Strange shutter button/mechanism behaviour

[whatisitscientist]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Hi all,

I'm in a country where I don't have access to getting my camera (M4-P) serviced and I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas about what is going on with it.

My camera will work perfectly fine most of the time and then, occasionally, the shutter won't fire. I'll press it repeatedly and nothing. From there I will rewind the film, remove it and the shutter will fire with the baseplate removed as if nothing was wrong. When I put the baseplate back on, with no film in the camera, the shutter will fire on the second press or will fire on the first press when the camera is tilted upwards, with the lens pointing towards the sky. Eventually, when I go through a process of cocking, firing with the baseplate removed and then putting it back on, it will return to firing like normal - like it was before this strangeness began. 

Has anyone experienced anything like this? Does anyone know what may be going on that allows it to fire like normal when the baseplate is off when it's in this 'mood'? Is there something I could do to try and coax it into working properly when it starts to act up?

[spydrxx]

IMHO this is not normal, and no matter what country you live in, there are highly trained Leica repairpersons willing to handle international transactions. There are several in the USA.

[whatisitscientist]

Agreed. I'm waiting until I head back to my home country in order to get it CLA'd. Until then, I'm hoping someone might have some idea about why it's happening? One of my 'theories' is the little tab that resets the counter when the baseplate comes off might have something to do with it.

[Hintsalae]

I don't think so. The mechanism is pretty much outside the trigger system. If you want to experiment with shutter button sensitivity settings it can be adjusted through the shutter buttons threaded hole on top. There's tiny flathead screw inside which controls height where shutter releases. Adjusting that doesn't cause any major changes to the system since it only determines the lenght of the connecting rod between button on top and trigger lever on bottom.

[Hintsalae]

Just to clarify I quicky opened up M5:s bottom.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[whatisitscientist]

Thanks very much for your reply. Good to know it's nothing to do with the counter. I may see what adjusting the shutter sensitivity does. Thanks again.