Minolta Spotmeter F Repair

[andrew.roos]

I hope this is the right forum - not strictly camera repair, but camera-related repair!

I picked up a Minolta Spotmeter F for about US$10. It is in excellent cosmetic condition but does not read correctly - at ISO 100 it always reads 2.5 EV, at ISO 200 3.5 EV, and so on. Other than this minor flaw it seems to work perfectly, so the probem is probably in the sensor and related circuitry, not the microcontroller.

I'm fairly handy with a multimeter and soldering iron so plan to see whether I can repair it myself. However it's not obvious how to open it up. There's a serated strip over the middle of the top surface, which I suspect may cover up screws for access. Does anyone know if this is correct? I don't want to risk cosmetic damage pulling the strip off (I suspect it is glued on, though not entirely sure) if it's not the right way to open the meter.

Also, if anyone had a schematic diagram or service manual that would be really useful! I have the user manual.

Thanks
Andrew

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Hi Andrew.
I have an Minolta Auto Meter III F. I sent it into Minolta for repairs because of erroneous readings. They quoted me a flat price regardless of the repair because they replace the logic board. I don't think a component level repair is practical. This is just one person's experience with Minolta meters.

 

[donkee]

I have an Minolta meter that I can't part with that was having issues. I sent it to Quality Light Metric for repairs. They repaired it quickly and the cost was very reasonable.

 

[andrew.roos]

Thanks Mainecoonmaniac and donkee. Unfortunately I live in South Africa and I'm pretty sure the local Minolta distributors won't have a clue how to fix a spotmeter, although I will enquire. And shipping to the US for repair would be prohibitively expensive. So to start with I would like to have a look at it myself - I'm fortunate that I have a lab of electronic test equipment at my disposal, so I should at least be able to figure out what's wrong. Of course if I need a replacement part then this may not be available. But I'm hoping it may just be a bad solder joint or oxidised connector.