Bessa R3A shutter jam problem and rangefinder dust issue

[jacklam]

I just bought my Bessa R3A last month. I have enjoyed it a lot and it served me very reliably, until I had my shutter jammed on me once.

It happened one day when I fired the shutter. I heard only one "click" instead of the usual "click-chunk". The film advance lever refused to let me advance to the next frame, and the shutter release button didn't give any response when I pressed it. I rewinded the film and opened the back, and the shutter appeared to be jammed. The film advance lever still didn't work after I rewinded the film. It appeared that the rear shutter was closed but the front shutter (the geryish one right behind the lens) was jammed in the open position.

At that point, I thought I got a lemmon and the camera must be sent back for repair. I removed the lens and inspected the shutter. When I lightly touched the jammed shutter, it slammed back to the close position and now it worked fine again. Later, I realized it was on the last exposure of a bulk-loaded roll when the shutter jammed.

I've never heard of this issue before. I don't know why it happend or if it will happen again in the future. I don't know if it is normal or if my camera is a lemmon.

Besides, I saw a small bit of dust behind the front element of the rangefinder when I frist received the camera. And now I start to see more and more dust there. I didn't store or use my camera in places that are particularly dusty. Although the dust doesn't affect normal usage and focusing, I wonder how that happen and I'm worried the rangefinder will become more and more dusty as time passes. Isn't the rangefinder supposed to be sealed from dust?


Can you help me on this? Should I send my camera back for inspection? Any insight will be appreicated.


thanks,

Jack Lam

[sf]

I get the same dust issue with my beloved Bronica RF645. It is relatively new, but has a consierable quantity of dust behind the front element. I consider sending it back to Tamron in NY when it gets too heavy to accept. I will never take my cameras apart.

[Rune]

Maybe stupid question, but were the batteries OK? I´ve experienced the same thing on other cameras (SLRs, but shutter of same type) when the batteries failed, and the cure was always the same; lightly touch the shutter.

[lngu81]

I had an R3A and it had a similar problems, unfortunately my R3a was more serverely damaged. Replace the batteries and avoid using A mode while the lense cap is on or underexposed that should fix the problem. It's the electronic plays up due to low batteries that caused the shutter to 'stuck', this is a reason why I bought another R3m and so far I havnt have this issue.
The camera is not dust seal, you will get dust into the viewfinder eventually. The dust could sit behind the diopter and hopefully it does, then you can just clean that easily. If not, just ignore it, otherwise you will have to open the camera to clean it, it's bound to happens sooner or later.

[ClaremontPhoto]

Jack Lam: You did the right thing just tickling the shutter very gently. For many people that does the trick.

The general opinion seems to be that this jamming may be caused by trying to wind on before the shutter closes.

[johnweston]

I had my R2A lock up on me from trying to cock the shutter while it was still open during an A mode long exposure. The LEDs in the viewfinder even quit. Tickling the shutter didn't work (both shutters were closed).
I instead advanced the film take-up spool by hand, effectively cocking the shutter and releasing it. The camera immediately began working as normal, LEDs and all.
Hope this helps.