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10-08-2012, 03:24 PM   #1
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Is healthy for shutter to stay cocked?

Hello,

I am new member of this awesome forum and one of the reasons why to register here was my question, to which I can't find any answer. I have Pentax ME Super and sometimes, when not used for few days, the shutter wont cock after the film advance. When I advance the film again, shutter will cock normaly and works fine. I quess some stucked old oil inside prevent the mechanism to cock when it stays without action for longer time. One solution, I found is to give the camera little exercise: 100–200 shot cycles. I havent tryed this solution, since my camera is loaded with film now. But maybe I have another – simpler solution: just leave the camera cocked all the time. I don't know if it is harmful for the mechanism inside, but when you have winder attached, it shots and then advances the film forward and cock the shutter, so it should not cause any harm, should it?

Thanks for any help or reply.
Jan

10-08-2012, 04:28 PM   #2
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My goodness, I don't know about old Pentax bodies but I can recall this debate from my Minolta days. I recall two schools of thought - one was it didn't matter and the other was never leave it cocked. Turns out it didn't matter anyway as the camera's life far exceeded any problems one way or the other. I was in the leave it cocked camp by the way.
10-08-2012, 04:34 PM   #3
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Thank you. I think, it should be okay to leave it cocked (winder leaves it cocked also and it is genuine equipment), but when I think about the mechanism inside, there must be some spring which is in tension during the cocked state to be able to fire the shutter curtains. What a dilema!
10-08-2012, 05:00 PM   #4
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I generally don't leave my shutter cocked. Mostly because I might accidentally press the shutter button when handling the camera, or putting it in or taking it out of the case.

10-08-2012, 05:15 PM   #5
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For short periods, it is fine. It is when you put it away for months or years that you really don't want to leave the spring tensioned. Of course, assuming that you've taken out the film, that probably wouldn't happen, but then again I've bought a number of used cameras that still had a roll half-used in them from 10 years or more...
10-08-2012, 05:51 PM   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by foto guy Quote
I generally don't leave my shutter cocked. Mostly because I might accidentally press the shutter button when handling the camera, or putting it in or taking it out of the case.
Same.

Although if I know I'm going to be shooting in less than 5mins I would leave it cocked just in-case something interesting comes out.
10-08-2012, 06:22 PM   #7
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Depends on the camera for me.

My Nikon FE is always cocked as you need to move the winder out a bit to fire it so it never fires by accident.

And any camera with a on/off switch I leave cocked as well.

All cameras that are 100% mechanical I leave uncocked.

10-08-2012, 07:45 PM   #8
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Springs wear out not from being compressed or at rest, they wear out from the cycling of compressed to resting...this debate goes on and on at every single firearms forum about magazine springs and reliability.
10-08-2012, 08:18 PM - 1 Like   #9
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I don't worry about it except for my Zorki 4K rangefinder. They have a quirk that damage is possible if the shutter dial is turned before the shutter is cocked. That is reason enough to me to keep that camera cocked!


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10-08-2012, 08:43 PM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by kaiserz Quote
Same.

Although if I know I'm going to be shooting in less than 5mins I would leave it cocked just in-case something interesting comes out.
Agreed. I neglected to mention that. And something almost always does pop up.
10-09-2012, 02:34 AM   #11
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Thank you all for your posts. My ME Super has shutter lock on the dial, so you wouldnt accidentaly fire it when handling in bag. Anyway I see that opinions are different, but I will probably stay with leaving camera uncocked for longer time. It does make me sense, that there is some tension inside which may not be healthy for overall durability.
10-19-2012, 02:55 PM   #12
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Solution

Hi, its been a long time since my last post, but I wanted to add that I have solution for this mallfunction (advancing without cocking). I did not want to leave my shutter cocked so I tried to push the release trigger about 20 times before shooting after long time and viola, it works!

Hope, this may be helpful for somebody.
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