Status update: I now have four ESII- the original I haven’t touched that I bought in the ‘80s, the two I have been talking about, and I just got another to keep the ball rolling.
It’s more and more apparent to me that these ones on the market are Honeywell/Asahi factory warranty exchanges.
I have one of these up completely calibrated with film in it that I will be doing a deviation check by sensitometry. But while showing it off over the holiday weekend I found occasional misfires. Like I would want to demonstrate the locking shutter on 8 second exposures and it gave a sixtieth. But I think my good one is mostly good except misfires.
The “bad” one (with bad CdS that I replaced with Radio Shack CdS and added “extra” trim resistors because their properties are far different from factory CdS) was close to calibrated (slow speeds dropped too fast below EV8).
But after sitting a week the bad one has developed a problem. It no longer delivers speeds above 1/60. I test by using flash and watching the curtain shadow infringe the gate as I crank the light above EV12. I know it worked last week. But now, although it will go slower, that second curtain just never infringes the gate.
Now the new one has good prism, good CdS cells (meter responds close to calibration across range), but its electric shutter isn’t kicking at all.
I know what I can do here, take the good CdS, prism and board over to the one that calibrated last week.
But I wonder why suddenly the “bad” one won’t infringe the gate over 60. And I don’t exactly know how to solve the new one’s “no electric shutter” issue.
p.s. Shutter release travel is very long on the new one. I have to press hard after pressing all the way down to fire.