Mamiya Universal Press grip and cable release

[Neil Grant]

.. I now own of one of these with 100mm lens and 6x9 back. I' m having trouble in getting the cable release to work consistently though. Sometimes it won't push far enough to trip the shutter. Is there a special way of attaching to the lens? Should I try changing the cable for something more heavy duty.? No idea what's inside the grip handle ? Can I have some suggestions please? Thanks

 

[Don_ih]

My handle just holds a regular cable in position. Your cable may be wearing out. When the outside of the cable stretches any amount, it reduces the possible throw of the wire inside. I had to replace my cable. It's not difficult (assuming your handle is the same as mine).

 

[reddesert]

The cable release linkage on the Mamiya Press/Super 23/Universal is a rotating piece that sits behind the lens/shutter, attached to the lens focusing mount, not the shutter. The cable release pushes on a lever on the photographer's left of the lens, which causes the whole piece to rotate so that a pin on the photographer's right pushes against the shutter's trip lever and fires it. You should be able to observe this pin moving when you flick the cable release.

Problems triggering the shutter are sometimes because the lens+shutter has rotated slightly with respect to the focusing mount, so the shutter trip lever isn't being pushed far enough.

A different but related problem is that sometimes the manual shutter firing lever (allows you to fire the lens without the cable release) rests against the shutter trip lever and prevents it from coming all the way back to the unfired position. This will prevent the shutter cocking lever from catching. So if you ever have a lens that can't be fully cocked, it's usually because something is pressing slightly on the shutter trip lever. Remove that pressure and it should work again.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I'm not familiar with your camera. But my Mamiya RB67 with its dual cable release requires adjustment that changes the length of the pin extension to fire the shutter. If the extension is too short, it won't trigger the shutter. Maybe there's something similar with yours. Good luck.

 

[Neil Grant]

My handle just holds a regular cable in position. Your cable may be wearing out. When the outside of the cable stretches any amount, it reduces the possible throw of the wire inside. I had to replace my cable. It's not difficult (assuming your handle is the same as mine).

i suspect it is a worn cable release, i have another with stiff outer which may be better. Whatever, can you tell me how to get into the handle - its the norla one. Thanks, everyone.

 

[reddesert]

This mechanism should be easy to debug because you can see most of the moving parts. You can push the lever that the cable release pushes (subject's right side of lens) and see if it moves the pin on subject's left that pushes the shutter firing lever. You can screw a regular cable release into the Mamiya lens thread and see if it has enough stroke to fire the shutter.

 

[Don_ih]

Whatever, can you tell me how to get into the handle

Mine was held together with screws. It was years ago that I did it. It was easy to get apart - I don't know if there are different versions.

 

[Neil Grant]

... a regular cable release reliably trips the shutter - and now the handle is working ok for the moment. The standard cable has a small plastic collar at the firing pin end - and it's postion may be important. Anyway, the next step is to renew the camera back foam seal, attach a strap to the camera and carry out a film test.