mx-evs self timer: only works when no film is loaded?

[hexarrg]

I have a Rolleiflex MX-EVS that I recently sent off for a CLA to a well-regarded tech. This is the type that has a separate self-timer mechanism. Although I don't use the self-timer that much I asked him to check it as several times previously it had failed to trip the shutter but I never really tried to pin down the exact behavior prior to shipping it off for the CLA. The tech checked it and said it was ok. Upon receiving the camera back I've discovered the following behavior:

1. If the camera DOES NOT have any film loaded the self timer will wind out and trip the shutter 100% of the time as expected. It is understandable that this would have led the tech to believe the self-timer was operating properly so I'm not blaming him for anything.

2. If the camera DOES have film loaded the self timer will always wind out but virtually never trip the shutter. I have experimented with this at great length and notice that if I continually focus in and out after the timer has wound out it will sometimes(not always) trip the shutter at some random point in the focus movement. It also seem to have a higher probability of tripping the shutter near the end of the roll, say frame 11 or 12 but the instances of such are still quite low.

I asked the tech about this behavior and he said he hadn't encountered it before so my questions are if anyone has encountered this behavior and/or if anyone who understands the mechanism could offer an explanation of how having film loaded would interfere w/ the self-timer's ability to trip the shutter. Is this even an issue that might be solved by opening and cleaning the self-timer mechanism or is it something more subtle?

I've already put quite a bit of $ into this camera so I guess I'm trying to get an idea of whether it is a good idea to send the camera back to this tech and what might be involved if this is an atypical repair issue.

 

[jmcd]

Does the tech specialize in Rollei, or is he/she perhaps more of an all-around camera repair person? If the latter, it might take a Rollei expert to track down the problem.

 

[hexarrg]

This was one of the well known Rollei experts. When describing the problem to him I got the impression that he thought I was mistaken, confused or just generally clueless and that he had never encountered this kind of problem before. I suppose I will send it back but on the chance that somebody here knows what might be the issue I thought I'd ask around first as at minimum it would save me another round trip's shipping costs. If there are any further diagnostic tests I could do on my own to narrow down the issue I'd be interested to hear those as well.

 

[dpurdy]

I don't suppose there is any chance that when you try to use the ST and it doesn't work, you forgot to cock the shutter? I know I get pretty irritated at myself when I try to use the Self Timer and after waiting through the 10 seconds it doesn't set off the shutter because I didn't have the shutter cocked. I don't believe the self timer is in any way connected to the film.

 

[hexarrg]

you forgot to cock the shutter?

No. After the ST winds down and doesn't fire the shutter it can always be fired by just pressing the normal shutter release button indicating to me that the shutter is always cocked. In addition, after the self-timer winds down and doesn't fire the shutter the film transport crank is still locked and I have to press the shutter release to either permit film advancement or to re-cock the shutter w/ the double exposure crank release thingy.

As I mentioned, without film in the camera the ST works perfectly every single time and I am not really working the controls any differently once I have film in the camera.