Repair question about Bronica SQ-A

thomasbruce · Feb 10, 2014

Hi

I have an Bronica SQ-Ai that works great but doesnt have a waist level finder. I found one on ebay really cheap attached to a SQ-A body that doesnt work. The body looks brand new and I was hoping I could fix it and have a spare body if my SQ-Ai breaks.

The SQ-A body winds/cocks the shutter fine, the battery LED lights up when I press the test button.
The body will not fire at all. Ive pressed the shutter button and tried with a cable release but nothing.
Ive read somewhere that the SQ-A does not need a battery to fire at 1/500s but that doesnt work either.

Has anyone experienced something like this with your Bronica? Is this something I can fix? Im not going to send the body for repair so this will just be for fun to see if I can fix it. Hopefully someone have som tips or pointers to how and what I should look for

All suggestions are welcome!

Thanks!

Thomas

doughowk · Feb 10, 2014

I have a SQ-A body that suffers a similar problem - will only occasionally fire correctly. The camera repair company here in Florida tried cleaning all contacts, but didn't solve the issue. Would be too costly for them to go further. So ordered a "new" body from KEH, and haven't had a problem. I would still be interested in knowing the solution to your problem.

thomasbruce · Feb 10, 2014

I've tried with lens and back, without lens and back, in double exposure mode and normal mode. The camera body seems fine just that nothing happens when I press the shutter button or use the cable release. I don't think cleaning the contacts or replacing back would work since it seems like there is something wrong with the mechanism connected to the shutter button maybe? Thanks for your suggestion! Would really like to get the body working

Peter Simpson · Feb 10, 2014

As an EE, I'd say "check all the contacts".

If that fails, look carefully for any mechanical interlocks (though I doubt there are any on the finder). IIRC, the finder has to complete the electrical circuit to fire the shutter...so I'll bet there's a contact problem.

thomasbruce · Feb 10, 2014

I've checked the contacts and given them a rinse. They look spotless. The auto exposure prism works fine on the body and get info trough the contacts. The shutter speed coms up in the prism display when I half press the shutter, but nothing happens when I fully press the shutter. The problem is not in the lens,back or prism. They work great with my SQ-Ai body.

Colin DeWolfe · Feb 10, 2014

Is the shutter lock enabled? The ring which rotates around the shutter button? (I'm just projecting from my ETRSi, so if it doesn't have the ring, ignore me )

thomasbruce · Feb 10, 2014

The ring around the shutter is not locked

TheToadMen · Feb 10, 2014

Might it be that it won't fire when the film back isn't loaded with film winded to the first frame and/or the darkslide is not removed?
Just a silly thought that popped up ...

I have a SQ-B body myself.

Bert from Holland
http://thetoadmen.blogspot.nl

DWThomas · Feb 10, 2014

To dry fire an SQ-A without film loaded normally requires the multi-exposure lever to be actuated. And I just checked, mine fires without a viewfinder attached. I knew it triggered the mirror and film shutter raising w/o a viewfinder, as I've used it that way with a pinhole body cap, but I just tried it without v/f and with a lens and slow shutter speed and I hear the shutter clicking. The dark slide also needs to be out (or you can run with the back off altogether). For a mostly mechanical beast, these units have a lot of clever interlocking built in.

Hope that helps.

thomasbruce · Feb 10, 2014

DWThomas said:
To dry fire an SQ-A without film loaded normally requires the multi-exposure lever to be actuated. And I just checked, mine fires without a viewfinder attached. I knew it triggered the mirror and film shutter raising w/o a viewfinder, as I've used it that way with a pinhole body cap, but I just tried it without v/f and with a lens and slow shutter speed and I hear the shutter clicking. The dark slide also needs to be out (or you can run with the back off altogether). For a mostly mechanical beast, these units have a lot of clever interlocking built in.

Hope that helps.

Thanks!

I've tried all that but with no luck. I've also checked the pins the back pushes in on the back when it connects to see if they were bent or stuck or something but they seem fine. It looks like everything is in order from the electrical to at least most of the mechanical stuff except the shutter button. As I said in the post above. The camera looks unused. A shame to throw away such a beautiful camera body

benjiboy · Feb 10, 2014

If you got it really cheap,I suggest you have a professional camera repairer look at it and give you a repair estimate before you throw it away.

lxdude · Feb 10, 2014

thomasbruce said:
As I said in the post above. The camera looks unused. A shame to throw away such a beautiful camera body

I never throw them away. I give them to repair people. When I send stuff to my favorite Pentax guy, I put in the box anything I've acquired that doesn't work and I don't want. There can never be too many spare parts. If you send it to someone and decide not to have it fixed, tell them they can keep it.

lxdude · Feb 10, 2014

thomasbruce said:
I've tried with lens and back, without lens and back, in double exposure mode and normal mode. The camera body seems fine just that nothing happens when I press the shutter button or use the cable release. I don't think cleaning the contacts or replacing back would work since it seems like there is something wrong with the mechanism connected to the shutter button maybe? Thanks for your suggestion! Would really like to get the body working

Seeing that it won't fire at 1/500th, it appears to me that the problem is in the release mechanism. It might just need adjustment.

thomasbruce · Feb 11, 2014

lxdude said:
Seeing that it won't fire at 1/500th, it appears to me that the problem is in the release mechanism. It might just need adjustment.

That sounds plausible . Do you know where I need to look to see if thats the problem? Do I have to open the body somewhere? I know that you kan unscrew the plates on the sides and bottom to get to the inner workings of the camera but I have no clue about the workings on the inside. Would be fun to try if someone could point me in the right direction

wiltw · Feb 11, 2014

If the mirror flips up, but incompletely upward, that will prevent the lens shutter from firing. I know, because it did that with one of my ETRSi bodies...actually, a used film magazine had an interlock pin that projected into the body too far, and that caused the mirror to sometimes not complete its upward motion, so shutter would not open (and no shutter fire confirmation light seen in viewfinder of ETRSi). The fix was for me to send the used film magazine along with the (purchased new) body, so Bronica could adjust the film back.

thomasbruce · Feb 11, 2014

wiltw said:
If the mirror flips up, but incompletely upward, that will prevent the lens shutter from firing. I know, because it did that with one of my ETRSi bodies...actually, a used film magazine had an interlock pin that projected into the body too far, and that caused the mirror to sometimes not complete its upward motion, so shutter would not open (and no shutter fire confirmation light seen in viewfinder of ETRSi). The fix was for me to send the used film magazine along with the (purchased new) body, so Bronica could adjust the film back.

I just checked and the mirror flips all the way

DWThomas · Feb 11, 2014

OK, here's another two cents ...

Background: my original SQ-A body, purchased used, started refusing to fire from a cable release. Over a short period of fooling with it, even the release button stopped working. It seemed related to some of the scary mechanism inside the body. So I "fixed" it by picking up another body for about 90USD that was in way nicer cosmetic condition. But I did and still do have intention of peering into the innards "when I get a round tuit."

I asked here and elsewhere if anyone knew of an SQ-A repair manual online or whatever but never found one (I'm vaguely remembering I even emailed Tamron customer service). BUT, somewhere on the web I did find a service manual for the ETRSi. I don't even remember where, and it isn't exactly a 'you've never done this before but we'll guide you through it' sort of tome, but there's a PDF file out on my website at the moment should you wish to look. (Brace yourself!) I assume that the little guy should share a lot of similarities with his big brother, but there is both a size difference and a slight generational difference (...Xi vs ...X), so that line of thinking may be optimistic, but I'm hoping the ETRSi manual might offer a few useful hints (if I ever get around to it).

thomasbruce · Apr 5, 2014

Sorry for the late reply. Thanks for your help!! I think I will send it to a repair guy if I have the extra cash one day. I still have my beautiful and working SQ-Ai so I can still have fun shooting Love the Bronica system

Alex Muir · Apr 5, 2014

Hi. I've just seen this thread. I use SQ-a cameras, but am not a repair expert. It does sound, however that the problem is in the mechanics of the release. Perhaps the release lock is not disengaging when the ring is turned. It might be worth taking the bottom plate off for a look. I bought a broken example myself, also to get a cheap WLF. The shutter control had stopped clicking. That was an easy fix. The mechanism was obvious and straightforward in design. The shutter button is near the edge, so should be visible once the cover plate is off. The leather comes off, and replaces quite easily to get access to the screws. Apologies if you have already tried this. I was impressed with the quality of construction inside. It's definitely worth fixing.
Alex.

Repair question about Bronica SQ-A

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