Canon P shutter repair??

GRHazelton · Sep 17, 2022

I have a Canon P, along with the everready case, the 50mm f1.8, 35mm f1.8, and the 100mm f2. All are in very good to excellent condition. However...the stainless steel shutter is wrinkled, although that has caused no problems; many sources say wrinkles are common and typically cause no problem.
My shutter has begun to "hang" at speeds 1/8 second and slower, freeing up only after some exercise. Can anyone suggest a good source of a CLA for this lovely old warrior?
Many thanks,
George Hazelton
grhazelton43@grmail.com

gone · Sep 17, 2022

Mine had a wrinkled curtain too, most of them are like that. It was badly wrinkled at that, but it worked fine. From what I know about these cameras, yours is still going to be wrinkled after a CLA. Most people here would say send it to Yee, but in the past I've had good luck w/ KEH and they stand behind their 6 mo warranty.

mrosenlof · Sep 18, 2022

I agree with momus. "Yee" is Youxin Ye http://www.yyecamera.com/index.html It's not clear from his web page if he can work on the metal shutter P, but he's got a good reputation overall.

My P has more like little dings in the shutter than all out wrinkles. It was made the same year I was born, and I'm not in mint condition either.

GRHazelton · Sep 18, 2022

I checked with Yee and he works on Canon RFs with cloth shutters, not the metal shutter in the Canon P. I've got feelers out on PentaxForums and a possible shop which i'll check with tomorrow. Stay tuned....

Tel · Sep 18, 2022

Don't assume the wrinkled shutter is causing the slow-speed hangups. More likely an escapement that needs cleaning.

reddesert · Sep 18, 2022

I agree that this sounds like a slow speed mechanism that is sticky and would be likely revived with a normal cleaning. The dents in the metal shutter are unlikely to have anything to do with it. You should just live with those. I have never taken apart a Canon P, but I think the shutter isn't terribly complicated and a repair shop that can do standard CLAs could do it.

GRHazelton · Sep 18, 2022

Yee says he works on Canon rangefinders, but only those with cloth shutter curtains.

GRHazelton · Sep 18, 2022

reddesert said:
I agree that this sounds like a slow speed mechanism that is sticky and would be likely revived with a normal cleaning. The dents in the metal shutter are unlikely to have anything to do with it. You should just live with those. I have never taken apart a Canon P, but I think the shutter isn't terribly complicated and a repair shop that can do standard CLAs could do it.

Yes, as I mentioned in my initial post, the wrinkles are endemic to the P and most folks agree that they don't cause probems.

jgoody · Sep 18, 2022

I believe that DAG does CLAs on Canon P - a few years ago he did mine. Wrinkled shutter is pretty common - agree it's probably not the cause of the low speed issue.

Huss · Sep 19, 2022

Try site sponsor Zacks camera repair. He fixed my M5 that no-one else could, and the P is a much simpler camera.

How does the shutter on the P get wrinkled anyway? Mine wasn’t.

jgoody · Sep 19, 2022

Mine was wrinkled when I got it but I assume someone hamfistedly was loading film.

reddesert · Sep 19, 2022

Huss said:
Try site sponsor Zacks camera repair. He fixed my M5 that no-one else could, and the P is a much simpler camera.

How does the shutter on the P get wrinkled anyway? Mine wasn’t.

I don't know the answer to this. I have a Canon 7 that has small shutter wrinkles and works fine. The wrinkles look to me like stresses in the steel shutter curtain material, perhaps caused by the repeated rolling and unrolling. They might be exacerbated by someone touching it, but if you put your thumb in the shutter hard enough to actually bend the material at one go, I think it would become non-functional.

Speculating, the steel shutter curtain must be made of very thin material to be flexible enough to stand being wound up and unrolled many many times. Nikon used titanium foil for their horizontally-traveling metal shutter curtains. Steel is somewhat stiffer (higher modulus of elasticity) than titanium, so it has to be thinner to roll up easily. The titanium foil design lasted longer (Nikon F and F2), but both of these were eventually eclipsed by faster, vertically traveling shutters with multiple leaves that don't roll up.

Clearly, the steel shutter curtains do work, but my guess is that it's pushing the envelope of material properties, and some combination of patents and material choices meant steel was rarely used for shutter curtains outside the Canon RFs and a few other cameras.

Huss · Sep 20, 2022

jgoody said:
Mine was wrinkled when I got it but I assume someone hamfistedly was loading film.

Didn't I sell you mine? It was wrinkle free and we both checked it over to confirm. IIRC the deal went down in Venice at Lemonade.

jgoody · Sep 20, 2022

You did -- thanks for the great camera. Maybe it's not at wrinkle but a deformation of some sort. Anyway it works like a champ -- great camera! I managed to find the CU gadget which mounts on the lens and also corrects the rangefinder/viewfinder. That works surprising well too.

Huss · Sep 20, 2022

jgoody said:
You did -- thanks for the great camera. Maybe it's not at wrinkle but a deformation of some sort. Anyway it works like a champ -- great camera! I managed to find the CU gadget which mounts on the lens and also corrects the rangefinder/viewfinder. That works surprising well too.

That makes me think that it just happens with use. I cannot imagine every user of this camera sticks his finger into the shutter!

p.s. those were pleasant times when we met! The things that have happened since... heavy sigh.

jgoody · Sep 20, 2022

Amen to that !!!

jgoody · Sep 20, 2022

BTW Canon Ps date from 1958 - 1961 -- what the hell is made today that'll still work in 2084!!

jtk · Sep 20, 2022

In days of yore I stuck a finger into the metal shutter of one of my Canon F1s. That cost me $90 and the work was done in 3+ days in Canon's own repair shop in San Francisco. I don't remember for sure but I think the F1 shutter is essentially the same as the P shutter.

Huss · Sep 20, 2022

jgoody said:
BTW Canon Ps date from 1958 - 1961 -- what the hell is made today that'll still work in 2084!!

Leica M-A.

jtk · Sep 20, 2022

momus said:
Mine had a wrinkled curtain too, most of them are like that. It was badly wrinkled at that, but it worked fine. From what I know about these cameras, yours is still going to be wrinkled after a CLA. Most people here would say send it to Yee, but in the past I've had good luck w/ KEH and they stand behind their 6 mo warranty.

Pentax ME Super. Steel shutter. Will work perfectly as long as there's film .

GRHazelton · Sep 20, 2022

jtk said:
Pentax ME Super. Steel shutter. Will work perfectly as long as there's film .

I have a ME Super. Nice camera, too bad it has no viable depth of field check provision. Same missing feature with the otherwise excellent MX.

grat · Sep 20, 2022

jgoody said:
BTW Canon Ps date from 1958 - 1961 -- what the hell is made today that'll still work in 2084!!

My Chamonix. If film is available.

jtk · Sep 21, 2022

GRHazelton said:
I have a ME Super. Nice camera, too bad it has no viable depth of field check provision. Same missing feature with the otherwise excellent MX.

Have you gotten used to Super's odd buttons? I never did worry about depth of field in 35mm, the situations never came up. I depended on a pair of Canon F1 for decades, took two year's break and came back to discover that I couldn't count on decent E6 here ... therefore went digital. However...I'm thinking about ultra-grainy film (2475 used to scan beautifully) so may start playing with ME Super again...just for fun, having gone digital otherwise.

btw, check's in the mail. thanks!

GRHazelton · Sep 21, 2022

jtk said:
Have you gotten used to Super's odd buttons? I never did worry about depth of field in 35mm, the situations never came up. I depended on a pair of Canon F1 for decades, took two year's break and came back to discover that I couldn't count on decent E6 here ... therefore went digital. However...I'm thinking about ultra-grainy film (2475 used to scan beautifully) so may start playing with ME Super again...just for fun, having gone digital otherwise.

btw, check's in the mail. thanks!

Well, the odd buttons don't thrill me; I consider the Super as sort of a fancy point and shoot. As far as the lack of depth of field preview, I do a fair amount of close-up work - flowers, etc., and checking DOF is pretty important. For such tasks the LX is king; metering off the film means that changes in the light during long exposures - not uncommon with static subjects - make no difference. The interchangeable finders for the LX are a real asset, too.
Glad you could use the batteries. I knew that at Good Will the odds of their being "adopted" were some where between slim and none.

Don_ih · Sep 21, 2022

jtk said:
Pentax ME Super. Steel shutter. Will work perfectly as long as there's film .

You need to tell that to mine....

Canon P shutter repair??

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