Nikon F3 shutter speed-Way too fast?

[ashtony_boy]

Hi all,
I recently had a shutter release cable tip break in my shutter release button. I was able to retrieve it with a mini screwdriver but since then the camera's shutter speed has been moving at higher speeds than I'm setting it to. For example: I was shooting at night with my tripod and when I put the speed dial at 1/30 of a second it still sounded like it was shooting at around 1/500 or 1/1000. To test it out I put my lens cap on and shot it. It only varied a little. Still way too fast. It shoots fast no matter what dial setting or lighting. I'm not sure what happened...thoughts?

 

[awty]

Can you take the film out and look through the shutter and see if it changes speed with turning the speed change dial.
It has a manual over ride which allows you to shoot at 80th apart from that the shutter button just triggers the speed on the dial. The dial controls shutter speed. .
Probably need to get it checked out by a competent camera repair person. They look pretty complex to do anything beyond minor work.

 

[Jon Goodman]

Well...as I recall the F3 fires oddly until the film frame counter reaches 1. If you open the back, you reset the counter, so you will never get to 1 unless you hold the film frame counter lever down to make it think the film door is closed. This could be part of your answer. Offhand I can't imagine what you've done would matter much.

 

[shutterfinger]

http://arcticwolfs.net/ has factory service manuals for the F3 V1, F3 V2, and the F3T and a arts list. Figure out which version you have, download the service manual for it then look at the shutter release diagrams. Its likely you bent a contact of the multilayered release switch when the cable release broke or during removal of the cable release plunger. It may be as simple as gaining access to the switch and reforming the contact to as complicated as replacing the release mechanism.

If you decide to open it yourself be sure to pay attention to notes such as this one: