Nikon FE shutter speeds are fine except 2 sec, 4 sec and 8 sec. What might be wrong??

Ive got my first black Nikon FE lately and it was advertised as parts only and badly broken so I didnt pay much for it. At first I thought I would take the shell off and put it on my good working chrome FE that has less problems.

When I opened te box and started looking at it I must say it looked mint . When I put a new battery in it, it didnt power up so I cleaned the battery hole and bent the tang in the bottom. Installed battery and it fires right up. Winds ,shoots and all shutter speeds are accurate as measured with Audacity and a laser pointer. I mean I know its accurate because the readings were exactly on the money on most of them and only off by a few milliseconds on others.

at 2 seconds things started getting wonky. 2 seconds was 2.75 seconds. 4 seconds locked up the camera and so did 8 seconds and auto shots of greater than 4 seconds.

What could be the problem ? Is there anything I could fix myself?

The only other problem it has is that the double exposure lock doesnt work. After advancing the film the advance lever is supposed to not be able to advance again unless the shutter is depressed or the double exposure lever is activated but for some reason on this camera there is no lock.

Have any of you experience with these matters and if so what is the problem with this otherwise mint camera?

Mirror getting stuck to the damper foam and not being released on slower speeds?

Ronnie

ronnies said:

Mirror getting stuck to the damper foam and not being released on slower speeds?

Ronnie

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Yes, very possible. Also clean the contacts again, try a different battery too. It is not likely to be user repairable otherwise.

68degrees said:

What could be the problem ? Is there anything I could fix myself?

The only other problem it has is that the double exposure lock doesnt work. After advancing the film the advance lever is supposed to not be able to advance again unless the shutter is depressed or the double exposure lever is activated but for some reason on this camera there is no lock.

Have any of you experience with these matters and if so what is the problem with this otherwise mint camera?

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The advance lever problem i've seen it on an FM which shares most of the mechanicals. This should have nothing to do with your shutter problem.

As for your shutter problem, the timing is electronic and it's timed by a capacitor, sounds like typical problem where capacitor develops more internal resistance due to aging, thus timing will be off. Not so much of a problem in brief exposures of course.

I'd just ignore the problem or replace the timing capacitor.

What happens in B when you hold the shutter release for 2, 4, or 8 seconds? If it is the mirror foam then I think it would show up there. Am I way off? So, I kinda agree with @flavio81 that I would just ignore it. Seems like long exposures need a tripod and a cable release. You could count the seconds or use your watch. Minor PIA to me.

Or, if the camera is that special to you, then you could send it in for service ($$$).

terryw said:

What happens in B when you hold the shutter release for 2, 4, or 8 seconds? If it is the mirror foam then I think it would show up there. Am I way off? So, I kinda agree with @flavio81 that I would just ignore it. Seems like long exposures need a tripod and a cable release. You could count the seconds or use your watch. Minor PIA to me.

Or, if the camera is that special to you, then you could send it in for service ($$$).

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that was an interesting suggestion so I tried it. B works normally. However one of the reasons I got the FE was because its supposed to meter and automatically expose correctly up to minutes in low light situations. However this feature is not working right now. The camera has no sentimental value to me. But it is in absolutely mint condition cosmetically. Have any of you ever replaced the capacitor you are referring to?