Is R8 shutter repair possible?

[simonpj]

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I recently acquired an R8 in beautiful condition after first having one twenty years ago. I was just starting to love shooting with the camera when disaster struck. I was a bit inattentive when rewinding a roll of film and the film leader caught in the shutter blinds and broke the top one. 

Is it possible to replace individual shutter blinds on the R8 - or would a whole replacement shutter unit be necessary? If so, is it a commonly available unit, or would a donor R8 / R9 be required? 

I imagine that given the current price of good condition R8s the simplest option would just be to find a new camera - but I hate to accept that such an otherwise perfect camera is now dead. 

[dpitt]

13 minutes ago, simonpj said:

I imagine that given the current price of good condition R8s the simplest option would just be to find a new camera - but I hate to accept that such an otherwise perfect camera is now dead.

Simple answer... Yes. Buy an other used one in good condition. Do not bother with repair and keep yours for parts or sell it to someone.
A shutter repair was one of the more expensive operations. Now it would be hard to find a technician to do it and it will not be cheap, even when he gets a donor or has the parts for free.

[simonpj]

20 minutes ago, dpitt said:

Simple answer... Yes. Buy an other used one in good condition. Do not bother with repair and keep yours for parts or sell it to someone.
A shutter repair was one of the more expensive operations. Now it would be hard to find a technician to do it and it will not be cheap, even when he gets a donor or has the parts for free.

Thanks for confirming Dirk. 

[Stuart Richardson]

I wouldn't take our word for it. Call DAG or another Leica repair person and see what they say. The good news is that this is a physical problem, not a electronic one, therefore it is much more likely that someone might be able to fix it.

[GarageBoy]

How did the tip get into the blinds? Was the back open as you rewound?

[adan]

On 2/25/2024 at 7:51 AM, simonpj said:

Is it possible to replace individual shutter blinds on the R8 - or would a whole replacement shutter unit be necessary? If so, is it a commonly available unit, or would a donor R8 / R9 be required? 

Generally speaking, for vertical-travel, metal-blade shutters like the R8/9's, it is significantly cheaper (including labor hours) to simply replace the entire shutter module (~4-6 screws) than try to disassemble it and replace a single part. Unless the flaw is right on the surface (light cleaning, or maybe that spring).

That seems to be the industry standard. I've had both Nikon and Voigtlander RF shutters fail - and that was the procedure.

Seiko has made most if not all such shutters for decades - economies of scale - and I strongly suspect that Leica bought plug-and-play Seikos (possibly with some custom options) for the R8/9 as well.

Seems to me Leica sold off all their R-system spare parts to someone else (Meister Camera?) once the system was discontinued (2010±).

Generic blade-shutter module - image linked from wikimedia.

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