Restoring shutter speeds on an old Canon RF (L1) - Any hope?

[cptrios]

Hi all,

I just picked up a cheap Canon L1, mostly so I could play around with a couple of LTM lenses I've had forever and never used, with an eye toward investing in a more modern camera if I wind up liking them. The L1 works fine more or less, but 1/250, 1/500, and 1/1000 have all lost some serious speed (1/1000 clocks at 1/250). So far, I'm enjoying the camera more than I thought I would, so I'm pondering having someone give it a going-over. My question: is there much chance they'll be able to get those high speeds back...up to speed? (Sorry.) Not much point in investing the money if not!

 

[brianssparetime]

I don't know the particulars of your camera, but I had my Canon L1 serviced by United Camera Repair in Rock Island IL. It had some shutter capping issues they were able to resolve at a good price. I'd recommend them or somewhere else where you can get a testimonial from a happy customer.

 

[MarkS]

The Canon rangefinder cameras have a simple, rugged Leica-style shutter. Any repair shop should be able to bring it back to working order without any trouble. Yours may never have seen service in all its 60+ years.

 

[cmacd123]

one thing to keep in mind is that the tolerance for speeds is slightly looser for speeds above about 250. Still a good cleaning can probably get one of those units at least within the nominal speeds.

this chart has been previously referenced on another thread here https://www.flutotscamerarepair.com/Shutterspeed.htm

 

[4season]

If it's otherwise in decent condition, I'd think a Canon L1 would be well worth the effort to have CLA'd, but keep your expectations realistic: As delivered by the manufacturers, all mechanical shutters have pretty broad speed tolerances. I figure that if your 1/1000 speed is actually closer to 1/700th, you are doing pretty good.

 

[awty]

Very common for curtain springs to need retention, fairly easy job, must be a dozen you tube vids showing how or you can pay someone to do it for you.
Often they come good simply by firing them a few hundred times.

 

[cmacd123]

although cleaning out stale lubricants comes way before changing the tension. I have heard from several camera repair pros that often when the oil that has turned to sludge on an old camera is delt with, that the speeds come into tolerance without further adjustment.

 

[cptrios]

Thanks all, that's pretty encouraging. 1/700 would be dandy! Actually, things have sped up slightly already after some use, so we'll see how that goes.

I'm definitely willing to do some cleaning and tensioning myself (though I wouldn't know what lubricant to replace the old stuff with). Probably can't really hurt, if I'm going to send it to someone anyway.

 

[awty]

I have half a dozen Canon range finders including a L1, the only thing need doing mechanically on them was fixed by using them. The optics on the other hand are often needing cleaning. The internals of the beam splitter can have deuteriation which you cant clean, but the rest can be cleaned with taking the top plate off.