Help! Spotmatic rewind trigger stuck!

drewdlephone · 06-20-2009, 01:45 AM

Hey all. The rewind release on the bottom of my Spot F will not disengage. It usually does so when you pull the release for the film door, but it no longer seems inclined to do so. I just had the camera CLA'd by Eric about five months ago (20-25 rolls have been shot since).

Is this a simple fix? I've never had it refuse to disengage before, and I'm a little nervous about opening the bottom cover for a looksie. I lost two rolls worth of shots because the film will not advance with this button pushed in. *sigh*

Please help! Thanks guys!

nightfly · 06-20-2009, 07:24 AM

I've had this happen on my SPII. It usually occured when advancing the last frame at the end of the roll when there was not enough left to fully cock the shutter.
Once you've gotten the film out, make sure the film advance lever has fully cocked the shutter, then manually spin the sprocketed wheels on the film advance do-dad. The rewind button should pop out. Fire the shutter and advance again if not. Playing around with the film advance and sprocketed wheels did the trick for me.

God luck.

drewdlephone · 06-20-2009, 11:38 AM

Originally Posted by nightfly

I've had this happen on my SPII. It usually occured when advancing the last frame at the end of the roll when there was not enough left to fully cock the shutter.
Once you've gotten the film out, make sure the film advance lever has fully cocked the shutter, then manually spin the sprocketed wheels on the film advance do-dad. The rewind button should pop out. Fire the shutter and advance again if not. Playing around with the film advance and sprocketed wheels did the trick for me.

God luck.

Thank you for the suggestion. I've made some headway, but not enough to be convinced. After playing around with the button and the sprocket and the winder, I've got the sprockets moving again when I cock the shutter, but the strange thing is the button is still depressed. If I hold the button in with my finger, that seems to disconnect the advance from the winder, however, the difference between engaged and disengaged seems to be mere millimeters.

However, it does "click" when I press the button in that tiny bit more, and as soon as I take my finger off the button the drive engages and seems to work fine. The button just hasn't popped out as far as it used to. The button is, however, spinning with the film advance, which I am led to understand is something that should only happen when the release is engaged.

Perhaps I'm concerned over nothing? I just would prefer to have it working reliably.

stevebrot · 06-20-2009, 01:06 PM

Have you contacted Eric? He may have some advice or be willing to fix it under warranty.

Steve

drewdlephone · 06-23-2009, 07:13 PM

It's been figured out.

For those who don't know, including myself, as it turns out there's a bit of a process one should go through when you reach the end of your film to make sure the button drops. When you go for the next shot and the advance stops, you know you've hit the end of the roll, so wind the film back into the canister, and then, BEFORE opening the back, complete the winding motion of the advance lever and trip the shutter (this shouldn't be a problem as the film is now safely in the canister... you should be able to "feel" when this has occured). Then open the back, and the button should be down. I've repeated this process a few times, once with a roll in the camera, and things seem to be working well.

Just thought I'd share my findings for reference's sake.