If you’ve read the main blog post recently, you’ll have seen the Nikon FG I had is no more. The odds of getting it apart to replace the disintegrated battery housing were slim, putting it back together again, slimmer still! Hence, I’ve done a bit of Nikon lens selling on eBay. Sadly, the posting of one lens resulted in the appearance of a lump of grime in the optics which definitely wasn’t there when I was using it, but the buyer was happy to accept half what it cost him back, which was good of him. This is the problem with old lenses in general, let alone having them thrown about in the post!
Coming in the opposite direction, a Yashica ML 35-70 zoom, which looks pretty clean inside, but I’ve yet to test, plus a bit of a “hope for the best” job lot, marked as spares or repair. This comprised another Yashica FX-D Quartz body with customary dilapidated covering, the dedicated motor drive in a similar state and the seemingly ubiquitous Tamron Adaptall 2 80-210mm zoom lens, obviously with the C/Y mount, all in a dinky little gadget bag. The ad mentioned that the camera itself and the motor drive were intermittent, though the sellers said some of it may be their unfamiliarity with Yashica. They were half right!
Unlike some cameras of a similar age, the FX-D needs you to press the exposure check button in the middle of the AE lock/self-timer lever, as opposed to first pressure on the shutter release like most other brands, to get the exposure LEDs in the viewfinder to work. Quite possible then, that this may have caused trouble for the sellers. So for now, I ‘m assuming the body is working fine, shutter speed changes OK, everything works as it should, but a good clean will be definitely be needed to remove the debris from the disintegrating mirror bumper foam inside the mirror box. Naturally, all the outer leatherette skin has departed and the light seals need replacing. But as this will be number 4, I think can manage that.
As for the motor drive, TBH, I wasn’t particularly fussed if this was a worker or not. I had one with the first FX-D I did and it went with it when I sold it. They’re noisy, certainly my memory says they’re noisier than say the Olympus Winder 2 that would go with the OM40 I have now and I used to own back in the day, plus they also make the FX-D seem exceptionally heavy and bulkier. Undoubtedly, 4 AA cells doesn’t help weight wise, any more than it did on the OM winder, but the Yashica winder is basically a box plus a relatively small extra grip as you can see in the photo. At least the OM winder 2 grip gave you a fuller grip allowing more purchase and a dedicated shutter button.
However, after loading with new AAs, trying the test button, which failed to stir any movement whatsoever, fiddling around caused a single operation of the motor, which gave me some hope it was repairable. As the skin on the winder was in the same state as the camera, it was coming off anyway, and as the boxy unit splits in half, it has to come off regardless. Half a dozen or so small screws later, two clips and the motor unit is exposed, complete with the battery contacts, and the obvious culprit in terms of intermittent operation.
Rule Number 1: Always take the batteries out! Alkaline batteries, regardless of brand, if left for a long time will leak. Yes some brands are better than others in terms of how long you’ve got, but they all do it, and the longer they’re left, the worse it can get when it comes to leaking. Some you have to extract with the deft use of a screw driven into the battery and a pair of pliers! After that, you can usually write off whatever they’ve been extracted from. Luckily, I think whoever owned the motor drive just caught things in time, and only one spring contact needed a gentle clean to remove the corrosion. Whilst it was in bits, I took the opportunity to give the gearing a little lubrication, doesn’t need a lot or you can cause more problems than you cure, but a few drops after what’s 40+ years won’t go amiss.
Reassembly was easy enough, despite a small spring appearing which wasn’t there when it came apart, and having to work out which way round the lever went which pushed a pin up and activates the button on the the bottom of the FX-D body to unlock the film advance; so you can rewind a used film without the need to remove the drive unit. Reattached to the FX-D, tested and we have a winner.
The decision then became, does it stay or does it go? Initially it was staying, but after trying it again, I changed my mind and it’s going with the FX-D once that’s renovated. The FX-D when combined with the motor drive isn’t why I started using film again, I definitely like light weight and the more measured pace when taking photos offered by single frame advance. My old Winder 2 was great when I was taking shots of rally cars back in the 80s, but a modern digital camera is much more practical and has an awfully higher frame rate should I get to do it again.
Brilliant service again from Milleys Cameras, especially after I changed my mind on the colour! The blue looks better “in the flesh” than it does on the website. The “burnt orange” isn’t even offered on the list for the FX motor drive, but an email is all it took. As I said, brilliant service.
Now the Tamron lens I mentioned….hmm, front and rear optics don’t look too bad, but lurking in one of the inner sets is a nice growth of fungus around one edge. This I suspect will show up on images, but we’ll see, literally, though I’ve a C/Y to Fuji XF adaptor coming so I’ll be able to test lenses without having to put a film though and obviously the cost to develop it.
As for the dinky gadget bag, it’s intact, clean, zips work etc, but that will go on the next charity shop trip!