[rdhalla]

Hello guys,


I was at a photo-shoot yesterday. Had my pentax 67 in my shoulder bag. While trying to put the tripod down, the bag slipped off my shoulder and hit the ground. Now the bad is padded, but I heard the impact. I was worried about the camera.. Took it out, Nothing obvious. There was no damage or dents.

I loaded a roll and tried to adjust the shutter speed. There is where I got worried. The shutter dial was turning free. There was no resistance or clicking sound.

When I got home. I tried to take a look at it again and see if I can figure it out again.

Here are the few things I noticed.

1. The shutter fires at all speeds. It just doesn't make the clicking ( speed locking sound ?) If i set the dial to 1sec, the shutter fires for 1 sec and if I turn the dial to B, The camera shutters opens as long as I hold the trigger.

2. It has a very very very faint resistance on speeds. Like its kinda hard to explain. But if i move the shutter dial slowly, I can feel that there is a very faint feeling that its clicking?

Can anyone recommended what I should do? I am not comfortable opening the camera unless it an easy fix.

[Silent Street]

Now the bad is padded, but I heard the impact. I was worried about the camera.

Rightly so. That corner, where the shutter speed dial is, probably took the brunt of the impact and may have resulted in a broken or stripped pawl that controls the click stops on the shutter speeds. No need (or desire!) to open the camera, just the dial bit. It is a fairly simple task to use a tiny (jeweller's) screwdriver to remove the screws securing the shutter speed dial (these are very tiny!), taking care to record all parts below that also come off, and in which order they are to be replaced, and inspect the mechanism (or dial that also could have been damaged). If part of the mechanism governing the click tops is broken or stripped you may have luck in getting the camera serviced at pentaxs.com, by Eric Henderson, and using like-parts from a similar camera (there are no new parts for any of the Pentax 6x7 / 67 cameras, so repairs utilise what is available from parts cameras).

And now a salutary tale of my own from 1984. I was the 'stoker' on a friend's tandem on a ride around the peninsula some distance from home. We gathered speed (around 60km/h) coming down a hill on gravel, then hit a bar of very rough corrugations. My Olympus OM4 and 3 lenses, secured to the rear rack in a rack-pack, dislodged and flew off violently, bouncing off into roadside vegetation. We stopped the tandem and I walked back to collect the pack, nonchalantly dusting it off and securing it to the rack. We then road 30km back to the rail station for the train home. It was while in the warm confines of the train train that I opened the pack up to get my lunch, and there found the camera and two lenses had been completely destroyed by the obviously severe impact within the padded confines of the pack. There was nothing to do but to send the bits and pieces in to be used as parts, and sadly, that's what happened. I bought another OM4 a few months later, and never carried a camera on any bike again after that. Only one lens survived this event, a tiny Zuiko 24mm, that was double-wrapped in an old woolly sock! My devastation at the time was plain to see, and it took a long time to get over it. The moral to this story is if your pack has come to blows, don't pick it up and think everything is roses. Certainly, do not open it under that rosy impression while having lunch...

[rdhalla]

Now the bad is padded, but I heard the impact. I was worried about the camera.

Rightly so. That corner, where the shutter speed dial is, probably took the brunt of the impact and may have resulted in a broken or stripped pawl that controls the click stops on the shutter speeds. No need (or desire!) to open the camera, just the dial bit. It is a fairly simple task to use a tiny (jeweller's) screwdriver to remove the screws securing the shutter speed dial (these are very tiny!), taking care to record all parts below that also come off, and in which order they are to be replaced, and inspect the mechanism (or dial that also could have been damaged). If part of the mechanism governing the click tops is broken or stripped you may have luck in getting the camera serviced at pentaxs.com, by Eric Henderson, and using like-parts from a similar camera (there are no new parts for any of the Pentax 6x7 / 67 cameras, so repairs utilise what is available from parts cameras).

And now a salutary tale of my own from 1984. I was the 'stoker' on a friend's tandem on a ride around the peninsula some distance from home. We gathered speed (around 60km/h) coming down a hill on gravel, then hit a bar of very rough corrugations. My Olympus OM4 and 3 lenses, secured to the rear rack in a rack-pack, dislodged and flew off violently, bouncing off into roadside vegetation. We stopped the tandem and I walked back to collect the pack, nonchalantly dusting it off and securing it to the rack. We then road 30km back to the rail station for the train home. It was while in the warm confines of the train train that I opened the pack up to get my lunch, and there found the camera and two lenses had been completely destroyed by the obviously severe impact within the padded confines of the pack. There was nothing to do but to send the bits and pieces in to be used as parts, and sadly, that's what happened. I bought another OM4 a few months later, and never carried a camera on any bike again after that. Only one lens survived this event, a tiny Zuiko 24mm, that was double-wrapped in an old woolly sock! My devastation at the time was plain to see, and it took a long time to get over it. The moral to this story is if your pack has come to blows, don't pick it up and think everything is roses. Certainly, do not open it under that rosy impression while having lunch...

Thank you, I have setup and appointment to see the technician tomorrow. I live in Australia.. so sending my camera to Erick might be expensive. I'll update the post tomorrow.

Thank you for sharing your story. Om series are great camears. Sock saved a lens XD