Minolta Hi-Matic 9 Help Please

refinder · 04-08-2006

hi everyone,

i'm a newbie, but, with the help from reading all the good postings, plus email helps from a few very nice and experienced guys, i did manage to take my camera down to this stage, (photo1), and cleaned the stuck shutter. the shutter works great now. that was just a great experience, thank you all!

now i'd really appreciate helps and advices on these two problems:-

1) the lens is rather wobbly. the focus ring part of it, (photo1, blue arrow), seems to be ok, it is the part that sits inside this focusing ring, (photo1, red arrow), that is rather wobbly. that means the shutter nut is loose, correct? the rear lens group has to be removed in order to access the shutter nut, is that right? what should i watch out for at taking the lens board off, so that nothing will fall out, or fly off, and everything will be where they needs to be when putting the lens board back on?

2) the selftimer. if i cock the shutter, push the selftimer lever to the V position, and press the shutter release, the timer times out but the shutter does not open, it does not click either, i think. the selftimer lever will stay at the V position. if i gently push the selftimer lever just a little towards the set direction, the shutter opens, and the selftimer lever will return to its original position. what is the wrong here? how should i fix it? i see 5 screws in the black plate, (photo2, 5 red arrows). am i supposed to remove them in order to get to the selftimer?

thanks a lot for all of your instructions/illustrations/advices/helps!

- refinder
p.s. first posting. hope the photos will get attached correctly.

refinder · 04-08-2006

oops, looks like the photos didn't get attached right.

i have them in my yahoo photos, did a right click on them, and pasted the pathnames in between [IMG] and [/IMG]. didn't seem to be right.

what is the correct way of attaching photos?

- refinder

Brian Sweeney · 04-08-2006

To use the self-timer on the HM9, the camera must be set to manual operation. It will not operate on automatic. If it is on manual and not working, I'm not sure what the problem is.

refinder · 04-08-2006

thanks a lot Brian for the tip!

i double checked, it was in manual mode, both shutter speed and aperture were off from A, i also took the battery out. by the way, i tested when the front lens group was taken out, in a state as shown in the attached photo1, does it matter?

it'd be cool if i could attach pictures as thumbnails, as others do here. how should i do that?

- refinder

Brian Sweeney · 04-09-2006

To attach pictures as thumbnails:

In the reply section of the page, click "advanced".

You now get a more complete page. Scroll down halfway, and click on "manage attachments". A popup window will appear, and allow you to browse the hard disk (local file, network disk, etc) for files to attach.

There is a 1mbyte max, and some size limit. A 1024x670 image is easy, and is what I usually scale to.

If the timer is "ticking", I fear something (internal link) is broken. The camera is almost 40 years old. If the lens is loose, you might have quality issues anyway. HM9's go for cheap, $20~25, or a couple rolls of film. You might look for a different one and save/sale this one for parts. Or use it as "the beach camera" or some other purpose where you want a high-quality "expendable". My HM9 has served faithfully since 1969 and has a place of prominece next to the Black Nikon SP in my camera drawer. One entire Summer of mowing lawns to save $80 for it.

refinder · 04-10-2006

thank you Brian, i've attached the pictures as thumbnails now.

man that's some story, i suppose that camera of yours means more to you than any other cameras, in some sense.

i hear you Brian, i could buy another one, but just thought it would be fun to learn to do some fixing myself. guess i'll use it for a learning camera, with a hope of being able to actually return it to excellent working condtion.

- refinder

refinder · 04-10-2006

oh boy, i just realized there is a Repair Notes forum. probably i posted this in the wrong place then, sorry.

just to report back to you, Brian, and everyone else, the wobbly lens bugs me too much, i finally managed to take the lens board off, and found a very very loose shutter nut. when pushed lightly with a toothpick, it was free turning! tightened. no wobbly lens anymore. feel good! thank you all for helping!

now the rangefinder is off.

will the lens infinity setting be off too? haven't got the time to check yet, but that shouldn't be the case, correct? i didn't touch the helicoid relative to the lens board, nor the shutter assembly relative to the helicoid, i only tightened the shutter nut. then there's no reason the lens infinity setting will be changed, did i get this right?

i hope this is the case, then i only need to find out about how to adjust the rangefinder to match the lens. fun is like waves, it comes at you one after the other!

- refinder

Brian Sweeney · 04-11-2006

Wow! If you photographed the procedure, please post in the repair section!

Someone could have adjusted the RF to work with the loose lens. Tigntening the lens back up could cause the shift.

Welcome aboard and look forward to seeing some HM9 shots.

refinder · 04-11-2006

sure Brian, i will, i'd like to document it, for everyone who cares to find out, and for myselt also.

thank you for your encouragement! it may take me a while before i can shoot with it, i'd like to do the light seal too.

happy shooting!

refinder · 04-25-2006

hey Brian,

i found an inflation calculator at the website of U.S. Department Of Labor. wondering how much that $80 you paid back in '69 would be today?

well, $435.53

not a cheap camera!

- refinder

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Sweeney

To attach pictures as thumbnails:

In the reply section of the page, click "advanced".

You now get a more complete page. Scroll down halfway, and click on "manage attachments". A popup window will appear, and allow you to browse the hard disk (local file, network disk, etc) for files to attach.

There is a 1mbyte max, and some size limit. A 1024x670 image is easy, and is what I usually scale to.

If the timer is "ticking", I fear something (internal link) is broken. The camera is almost 40 years old. If the lens is loose, you might have quality issues anyway. HM9's go for cheap, $20~25, or a couple rolls of film. You might look for a different one and save/sale this one for parts. Or use it as "the beach camera" or some other purpose where you want a high-quality "expendable". My HM9 has served faithfully since 1969 and has a place of prominece next to the Black Nikon SP in my camera drawer. One entire Summer of mowing lawns to save $80 for it.