Rollei shutter problem

[George Collier]

I have a 3.5T that works great, but last Sunday I was out shooting, it was in the mid forties, but cloudy and damp. I was shooting at speeds of 1/8th and below. I noticed that when I shot at 1/4, I didn't hear the shutter close, so I moved down one f/stop and shutter to 1/2, and it sounded right. Then back to 1/4, and watched from the front of the lens. It stayed open until I released the cable, maybe 2 seconds.
Last night, inside the house, I tried all speeds below 1/15th repeatedly, and everything seemed to work fine.
Am I approaching the time for a shutter lube?

 

[Ian Grant]

Sounds like it. But sometimes just exercising the shutter is enough, that's certainly the case with some of my older LF lenses/shutters.

If the speeds don't get used they get lazy and stick so you may have done enough, see how it behaves over the next few rolls before sending for a CLA.

Ian

 

[archphoto]

In my lifetime I CLA'd a lot of Rolleiflexes.
If you have to send yours off for a CLA, ask the repairman to use synthetic lube, this lasts a lot longer.

Peter

 

[Steve Roberts]

I had my T CLA'd about a year ago, then didn't use it for several months. When I dug it out again last weekend the escapement sounded very lazy and only just had enough oomph to complete the cycle at 1 sec. Half a sec was better and a quarter and faster OK. It may be a shortcoming with these, but on the other hand they are getting on a bit (aren't we all?) and like many mechanical things are designed to be used rather than sat around doing nothing, so perhaps that's justification (if you need it) for taking more photos!

Steve

 

[George Collier]

Thanks for the replies. I have been using this camera a lot lately, trying to refine couple of film / developer combinations. I'll do the exercising bit and watch it in cold weather.