Sunday, February 10, 2013

... My Kingdom For A (Good) Screw!

Camera in hand, subject before me, things are looking good. Press the shutter and... and... the advance lever doesn't budge! Huh? It's frozen, rock solid, this mother ain't going nowhere, no how. Thirty years plus of thumb action and I ain't ever seen nothing like it. I play with it and get it to work- sorta. A shot here, a shot there- but only when it wants to. I take the film out, reload and smoothly advance to where we left off. As soon as I take the first shot, dead stop. Play with it again, a shot here and a shot there- no apparent rhyme or reason. Fortunately, my subject is more than patient as I try to conceal my urge to chuck the damn thing across the avenue- my Nikon FM3A, the camera that's supposed to outlive me.

So while I'm on hold for Nikon Repair, I notice the screw under the frame counter on the camera's top plate is missing. Related? I keep playing with the camera and finally notice that whenever I apply downward pressure on the top plate, the lever advances. The 1/2 millimeter misalignment caused by the missing screw was the problem- end of story. Went to the camera store, a salesman threw me a loose screw- back in business. Now to see what's on that film...

1 comment:

Eric Rose said...

Another good reason to always carry duct tape. Plus it makes your camera look even more badass!