Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 

Reply
Show Printable Version Search this Thread
06-21-2020, 09:21 PM   #16
Veteran Member
Eyewanders's Avatar

Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Land of the Salish Sea
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 3,343
QuoteOriginally posted by acoulter Quote
Appreciate all the comments and feedback! What a great community. I ran some tests without film in the camera and it seems that while the camera accurately meters in low light, the measurement is not translating to the shutter while in automatic mode but does in manual mode. Interesting. I assume that has something to do with the circuit board. I'm going to return the camera (so sad!). If anyone is looking for an incredibly hard to find open box and never used SA-23 focusing screen that I bought separately to put into my LX, I'll be putting that on the market now. Thank you all for the great advice. I'm going to take a look at all the alternatives mentioned above.
This should go without saying, so don't take offense but are the batteries 100% known good and fresh?

Otherwise, yes it does sound board-related. You might try fiddling with the exposure compensation or ISO dial and see if it makes any lick of difference. On mine, making adjustments to dials like that brings everything back to heel, for a bit.

06-21-2020, 09:41 PM   #17
Pentaxian




Join Date: May 2011
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
Photos: Albums
Posts: 3,234
QuoteOriginally posted by acoulter Quote
If anyone is looking for an incredibly hard to find open box and never used SA-23 focusing screen that I bought separately to put into my LX, I'll be putting that on the market now.
I would be interested

---------- Post added 06-21-20 at 11:46 PM ----------

QuoteOriginally posted by Eyewanders Quote
This should go without saying, so don't take offense but are the batteries 100% known good and fresh?

Otherwise, yes it does sound board-related. You might try fiddling with the exposure compensation or ISO dial and see if it makes any lick of difference. On mine, making adjustments to dials like that brings everything back to heel, for a bit.
I work on equipment still in use that were manufactured in the 60s & 70s and it is common practice to wash dial contacts and such when indicator meter needles act erratically.

I suppose I will be able to apply these techniques when I eventually start to work on my camera gear . . .

Last edited by LesDMess; 06-21-2020 at 09:47 PM.
06-21-2020, 09:55 PM   #18
Veteran Member
goddo31's Avatar

Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 2,576
QuoteOriginally posted by acoulter Quote
Thank you all for the great advice. I'm going to take a look at all the alternatives mentioned above.
I imagine that you're quite disappointed with this LX, however you could try another one?
Personally I'm an MX (and LX) fan and have both, and sold my other 35mm bodies.
Good luck
06-21-2020, 10:11 PM   #19
Junior Member




Join Date: Jun 2020
Photos: Albums
Posts: 38
Original Poster
QuoteOriginally posted by Eyewanders Quote
This should go without saying, so don't take offense but are the batteries 100% known good and fresh?

Otherwise, yes it does sound board-related. You might try fiddling with the exposure compensation or ISO dial and see if it makes any lick of difference. On mine, making adjustments to dials like that brings everything back to heel, for a bit.
No offense taken at all! Yes, fresh batteries, I've messed with the ISO, gone manual and back to automatic. The behavior is erratic so it does appear that it may be electronic in nature sadly.

---------- Post added 06-21-20 at 10:21 PM ----------

QuoteOriginally posted by LesDMess Quote
I would be interested

---------- Post added 06-21-20 at 11:46 PM ----------



I work on equipment still in use that were manufactured in the 60s & 70s and it is common practice to wash dial contacts and such when indicator meter needles act erratically.

I suppose I will be able to apply these techniques when I eventually start to work on my camera gear . . .
I went hunting online tonight and decided to go with a fully reconditioned Super Program, as well as a Pentax P-Z1 body (that came with a free Pentax ZX-5N body) and were being sold for peanuts, so I guess I'll have something to play with. Very different than the LX I realize but I mostly shoot my kids so thought it would be nice to have an autofocus option in the mix. Now if I can only decide on which lens to get....

06-22-2020, 10:13 AM   #20
Veteran Member
Eyewanders's Avatar

Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Land of the Salish Sea
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 3,343
QuoteOriginally posted by LesDMess Quote
I would be interested

---------- Post added 06-21-20 at 11:46 PM ----------



I work on equipment still in use that were manufactured in the 60s & 70s and it is common practice to wash dial contacts and such when indicator meter needles act erratically.

I suppose I will be able to apply these techniques when I eventually start to work on my camera gear . . .
Indeed. Unfortunately that was done multiple times by both myself and Eric H. in my particular camera's case. Whatever fault is occurring is within the PCB itself.
06-23-2020, 01:21 AM   #21
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
pentaxpete's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Brentwood, Essex
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 367
For a so-called 'Professional' camera the LX has been disappointing - I have 2. an early and ,later one. The Earlier one has exposure trouble, the later one has the infamous' Sticky Mirror Syndrome' so I have not used them for a long time -- also the 'Flash Sych Speed' of 1/75th is just not fast enough for fill-in outdoors -- when i was doing my local press photography the rival snappers had Nikons which synched at 1/250th when I was struggling with 1/75th and risking movement and a very small aperture in bright light even with 100ASA C41 film. I used my ME Supers more with 1/125th flash synch speed.
06-23-2020, 04:58 AM   #22
Pentaxian




Join Date: May 2011
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
Photos: Albums
Posts: 3,234
QuoteOriginally posted by pentaxpete Quote
For a so-called 'Professional' camera the LX has been disappointing - I have 2. an early and ,later one. The Earlier one has exposure trouble, the later one has the infamous' Sticky Mirror Syndrome' so I have not used them for a long time -- also the 'Flash Sych Speed' of 1/75th is just not fast enough for fill-in outdoors -- when i was doing my local press photography the rival snappers had Nikons which synched at 1/250th when I was struggling with 1/75th and risking movement and a very small aperture in bright light even with 100ASA C41 film. I used my ME Supers more with 1/125th flash synch speed.
In the used market, you can find a lot of failed equipment. I fortunately managed to have acquired 2 perfectly good LXs still going over 10 years now.

None of the professional cameras had 1/250. They all had relatively slow sync speeds with the LX still being the slowest at 1/75 and the Minolta XK being the fastest at 1/100.



At 1/250, maybe you're talking about the non-professional cameras?

The Olympus OM4 can sync at all speeds up to 1/2000 with it's F280 flash.



Of course with today's high powered LED and lithium battery technologies, we don't need to be dependent on flash sync speed!


Last edited by LesDMess; 06-23-2020 at 05:11 AM.
06-23-2020, 02:32 PM   #23
Otis Memorial Pentaxian
stevebrot's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Vancouver (USA)
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 42,007
QuoteOriginally posted by pres589 Quote
Les, if one was okay with the Pentax pushbutton controls, why not go for a Super Program / Super-A and get in-body aperture control for lenses that don't offer aperture rings?


The XR7 is a nice camera though for sure.
QuoteOriginally posted by LesDMess Quote
I had a Super Program but I was not personally enamored with it.
I own both Super Program and XR7 and prefer the Ricoh for general shooting, mostly because it has a more useful viewfinder (bigger too), traditional controls, and an AE lock button.

The Super Program is nice for TTL flash and shutter priority modes. I have used it with lenses lacking an aperture ring and as long as being limited to P and Tv modes is OK it works nicely.

The XR7 is a little more robust (cast alloy chassis), but any camera of that vintage that still works is a survivor, right?


Steve
06-23-2020, 02:57 PM   #24
Otis Memorial Pentaxian
stevebrot's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Vancouver (USA)
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 42,007
QuoteOriginally posted by pentaxpete Quote
For a so-called 'Professional' camera the LX has been disappointing - I have 2. an early and ,later one. The Earlier one has exposure trouble, the later one has the infamous' Sticky Mirror Syndrome' so I have not used them for a long time -- also the 'Flash Sych Speed' of 1/75th is just not fast enough for fill-in outdoors -- when i was doing my local press photography the rival snappers had Nikons which synched at 1/250th when I was struggling with 1/75th and risking movement and a very small aperture in bright light even with 100ASA C41 film. I used my ME Supers more with 1/125th flash synch speed.


I guess there is some comfort in knowing that someone on the forum thinks one's recent purchase was ill conceived. Out of curiosity, if the LX is such a drag, how did you end up with two of them, 1/75th sync and all?


Steve

(...I should probably be asking myself how I ended up with two Exaktas with 1/40s sync, 13 bodies overall at 1/60s and below, and only six syncing at 1/500s...)
06-23-2020, 09:31 PM - 1 Like   #25
Moderator
Loyal Site Supporter
Wheatfield's Avatar

Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: The wheatfields of Canada
Posts: 15,902
QuoteOriginally posted by acoulter Quote
After having bought and sold a beautiful LX, I found myself with deep regret and bought another one just this past week. I fired off two rolls and both had a number of ill exposed frames. These were all shot in automatic mode and I remember with my former LX, the metering was excellent so I'm trying to diagnose what is off here. Is this what sticky mirror looks like in action? Could this be the result of a badly replaced focusing screen (I took it out to clean it and replaced it and know sometimes that can interfere with the mirror but everything seems fine and operational and properly reset). Any guidance would be appreciated. I've had such high hopes to be reunited with the camera of my dreams and hope I'm not stuck with dark frames.
That is either the ISO resistor or aperture follower resistor not working right.
Try this: Depress the ISO lock button and rotate the ISO dial back and forth from lowest to highest about 50 times.
The take the lens off and rotate the aperture follower about 50 times as well.
That should clean off any corrosion on the resistors.
06-23-2020, 10:37 PM   #26
Junior Member




Join Date: Jun 2020
Photos: Albums
Posts: 38
Original Poster
QuoteOriginally posted by Wheatfield Quote
That is either the ISO resistor or aperture follower resistor not working right.
Try this: Depress the ISO lock button and rotate the ISO dial back and forth from lowest to highest about 50 times.
The take the lens off and rotate the aperture follower about 50 times as well.
That should clean off any corrosion on the resistors.
THANK YOU FOR THE TIPS! Can you elucidate? What / where is the aperture follower?
06-24-2020, 12:55 AM - 2 Likes   #27
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
pentaxpete's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Brentwood, Essex
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 367
Stevebrot here is the 'Story' how I ended up with 2 LX cameras -- I bought one first when I was a Photography Tutor in the 1980's at Barking College at discount price through a Student who worked in a camera dealers. Then years later had trouble with erratic exposure so gave to Harrow Technical ( Famous PENTAX repairers) and paid in advance. Then some Yobbos set fire to some rubbish bins outside and fire spread inside premises . Everyone who had a Camera in there was contacted to say they had been damaged by water and fire so would get a free replacement. A BOX arrived with brand NEW Later LX with SMC 50mm f1.4 Pentax-M lens when mine had the f1.7 lens ! 2 years went past then I got a phone call from Harrow Technical asking when I was going to collect my LX that i had paid for and was in for repair !! So i said I had " Been Abroad for a long time " and RUSHED there and was handed my earlier LX undamaged by the Fire ! So I got 2 LX cameras !

---------- Post added 24-06-20 at 09:05 AM ----------

acoulter --- I went to USA on a 'Pentax Club of Great Britain trip about 30 years ago with 2 ME Supers -- I noticed that I was getting some strange exposure read-outs such as 1/2000th @ f16 when I KNEW from experience in bright light for FP4+ it should be 1/125th @ f16 ! Luckily we had a Pentax Company Executive on the trip and he told me to rock the exposure compensation dial back and forth several times and after doing it the LED's were giving accurate read-outs -- that is a FAULT with ME Supers -- there gets dust or condensation under the Exposure Compensation Dial on the contacts.
regarding the Aperture Lever in Camera Lens mount -- I got given a KX body free by a Camera Club member who had sent it off for sale to Ffordes in Scotland and they sent it back as Not Working -- I had a look and that Aperture lever was stuck compared with my other Pentaxes where I could 'Pull it around' -- so I dropped a minute amount of OIL into the ring and pulled gently and it MOVED as it should and KX has been working ever since !

Last edited by pentaxpete; 06-24-2020 at 01:09 AM.
06-24-2020, 08:57 AM - 1 Like   #28
Moderator
Loyal Site Supporter
Wheatfield's Avatar

Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: The wheatfields of Canada
Posts: 15,902
QuoteOriginally posted by acoulter Quote
THANK YOU FOR THE TIPS! Can you elucidate? What / where is the aperture follower?
It's circled in the picture below. The LX originally used copper windings for the resistors, which was fine as long as the camera saw a lot of use, but most cameras didn't, and especially now, film cameras just aren't being used the way they were meant to be used.
The ISO resistor adjusts the meter sensitivity, the aperture cam follower resistor is what lets the camera do open aperture metering by simulating stopping down the lens electronically. You will sometimes hear people referring to it as the aperture simulator.
Anyway, copper will oxidize, consequently the feeler that runs up and down the resistor doesn't make proper contact, causing the problem you have seen.
Later LX cameras did use gold windings. I had all three of my LX bodies sent for repair while Pentax Canada was still servicing them. I had the ISO and aperture cam follower resistors replaced with the new style ones at that time.
If you shoot a roll of film a week, the aperture cam follower resistor should stay clean, but do exercise the ISO resistor frequently by rotating the ISO adjustment dial from stop to stop multiple times whenever you load a new roll of film, or weekly if you tend to shoot sporadically with the camera.

Last edited by Wheatfield; 07-05-2020 at 09:00 PM.
06-24-2020, 09:51 AM   #29
Junior Member




Join Date: Jun 2020
Photos: Albums
Posts: 38
Original Poster
This is the most incredible community. Thank you so so much for all the knowledge and tips! I'm going to try all of this and will report back. Very excited that this camera may still have the potential to be dusted off as my A cam!
06-24-2020, 10:08 AM - 1 Like   #30
Moderator
Loyal Site Supporter
Wheatfield's Avatar

Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: The wheatfields of Canada
Posts: 15,902
QuoteOriginally posted by acoulter Quote
This is the most incredible community. Thank you so so much for all the knowledge and tips! I'm going to try all of this and will report back. Very excited that this camera may still have the potential to be dusted off as my A cam!
Glad to help out. Depending on how badly corroded the resistor is, it may take extensive exercising to get it working properly. Yours doesn't look too bad. One of my cameras simply couldn't make a proper exposure on automatic because of this. Of course, I rarely used the thing on automatic, so when it bit me, it bit me hard.

---------- Post added Jun 24th, 2020 at 11:13 AM ----------

QuoteOriginally posted by LesDMess Quote
So would that have been appropriate for the scene?
Just trying to figure if the meter was off - and by the looks of by a few stops under, or the electronic shutter system is releasing earlier then it should.

In anycase, this is not normal operation and certainly something is off and likely needs attention unless perhaps the batteries have gone bad.

Without film in it, if you could setup a fixed lighting condition and exercise the aperture priority mode on the longer exposure times that you can actually verify with a stopwatch - such as 8, 4 and 2 second. This way you can confirm timing is correct and proper electronic functionality. You can achieve this easily enough by adjusting the ISO to slow film and setting the lens at smaller apertures.
As an aside, this won't work without film in the camera, as the meter reads off the film plane for longer exposures.
Put a piece of undeveloped film across the shutter window, or else exposures will all just go to infinity.
One of the claims to fame of the LX was that when used on automatic during longer exposures (longer than 1/30th IIRC) it would adjust exposure during the exposure if the scene brightness changed.

Last edited by Wheatfield; 06-24-2020 at 10:18 AM.
Reply

Bookmarks
  • Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook
  • Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter
  • Submit Thread to Digg Digg
Tags - Make this thread easier to find by adding keywords to it!
bad, batteries, bit, body, camera, compensation, dark frames, exposure, exposures, f16, film, fire, focus screen, frames, harrow, iso, lens, lx, meter, mirror, offense, pentax, pm, post, sa-23 focusing screen, scene, sticky mirror, supers, trip
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Streets it's all happening at the zoo ... zman Post Your Photos! 3 02-05-2012 01:11 PM
What is happening dcrossman Digital Processing, Software, and Printing 7 06-09-2010 12:50 PM
What's happening with the Pro-Photographers? ebooks4pentax Photographic Technique 40 08-31-2008 06:07 AM



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 02:30 AM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top