rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) (05/30/85)
[] I have been asked to explain what went wrong and what the fix was. Gulp. ... The screw I took out was about 1.0mm diameter by 1.2 cm long. It would not go into its hole all the way. The diaphragm control ring turned but did not affect the diaphragm setting. It should have changed the "taking" diaphragm setting. A lever on the back of the lens, actuated by the camera, causes the diaphragm to be wide open for focusing and framing, then to close down to an opening set by the diaphragm ring for the actual exposure. The ring did not regulate the diaphragm, which was fully closed (well, f22) except when the rear lever caused it to fully open. The fix was to first insert a very fine wire, drill, or (actually) a screw driver shank into the hole and feel the obstruction that was keeping the screw from bottoming in the hole. Then, turn the diaphragm dial and observe that when it was also set to f22, the probe "fell off a cliff". Quick! Pull out the probe and screw in the screw! Eureka! it's fixed. The screw, when fully inserted pushes against the "cliff" inside as you rotate the ring, thus forming a "stop" for the closing of the lens diaphragm when the rear lever says, "stop down to taking aperature." Thus, the diaphragm, under the urging of the camera, via the rear lever, is able to change its diaphragm opening from wide open to taking aperature. I had tried this fix the night before (without the probe) - or thought that I had. But it hadn't worked. Some of my trusty net friends said, in effect, "cheer up, it can't be so bad. It's easy to fix. You probably can't hurt it if you don't unscrew something else." So I went back and tried it more calmly and...I fixed it in much less time than it took to describe above. ...You can do Anything with help from the net! -- "It's the thought, if any, that counts!" Dick Grantges hound!rfg