I recently took some pictures with my Leica SL2 and many of the shots taken at 1/500, 1/1000 and 1/2000 were badly under exposed on one side of the frame some were completely blank. Slower speeds seem to be fine. Technically what's the problem with the shutter? Can it be fixed. It was CLA'd in 2000 and the camera probably runs three or four rolls per year. Thx.
Alan Smithee
Re: Leica SL2 Shutter Woes
If you want to get rid of the SL2, I'll gladly dispose of it... :-)
Chris Loffredo
Re: Leica SL2 Shutter Woes
FED? Like the Russian Fed?
Alan Smithee
Re: Leica SL2 Shutter Woes
I turned the oven on to 140F and then turned it off and left the camera body sit in the warm oven for about 20-30 minutes as the oven cooled. Lots of cranking. It fixed the problem. One thing I noticed with the problem was that the shutter curtain wasn't completely clearing the film plane when the camera expressed the problem. A tiny bit of the curtain would just hang on for a little bit at the edge. I not sure of the exact mechanics of how shutters work but it probably was just cold grease slowing that particular part down. I really should use the SL2 more except that the thing weighs way more than most of my other cameras. I get as good or better results with my FT-3...oh wait I should say that...:^)
Alan Smithee
Re: Leica SL2 Shutter Woes
Yes, seen a a bit of that... ;-) But even the best cameras sometimes manage to strip the film spacers in some situations (excluding user error, of course). while rare, it should at least be checked.
Chris Loffredo
Re: Leica SL2 Shutter Woes
Alan Smithee
Re: Leica SL2 Shutter Woes
"Chris Loffredo" <me@privacy.net> wrote Now that sounds like a FED problem.
Nicholas O. Lindan
Re: Leica SL2 Shutter Woes
Hmmm... A supposedly serious repairer in Canada using the wrong lubricant? It's an off chance, but try looking for film fragments or other contamination in the shutter curtain travel channels. Warming the camera to about 40° C. and cycling the shutter as you suggested might do something, but in my experience it doesn't sound like a lubricant problem (though I hope I'm wrong).
Chris Loffredo
Re: Leica SL2 Shutter Woes
"Alan Smithee" <alansmithee@anon.anon.com> wrote .... you would think they'd use low temperature lubricants. They are available if you ask.
Nicholas O. Lindan
Re: Leica SL2 Shutter Woes
taken It definately could be from lack of use I think. I have a Konica T3 that has a similar problem. Needs to be warmed up or the aperture cam lags badly. The tech who did the CLA was at Kinderman here in Canada. They usually do a decent job. I'm going to try gently warming it and give it a bunch of cranks to loosen things up. Thx.
Alan Smithee
Re: Leica SL2 Shutter Woes
"Alan Smithee" <alansmithee@anon.anon.com> wrote Usual culprit is old lube and not much use. An easy check is to see if cold makes the problem _much_ worse - if it does the problem is congealed lubricant. Sometimes just exercise can get things in shape, as with an old lens. Sometimes the camera needs liposuction. That's plenty of time for low-quality lube to turn to glue. I would try a couple of hundred shutter cycles and see what happens.
