I recently bought a couple of these, and I saw when I was looking for one, that almost all of them for sale have either stuck or erratic shutters. One was bought "for parts" (frozen shutter) and the second was supposed to be working correctly, but in fact had an erratic shutter too. I could see grease oozing out between the shutter blades on one I purchased for parts and turns out the repair is quite simple. I got both of them working.
Remove the front lens element group using a "rubber ring" tool, on both of my cameras they unscrewed fairly easily. Set the aperture to f22 to protect the rear lens element and set the shutter speed to 1/500. Next, soak a Q-tip (get real Q-tips, not cheap generics) with some automotive brake cleaner, dab lightly to saturate the blades and try to operate the shutter. It might take a few tries to get it to open. Each time it cycles, wipe any goop off the blades and cycle again, rewipe. Keeps the blades wet with brake cleaner while you are doing this. Obviously be very gentle and replace the Q-tips regularly. I had to "soak" the blades around 4-5 soaks for it to look like all the grease was gone. Next I recommend letting the camera sit for a few hours uncocked, with the front lens element left out, before trying any speeds below 1/500, I'll explain why below:
The next part seemed strange but don't panic if this happens to you. I think you can avoid this by cleaning at 1/500 and just letting the camera sit for a few hours before trying the lower speeds. It happened with both of mine exactly the same way. When I got the blades clean/dry, on one of the next few test cycles at lower speeds, the blades appeared to jam half closed. The crank also wouldn't turn with the shutter half open so do NOT try to force it! Set the shutter speed back to 1/500 and gently tap the camera with your hand. After a minute or so the blades will close (be patient) and then cycle it a couple of times on 1/500. Now just let the camera sit for a couple of hours with the front lens element out for any residual cleaner to evaporate (like I suggested in the above paragraph). Then set the shutter back to a low speed and (at least on both of mine) the shutter now works prefect. Once you are happy with the shutter, clean the inside glass surfaces and reinstall the front group.
These shutters seem to have a VERY light spring that operates the blades and unless they are either swimming in cleaning fluid or are bone dry, they don't work right. If the blades don't open, the low speed mechanism doesn't engage either, so it appears the shutter is totally broken or stuck on one speed, when it's just some grease has migrated in between the blades and has them stuck closed.
I'm not going to claim these couldn't use a full disassembly and cleaning, but this technique got them both working, at least for now, and if they freeze up again, I'll dig in deeper.
These are probably the highest quality 127 film baby TLR made and I'm glad to have a couple functioning now
Remove the front lens element group using a "rubber ring" tool, on both of my cameras they unscrewed fairly easily. Set the aperture to f22 to protect the rear lens element and set the shutter speed to 1/500. Next, soak a Q-tip (get real Q-tips, not cheap generics) with some automotive brake cleaner, dab lightly to saturate the blades and try to operate the shutter. It might take a few tries to get it to open. Each time it cycles, wipe any goop off the blades and cycle again, rewipe. Keeps the blades wet with brake cleaner while you are doing this. Obviously be very gentle and replace the Q-tips regularly. I had to "soak" the blades around 4-5 soaks for it to look like all the grease was gone. Next I recommend letting the camera sit for a few hours uncocked, with the front lens element left out, before trying any speeds below 1/500, I'll explain why below:
The next part seemed strange but don't panic if this happens to you. I think you can avoid this by cleaning at 1/500 and just letting the camera sit for a few hours before trying the lower speeds. It happened with both of mine exactly the same way. When I got the blades clean/dry, on one of the next few test cycles at lower speeds, the blades appeared to jam half closed. The crank also wouldn't turn with the shutter half open so do NOT try to force it! Set the shutter speed back to 1/500 and gently tap the camera with your hand. After a minute or so the blades will close (be patient) and then cycle it a couple of times on 1/500. Now just let the camera sit for a couple of hours with the front lens element out for any residual cleaner to evaporate (like I suggested in the above paragraph). Then set the shutter back to a low speed and (at least on both of mine) the shutter now works prefect. Once you are happy with the shutter, clean the inside glass surfaces and reinstall the front group.
These shutters seem to have a VERY light spring that operates the blades and unless they are either swimming in cleaning fluid or are bone dry, they don't work right. If the blades don't open, the low speed mechanism doesn't engage either, so it appears the shutter is totally broken or stuck on one speed, when it's just some grease has migrated in between the blades and has them stuck closed.
I'm not going to claim these couldn't use a full disassembly and cleaning, but this technique got them both working, at least for now, and if they freeze up again, I'll dig in deeper.
These are probably the highest quality 127 film baby TLR made and I'm glad to have a couple functioning now
