Beat up old Edixa-mat reflex repair

Hey guys,
I recently picked up an Edixa-mat reflex model D-L for next to nothing. However, it has some issues. When the shutter is wound the trigger only releases the mirror and not the shutter. The shutter can be released just fine using the arm in the bottom cover of the camera. I (an amateur to repairs) believe that a good place to look would be under the top cover around the trigger mechanism. But I really have no idea what I'm doing and just figure that I can only learn one way. Please let me know if you have any suggestions about what could be the issue, and potentially where to look.

I've also noticed that the mirror is slow to return (auto return) after the button has been pressed and the lever in the bottom has been triggered, and the lever in the bottom does not trip the mirror. Hopefully this helps diagnose the issue.

Thanks in advance.

It's a lost cause. Dump it.

Put it back on the web site where you got it at $1 more than you paid for it. You wlll make a small profit and save half a lifetime of angst.

Buy good cameras you can use. Bottom-feed buys are just that - full of sand and shells.

When I started playing with camera repairs, my basic thinking about the first time I go inside a camera model that is new to me is that I would be performing a dissection, not a repair. If I am not willing to 'lose the patient,' I didn't go in.

No idea what you paid for this camera. Might be a good learning experience, so it might be worth using it for learning. This might sound weird, but if you 'listen' to mechanisms, let them tell you what they want to do, you can learn some things.

And then you can strip the camera down, keep all sorts of screws and springs and such in a small container for down the road.

I know nothing about the camera you have, sorry. ozmoose has a good suggestion, also. Some cameras were built in such a way that they are meant to be repaired. And some are meant to be tossed when they fail.

This might be a good place to search for an answer to your question :

I bought an Edixa Reflex in 1979 while traveling Germany. At the time I thought that, being a West German product, it would be a good long-lasting high-quality mechanical camera to use for many years to come. Certainly better than the communist Zenit B I had at the time.

Turns out I still have both cameras. I just checked them, the Zenit B still works great! Turns out the shutter doesn't close all the way on the Edixa and all the covering on the Edixa got hard and came off.

As mentioned, the Secret Site, and the FB group can help you learn how to fix this camera.

Dan Daniel said:

When I started playing with camera repairs, my basic thinking about the first time I go inside a camera model that is new to me is that I would be performing a dissection, not a repair. If I am not willing to 'lose the patient,' I didn't go in.

No idea what you paid for this camera. Might be a good learning experience, so it might be worth using it for learning. This might sound weird, but if you 'listen' to mechanisms, let them tell you what they want to do, you can learn some things.

And then you can strip the camera down, keep all sorts of screws and springs and such in a small container for down the road.

I know nothing about the camera you have, sorry. ozmoose has a good suggestion, also. Some cameras were built in such a way that they are meant to be repaired. And some are meant to be tossed when they fail.

Click to expand...

Good advice. I paid 10 Aussie dollars for it, so my whole approach was to like you said use it for a learning experience, as I can't really do any harm if it's already busted this badly. At the end of the day I will just strip it, and it will simply become a 10 dollar parts bucket and a whole heap of experience for not much cost at all.

ic-racer said:

I bought an Edixa Reflex in 1979 while traveling Germany. At the time I thought that, being a West German product, it would be a good long-lasting high-quality mechanical camera to use for many years to come. Certainly better than the communist Zenit B I had at the time.

Turns out I still have both cameras. I just checked them, the Zenit B still works great! Turns out the shutter doesn't close all the way on the Edixa and all the covering on the Edixa got hard and came off.

Click to expand...

I love my Zenit- I have a 3m that looks like it was pulled out of a creek. Re-lubed the lens and she works a dream. Then one day the mirror stopped going down all the way and flicks up while winding. I haven't gotten around to fixing it as I paid 10 bucks for it and was afraid to pull apart a somewhat working camera, but then again 'somewhat'. Perhaps I will just pull it apart and see because it was only 10 dollars.

I have basic ideas about repairs from working on my old rangefinders like my FED-2 and Moskva-5, very very simple soviet cameras but this Edixa is something else, the level of complexity is like nothing I've seen probably due to the much more advanced shutter capable of slow speeds and a whole non conventional self timer.

Thankyou for all the advice and ideas. The analogue community is such a nice place, the help you get is un-paralleled anywhere else. Super helpful when the art is dying and young fellas such as myself want to try and keep old machines around.

Perhaps these links may be of some help: