Yashica Mat-124 shutter problem

[pdeeh]

I just acquired a YashicaMat-124 (not 124G).

The only thing I can find wrong with it is that the shutter will only cock and fire if the flash sync lever is set to X-sync.

If it's set to M-sync then the shutter doesn't appear to cock or fire.

A bit of googling suggests that the shutter is damaged due to the self-timer being activated while flash sync is set to M.

However, the speeds sound good and I've just developed a roll which suggests the camera is working OK.

Is the shutter likely to die on me at some unspecified future date?
Or can I simply continue to operate it in X-sync without worrying ?
Or should I simply say to the seller, you had better have it back?

(As I will never use flash I'm not too bothered about whether X or M syncs work at all)

If it really needs a service/repair, then who (apart from the usual suspects up in Liverpool) are the Yashica gurus in the UK ?

(no good mentioning Mark Hama, I'm not shipping it overseas)

thanks

 

[Dan Daniel]

If it works, I wouldn't worry. Test all the speeds and B.

I also wouldn't try the self-timer in case you are right, that something is messed up with the M/X sync system.

 

[Salem]

It doesn't appear to be the typical M-sync timer problem since it actually fires when switched to X. I had a yashica D that had the shutter stuck with timer and M-syn, and switching to X wouldn't solve the problem as it remained stuck. Finally, following a howto online, I took it apart and removed the timer mechanism from the shutter and that remedied the problem. However, I ended up with an ugly box since the leatherette was destroyed. So, just to make a long post short, just don't worry about it if it works. It will probably continue to work for you for a long while.

 

[pdeeh]

Thanks Dan, Salem.

It's too nice to let go. I bought it almost on impulse from the daughter of a deceased photographer. She is clearing her late father's house and it was in a cupboard. It just looked too nice not to offer her something for it. She got a good price for it, as good as if it were perfect in fact. I too suspect it'll keep going ok, and the test roll shows such fabulous sharpness and clarity I don't want to let it go now. And it's pretty.

Her father's darkroom was a bit of a trove. Thousands of sheets of paper, some unused and sealed, some open and decades old. Three big colour enlargers including a gigantic DeVere 405 with a colour head, half a dozen easels, gallon drums of fixer and developer, and perhaps a dozen enlarger lenses, all Rodenstocks and Schneider-Kreuznachs. If I had had the spare money, a proper house/workshop and a van, I'd have cleared it for her. As it is I suspect you'll see a lot of it on a certain second-hand photographic supplies site in the near future. Other smaller stuff will go on eBay I expect.

I came away with a load of paper so I can play with lith (including a nearly full box of Fotospeed Lith paper in 16x12), and the camera.