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04-18-2012, 07:57 PM   #1
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Dreaded Electro Spottie!

Ok.... I knew what I was getting myself into, but I thought I would pose the question anyway...

I just aquired a clean Electro Spotmatic, which does the following -


Camera meter only works with shutter dial set to 'Automatic'.

Meter needle sits at the bottom of the VF, and on pressing BC button, swings up to 1/15th.

On half press of the shutter release, it appears to meter more or less accurately, certainly responds quickly to light changes.

Shutter speed on automatic seems to be 1/1000, regardless of the meter reading.

Mechanical speeds seem accurate enough, might be a bit sluggish, but at least enough to differentiate between them at this stage. No sticky mirror.

BC and meter unresponsive when shutter speed dial is at any setting other than 'Auto'. More accurately, the needle, already at the bottom of the VF, appears to 'twitch' downward on pressing the BC.



I know this is a lot, and could point to a myriad of issues, especially with this camera, (!?!?!) but I thought it might be worth putting it to everyone in case some of these symptoms ring any bells!


Last edited by Brad&Gayna; 04-18-2012 at 08:27 PM.
04-19-2012, 01:44 AM   #2
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ES & ES II have the stepless shutter speed with metering only in Auto mode! From my recollection there are two Auto modes: a normal one and one with the viewfinder blinds closed.

The manual modes with defined shutter speeds are meter-less per construction! You can meter in Auto and switch then or use the sunny F16 rule when encountering dead batteries.

The needle moves sometimes even when you shake the camera body, so from your description everything seems to work as it should.

Hope this helps,

Martin
04-19-2012, 02:27 AM   #3
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As Martin said, neither the ES or the ESII had metering in manual mode. Of the two, only the ESII had the shutter blind mode though. In the ES and the ESII the needle normally sits at the top of the viewfinder and descends when the shutter/battery check is pushed.

K.
04-19-2012, 04:23 AM   #4
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Well, thanks to you both! Shows what I know... I will try a fresh battery, the one in it now gets things moving but perhaps its not great. Will see if this alters the BC response, and has any effect on the shutter speeds. Hopefully it's not stuck on the one speed..

04-19-2012, 05:58 AM   #5
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The other thing to note is you need SMC / S-M-C or compatible 3rd party lenses for the metering scheme to work.
04-19-2012, 06:35 AM   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by Nesster Quote
The other thing to note is you need SMC / S-M-C or compatible 3rd party lenses for the metering scheme to work.
Aha... I will put in the fresh battery and look at it again in the light of the above advice (thanks all!). It is metering accurately on auto, and on second look the BC is actually indicating 1/30th, per the ES (just with the needle coming from the VF bottom, maybe a peculiarity?). It has the green 'R' on the rewind; I stumbled across a few references suggesting this indicates a later version..

I will let you know how I get on.
04-20-2012, 04:49 PM   #7
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As for the shutter speed, I have an ES which meters roughly correctly but in some circumstances always shoots at 1/1000th. Not quite sure, but I think after a long exposure (or possibly several short exposures in quick succession), something in the circuitry becomes 'charged' and then takes a while to discharge. After leaving the camera for half an hour or so, the shutter seemed to fire at the metered speed once more.

I stumbled into web page that suggested the timing capacitor should be shorted by a mechanism (possibly close to the shutter cocked indicator?) and this wasn't quite making contact (sorry can't find the link).

04-20-2012, 05:03 PM   #8
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Is it actually and Electro Spotmatic or is it an ES or ESII? If it says, Electro on the front, it is the former and the were sold but had a lot of 1-off circuitry.
04-21-2012, 04:06 AM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by johnha Quote
As for the shutter speed, I have an ES which meters roughly correctly but in some circumstances always shoots at 1/1000th. Not quite sure, but I think after a long exposure (or possibly several short exposures in quick succession), something in the circuitry becomes 'charged' and then takes a while to discharge. After leaving the camera for half an hour or so, the shutter seemed to fire at the metered speed once more.

I stumbled into web page that suggested the timing capacitor should be shorted by a mechanism (possibly close to the shutter cocked indicator?) and this wasn't quite making contact (sorry can't find the link).

Thanks for the info. I'll keep playing with it and see if it 'settles in', who knows how long its sat idle. I've revived two Super A's through gentle prodding and twirling of dials
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