[Jean Poitiers]

Bonjour,

I picked up last month a nice cosmetic ME Super with M 50/1.7 from my thrift store and it seemed to all just fine ... just needed batteries.

Yesterday I was triggering the shutter and the mirror "locked up" in the up position ... and would not return to its normal position. All is locked up now ...

I changed the batteries and tried the different positions on the control dial but to no avail ... does anyone have a suggestion ?

Thanks in advance for any help ... Cheers, J

[mattt]

Does the shutter cock operate normally/correctly? There is a little piece of spring steel that breaks off after typical wear and tear and it can jam up the inner bits easily.

[Jean Poitiers]

Does the shutter cock operate normally/correctly? There is a little piece of spring steel that breaks off after typical wear and tear and it can jam up the inner bits easily.

Thanks for your question ... shutter crank/cock will no forward anymore.

All is seized up ... maybe it's that.

[Not a Number]

Mirror bumper turned to glue/tar? If that's the case you should be able to lower the mirror by gently prying on it. Use something that is less likely to scratch or break the mirror like a toothpick or finger nail.

[mattt]

no, i think it is related to the mirror not going down at this point, I was asking about before the mirror got stuck... did it operate normally?

[Jean Poitiers]

no, i think it is related to the mirror not going down at this point, I was asking about before the mirror got stuck... did it operate normally?

Yeah, Matt ... Everything worked fine and normally before it seized up ... that's why I am a bit puzzled here. Never seen this.

I was looking at this ME Super to see if I could run a roll of B&W through it ... I have 2 or 3 nice ME Super's and I am trying to decide which one to send to Eric H. and which one to leave be ... maybe this one will be assigned to a shelf in my office.

---------- Post added 08-29-15 at 21:27 ----------

Mirror bumper turned to glue/tar? If that's the case you should be able to lower the mirror by gently prying on it. Use something that is less likely to scratch or break the mirror like a toothpick or finger nail.

Thanks for your suggestion. The bumper does not seem that bad. I tried to pull the mirror down via fingernail but it went back to the "up" position again after releasing it ... a bit confused here.

[fwcetus]

I tried to pull the mirror down via fingernail but it went back to the "up" position again after releasing it

A couple weeks ago I received an ME F from an eBay seller that arrived ~exactly~ that way -- I had to send it back.

[Not a Number]

It looks like the ME Super has a electronic shutter that will work mechanically at 1/125 sec. Try setting the speed to 1/125 and see if you can get it to finish cycling through the shutter release sequence - with and without the battery.

Pentax-manuals.com has a service manual for the ME Super. If it asks for a password use "Pentax"

http://www.pentax-manuals.com/manuals/service/me-s_sm.pdf

Seems like there is a friction washer made of calfskin that's used in the "dumper lever assembly" (part of the mirror assembly). I would imagine if that dried out or rotted it could cause problems.

[hks_kansei]

This seems to be a pretty common fault with the ME and ME supers.
Maybe the MV/MG as well?
A friend has a few MEs that he has bought over time, and I think of them all only one was functional, the rest all had this issue.


An old trick that may work is to just thump the bottom of the camera onto the palm of your hand, this can let the camera at least finish the exposure.
But, while sometimes it will work fine afterwards, other times it might just lock up again the next shot.

[Jean Poitiers]

It looks like the ME Super has a electronic shutter that will work mechanically at 1/125 sec. Try setting the speed to 1/125 and see if you can get it to finish cycling through the shutter release sequence - with and without the battery.

Pentax-manuals.com has a service manual for the ME Super. If it asks for a password use "Pentax"

http://www.pentax-manuals.com/manuals/service/me-s_sm.pdf

Seems like there is a friction washer made of calfskin that's used in the "dumper lever assembly" (part of the mirror assembly). I would imagine if that dried out or rotted it could cause problems.

OK ... thanks. I will check out the manual. Much appreciated, J

---------- Post added 09-02-15 at 20:59 ----------

This seems to be a pretty common fault with the ME and ME supers.
Maybe the MV/MG as well?
A friend has a few MEs that he has bought over time, and I think of them all only one was functional, the rest all had this issue.


An old trick that may work is to just thump the bottom of the camera onto the palm of your hand, this can let the camera at least finish the exposure.
But, while sometimes it will work fine afterwards, other times it might just lock up again the next shot.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I had already "spanked" it pretty hard with my hands to the point of some good pain ... nada. Cheers, J