Made a stupid mistake. I pulled the advance lever while the shutter is open and ruined my M7

[Lawrence Wang]

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Had my M7 for quite a while, everything works fine except sometimes the DX reader does not show the film speed during "boot".

Last night I was trying out different shutter speed. I started slow, from 2s to 1/30, everything is fine. But at the flash sync speed, 1/50, I pulled the advance lever just after I heard the "click", but when I was half way there, I heard another "click". I knew I just made a huge mistake.

Now the shutter curtain could not correctly aligned. While every time I pull the advance lever, it will also trigger the shutter to release. The shutter release button is loose and not responding.

I lives in Sydney, Australia. And frankly speaking, I don't trust local shops. From my friends and online reviews, they are either not good at what they do, or have a poor communication experience.

I am new to this forum, I have seen everyone say that their communication and repair experience with "Solms" has been very good. But I'm not sure what their contact email is exactly. I just emailed *****@*****.tld anyway. Haven't heard back from them yet. If anyone could point me to the correct direction, I would appreciate that

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[jaapv]

You can even call them on Skype. Contact details are on Leica’s website. There are Leica Stores in Sydney and Melbourne. 

[nitroplait]

33 minutes ago, Lawrence Wang said:

From my friends and online reviews, they are either not good at what they do, or have a poor communication experience.

You seemingly can't have it all. Few of the good well-known repair techs are also good communicators. 

[Lawrence Wang]

32 minutes ago, nitroplait said:

You seemingly can't have it all. Few of the good well-known repair techs are also good communicators. 

True. Plus cheap price. It's like a triangle. You only get two of three at best. I emailed Leica Australia, they quoted me AUD1500 (USD1039) for a "full service" which I don't know what was included (I saw some people's DX reader has been "upgraded" for free under this kind of full service), plus a 6 months turnaround. I might just ask my Chinese friend to bring my camera to China for repair and CLA, there are some very low cost but good and fast repair shops in China.

[grahamc]

I would recommend sending to Camera Clinic in Melbourne, they are the official Leica service centre for Australia (so this who Leica Australia would be using) but you can send the camera to them direct. 

I have only had great experience with them .      Give them a call and speak to Elissa, she will advise what options are available to you 

 

 

[Danner]

Bummer.  Have you tried removing the battery and cycling it?  Maybe that will allow the mechanics to reset the shutter position?

[romualdo]

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1 hour ago, grahamc said:

I would recommend sending to Camera Clinic in Melbourne, they are the official Leica service centre for Australia (so this who Leica Australia would be using) but you can send the camera to them direct. 

I have only had great experience with them .      Give them a call and speak to Elissa, she will advise what options are available to you 

 

 

unfortunately The Camera Clinic closed its doors last year (?) but has reopened with a new name "Imaging By Design"

https://www.cameraclinic.com.au/index.php/en/

https://www.cameraclinic.com.au/index.php/en/project-project-showcase/144-imaging-by-design

Edited February 7, 2023 by romualdo

[jankap]

2 hours ago, Lawrence Wang said:

 

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by jankap

[charlesphoto99]

3 hours ago, Lawrence Wang said:

Had my M7 for quite a while, everything works fine except sometimes the DX reader does not show the film speed during "boot".

Last night I was trying out different shutter speed. I started slow, from 2s to 1/30, everything is fine. But at the flash sync speed, 1/50, I pulled the advance lever just after I heard the "click", but when I was half way there, I heard another "click". I knew I just made a huge mistake.

Unless you are the bionic man, I seriously doubt you would be fast enough to wind the shutter on at 1/50th of a second while the curtain was still open. Sounds like it was just time for it to go. It happens. I used to wind on my M7/M6's at really fast speeds and/or with a motor drive.

[wattsy]

44 minutes ago, charlesphoto99 said:

Unless you are the bionic man, I seriously doubt you would be fast enough to wind the shutter on at 1/50th of a second while the curtain was still open. Sounds like it was just time for it to go. It happens. I used to wind on my M7/M6's at really fast speeds and/or with a motor drive.

I was thinking the same thing. I used to sometimes wind the camera by applying pressure to the lever before I'd even finished pressing the shutter release and I've never damaged the shutter in doing so. I agree that it was just a fault that was going to happen at that moment.

@Lawrence Wang Have you looked to see if there is a chip of film or something like that inside the camera? I managed to misload a film in my very first M many years ago and a small chip of film was dislodged and caused one of the shutter curtains to become dislocated. Leica at Milton Keynes (those were the days) kindly fixed it for me for free and returned it to me in a short space of time (certainly within a fortnight). Your M7 shutter curtain problem may also be a fairly straightforward fix for a competent repair person.

[grahamc]

6 hours ago, romualdo said:

unfortunately The Camera Clinic closed its doors last year (?) but has reopened with a new name "Imaging By Design"

https://www.cameraclinic.com.au/index.php/en/

https://www.cameraclinic.com.au/index.php/en/project-project-showcase/144-imaging-by-design

Oh sorry yes, of course imaging by design. I still refer to them as camera clinic and have a couple of lenses with them at the moment.  Same great service 

[Lawrence Wang]

9 hours ago, Danner said:

Bummer.  Have you tried removing the battery and cycling it?  Maybe that will allow the mechanics to reset the shutter position?

Yeah, that's the first thing I do after I realized what I did. Then nothing changed, like the video shows.

[Lawrence Wang]

9 hours ago, charlesphoto99 said:

Unless you are the bionic man, I seriously doubt you would be fast enough to wind the shutter on at 1/50th of a second while the curtain was still open. Sounds like it was just time for it to go. It happens. I used to wind on my M7/M6's at really fast speeds and/or with a motor drive.

I am thinking the same thing. If 2s, 1s... 1/30s is fine, then how could thing goes wrong at a faster shutter speed? Maybe a CLA is actually over due. It's just that when I've been shooting lately, I haven't had any problems.

[Lawrence Wang]

8 hours ago, wattsy said:

I was thinking the same thing. I used to sometimes wind the camera by applying pressure to the lever before I'd even finished pressing the shutter release and I've never damaged the shutter in doing so. I agree that it was just a fault that was going to happen at that moment.

@Lawrence Wang Have you looked to see if there is a chip of film or something like that inside the camera? I managed to misload a film in my very first M many years ago and a small chip of film was dislodged and caused one of the shutter curtains to become dislocated. Leica at Milton Keynes (those were the days) kindly fixed it for me for free and returned it to me in a short space of time (certainly within a fortnight). Your M7 shutter curtain problem may also be a fairly straightforward fix for a competent repair person.

I shook the camera, there is no quirky sounds. I think the only way to find the truth is by sending it to a shop and dissembling it.

[Lawrence Wang]

3 hours ago, grahamc said:

Oh sorry yes, of course imaging by design. I still refer to them as camera clinic and have a couple of lenses with them at the moment.  Same great service 

Thank you. I'll send them an email. At first I passed on them because their website is a bit dodgy.

[grahamc]

18 minutes ago, Lawrence Wang said:

Thank you. I'll send them an email. At first I passed on them because their website is a bit dodgy.

Probably still changing from their old company name.  This is where leica Australia (or any leica store) would send your camera so definitely give them a try.  bets of luck 

 

Cheers

G 

[charlesphoto99]

5 hours ago, Lawrence Wang said:

I am thinking the same thing. If 2s, 1s... 1/30s is fine, then how could thing goes wrong at a faster shutter speed? Maybe a CLA is actually over due. It's just that when I've been shooting lately, I haven't had any problems.

Well, often you won't have a problem - until you have a problem! Been there, done that....

[Vlad Soare]

21 hours ago, nitroplait said:

You seemingly can't have it all. Few of the good well-known repair techs are also good communicators. 

Sadly, this seems to be true indeed, though frankly I see no reason why it should be so. Communication is not a professional skill. It's a basic, fundamental ability that any reasonably educated human being should have. It's not rocket science, it's just basic courtesy that one learns (or should learn) from one's parents in early childhood.
Not answering an inquiry from a customer or potential customer, or answering it belatedly and/or in a useless manner, does not make you a good professional who just happens to lack some unimportant, unrelated skill. It just makes you a moron who hasn't been taught courtesy and respect as a kid.
If you think that your technical proficiency somehow authorizes you to behave like a jerk, then you've got some major breeding issues.

Of course, due to the shortage of good professionals in certain niche fields, like this one, we may be forced at times to suck it up and to deal with such people whether we like it or not. But this shouldn't be the norm.

I've met people who were great in their professional field and still an absolute pleasure to deal with and to talk to. These things are not mutually exclusive, nor is there any reason for them to be.

Rant over. 😊

Edited February 8, 2023 by Vlad Soare

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[tjxism]

It doesn't sound like human error to me. The advance lever supposedly only pulls the film from the canister from the film chamber. I don't think there is any linked mechanism might touch the shutter. 

[250swb]

3 hours ago, tjxism said:

It doesn't sound like human error to me. The advance lever supposedly only pulls the film from the canister from the film chamber. I don't think there is any linked mechanism might touch the shutter. 

So how does the shutter get cocked if the advance lever doesn't do it?