Aperture dial has no effect on inbuilt meter in Centon C100

[OwenMorgan]

Hi there,

I have a cheap Pentax K1000 copy camera under the name Centon, its always done the job by and large but recently the meter has stopped working correctly. It seems as though the aperture setting of the lens is no longer being 'considered'. It has a '3 LED in viewfinder system' only.

It seems as though the meter thinks the aperture is set crazy high, and the says a patch of bright midday sunlight (getting on for sunny 16) needs 1/8th of a sec at iso100. Moving the aperture dial has no effect on the meter at this point (with all of my lenses), though the ISO selector seems to be working correctly and the meter moves reacts accordingly.

I understand that with a camera like this an expensive fix is not really worth it, but was wondering if anyone has had a similar problem and found it was something fairly simple!

Thanks in advance for any help,

Owen

 

[Excalibur2]

erm checked the battery ? If that doesn't work sell it for spares. Btw mine is the Centon K100 and cameras with silly diodes going up and down are annoying and don't use these cameras much

 

[Rol_Lei Nut]

When you change the aperture on the lens, a cam/lever at the back of the lens moves a corresponding lever in the camera, "telling" it which aperture is set.
Check that:
The cam on the lens is moving when you change aperture & isn't bent
The cam in the camera body can move freely & isn't bent.
If it looks like the two could engage when the lens is mounted.

With the lens off, try moving the camera's cam and see if the meter readings change.

Those checks *might* give you an idea of what the problem is.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

I had the same problem with a Pentax ME. The lens would step down but the exposure was always the same. The film speed dial also had no effect. Narrowed the problem to the electronics.

 

[OwenMorgan]

When you change the aperture on the lens, a cam/lever at the back of the lens moves a corresponding lever in the camera, "telling" it which aperture is set.
Check that:
The cam on the lens is moving when you change aperture & isn't bent
The cam in the camera body can move freely & isn't bent.
If it looks like the two could engage when the lens is mounted.

With the lens off, try moving the camera's cam and see if the meter readings change.

Those checks *might* give you an idea of what the problem is.

Thanks thats exactly it, the cam in the body moves and the meter changes as you'd expect but it looks like something has snapped off and its not quite catching enough with the lens cam. You can almost feel it gripping for a second then slipping off.

Oh well, probably won't bother fixing it! I've got an old external lightmeter that seems to be still fairly accurate so I think I'll stick with that till I can afford something a bit nicer!

Thanks for help everyone.

 

[BrianShaw]

Check to make sure the lens is properly mounted on the camera. I've seen lenses "appear" to be properly mounted but weren't, and gave a simalar problem as you describe.

 

[OwenMorgan]

Check to make sure the lens is properly mounted on the camera. I've seen lenses "appear" to be properly mounted but weren't, and gave a simalar problem as you describe.

Thanks, yeah gave it a good look at, the lens is securely mounted as far as I can see, everything looks normal and I've tried it with mulitple lenses! I think something has snapped on the camera body, cant remember how it was before enough to think of a fix, but in the local camera shop this morning I was offered a real Pentax body for £30 so figure I may just go for that!

Owen