutter, huh? So confirm what I expect: there's no practicable way for me, an amateur, to safely fix that, is there?

Would any of the major repair places throw that repair in with a CLA or even just do it as a stand-alone job?

 

[Steve Roberts]

I appreciate that you've taken a lot of steps to pin down the problem, but have you cleaned the contacts that the shoe slides on to? If they haven't been used in a while they might benefit from cleaning. If you have an analogue test meter set on the ohms range you could check the camera contacts to see if the meter needle kicks when the shutter is fired (a digital meter probably wouldn't be fast enough to react to the closing of the contacts).

If you draw a blank there, it's possible that it's a wire come adrift, dirty flash contacts or the possibly the component that acts on the contacts being out of adjustment. If I were to start looking, I'd begin underneath the top plate on the rewind crank side of the camera (left and right top plates are separate on the F2) purely because that requires the least amount of disassembly. If the problem is in there, it should be an easy and cheap fix - well as cheap as fixes are these days if you send it to a repairer. If it's deeper inside the camera and requires the lens mount/front panel removing, then of course it gets more expensive and you have to ask whether while it's stripped down a CLA would be cost effective at the same time. I'd like to think that a repairer would throw in a simple flash fix for nothing with a CLA (if indeed it is a simple fix) but somehow I doubt it.

Good luck and please let us know how you get on.

Best wishes,

Steve

 

[RLangham]

I appreciate that you've taken a lot of steps to pin down the problem, but have you cleaned the contacts that the shoe slides on to? If they haven't been used in a while they might benefit from cleaning

Well, as I say, I'm not using a Nikon hot shoe adapter. I have the cold shoe adapter that slides onto the same odd little mount but which has no contacts, and mounted on that I have a standard PC socket-to-shoe adapter that slides into the cold shoe and acts as a hot shoe when the cable is plugged into the PC socket. And I've tested that adapter on several cameras.

I do think you raise a good point about a potential dirty contact. I might take a needle and try to clean the inner terminal of the PC socket...

 

[Steve Roberts]

Sorry - I misread/misunderstood your post. Nonetheless, a check of the PC socket and perhaps the contacts either side of the rewind knob might still show something up. Another thought - I wonder if when you slide an adaptor (of any type) on to the rewind knob connection, does it perhaps disable the connection to the PC socket to prevent a voltage appearing on the PC socket when the flash is fired? Some Pentaxes certainly do that.

Steve

 

[shutterfinger]

There is a factory service manual available for download at http://arcticwolfs.net/
The camera electronics are on page 20 of the pdf.
From experience ensure that the connector is fitting properly on the PC socket. A loose fitting center contact or outside contact will not fire a flash. Just touching is not good enough.

 

[RLangham]

Sorry - I misread/misunderstood your post. Nonetheless, a check of the PC socket and perhaps the contacts either side of the rewind knob might still show something up. Another thought - I wonder if when you slide an adaptor (of any type) on to the rewind knob connection, does it perhaps disable the connection to the PC socket to prevent a voltage appearing on the PC socket when the flash is fired? Some Pentaxes certainly do that.

Steve

I thought you might be on to something, so I took the cold shoe adapter off and tried it with the flash and the cable. Still nothing. I'm about to try cleaning the PC socket.