Bessa R stopped functioning,. HELP!

[lesged]

Wednesday, in another forum (W/NW) I raved about my Bessa-R calling her perfect. In certain cultures there are words uttered after stating how lucky or how healthy a bragging person is. It's to prevent the evil eye from reversing the situation.  I should have added, "knock wood," or thrown  salt over my left shoulder. No question about it, a curse has been cast on my Bessa-R

Yesterday afternoon (Thursday) at the fish pier, I took the first two shots of a roll of Tri-X with the Bessa-R the  <~#$* advance lever stopped before finishing its stroke, it didn't make a full cocking turn. I pressed the shutter release button, but nothing happened. I rewound a few frames and tried again--nothing changed--there was no action at all. I thought the battery pooped out.

I drove to Radio Shack to get a fresh 3 volt 1/3N battery. They had it, but the clerk insisted on taking my battery out of the Bessa and tested it. It read 2.98 v. he cleaned(abraded) the contacts in the camera and the battery contacts. When replaced there was no action, but the meter lit and reacted appropriately to changes in speed and f stops.

I'm in the dumps. I was so happy Wednesday when I posted "Foggy Morn in Florida" in W/NW and finally got to appreciatejust how great a camera the Bessa -R is. Well, it ain't perfect. Nothing is.

I never had electrical trouble with cameras that a fresh battery wouldn't fix,

Thank Zeus! I brought my FED2 as a backup and it's compatible with the  3 LTM lenses I brought to Florida; VC Skopar 35/2.5 pancake, Summitar 50/2 and Elmar 90/4

Any ideas what happened?  All ideas and comments are welcome.

[jake]

Bessa R is completely mechanical except for the meter. The meter doesn't do anything except control those red light arrows. The shutter, advance, everything else are mechanical and not electronic. Therefore, the battery, good or bad, shouldn't change anything.

When you say that you rewound a few frames, does that mean you pressed the rewind button and rewound or that you just rewound a bit to tighten the film on the spool? If just the latter, can you do the former - press in the rewind button and rewind the film, preferably back into the cassette while leaving a bit of the leader out so you can re-use the film if possible?

Have you opened the back? I know you have film in there, but you've only shot two shots, and unless those two shots are of Bush and Obama french kissing, I'd open the back & look at what the film is doing. On my Bessa L, which shares its internals with the R, if I don't get the film seated right in between the top and bottom film guides (machined silver strips above and below the film gate,) the film can skew slightly and jam between the the film guides and the pressure plate. The edges of the film guides are sharp because they are machined flat, so when the film rides up onto them instead of between them, there isn't enough clearance between the guides and the pressure plate, and the guides dig into and grab the film. If this is the case, you might have to pull the film and cut a new leader to start all over again.

Last long shot is that the film has somehow jumped off the cogs, ripped a couple sprocket holes and now the cogs are synced right and/or a piece of film is somewhere it shouldn't be. That too will require opening the back. Open it up under good light and take a look.

[Santiago Montenegro]

I second Jorn's opinion. Sounds like film somehow jammed.

[Madrigal]

Hey Les, if it's not better by the time we get there, maybe you'll let me take a look?

[KirkT]

I'll third Jorn's comment.  Push the rewind button and see if you can advance the lever.

[jamesmck]

Les,

I've never experienced this with my Bessas, but I understand that it is not an uncommon occurrence.  If you don't figure it out, try a query at the Voigtlander Bessa forum over at RFF (http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=28).

James

[Mabon]

It can be a common problem with the "R".

It's usually caused by winding on too quickly after exposure, remember, there are two shutters in there.

Here is a .pdf on how to fix it. (I think you need a flickr account to see the images.)
http://www.cosina-voigtlander.com/component/option,com_fireboard/Itemid,86/id,1705/catid,8/func,fb_pdf/


Mabon.

[KirkT]

If that's true, the trigger winder seems like a bad idea.

Great link Mabon

[Mabon]

If that's true, the trigger winder seems like a bad idea.

Great link Mabon

I think the problem was only with the original "R". (which won't take a rapid-winder).
After that, the R2, R3 etc were modified.

[grizzz]

Les, my R had a problem a while back as well. It was just as you describe and turned out to be film related. I think the PDF someone already posted here will help you. Hope it does anyway. I love my R as well. Good luck, Grizzz.

[jake]

I have a Flickr account but can't view the images. But here is someone else with a shot of the Bessa R's innards with the offending part noted and repair summarized.

Damn mechanical cameras. ;-)

[Mike Kovacs]

I seem to recall fixing a very similar problem in a few Nikon FM or FE cameras.  Probably no surprise if the Bessa uses a Copal square shutter.

[Mabon]

The Bessa R was derived from an SLR body design.
The shutter of an SLR spends most of it's life protected from incoming light by the mirror.

With the rangefinder design light could strike the shutter directly causing damage, so Cosina built in the second shutter to protect the first. All this takes up space.

This is why the fine Jupiter-12 35mm won't fit on the Bessa R, the rear element touches the outer shutter.

[Mike Kovacs]

Mabon, what is your source?  I've never seen a double shuttered RF in my life.

[Mabon]

Mabon, what is your source?  I've never seen a double shuttered RF in my life.

On the CameraQuest site:

"Mechanical vertical traveling metal Copal shutter  with inner and outer     shutters"

edit: " Shutter:  Like the Bessa L, the Bessa R  has a modified mechanical Copal shutter with speeds from 1 to 1/2000 pus B, and a flash sync at 1/125th.   The vertically traveling blades are metal.  Unlike standard SLR Copal shutters, the Bessa Copal  has TWO sets of shutter curtains to make sure the camera stays light tight.  That's right, it's like two shutters being built parallel  to each other.   Without the dual shutters, there would be light leak problems -- like the Yasuhara has by using a standard Copal shutter.     SLR shutters spend 99.99999% of their time in the dark with the mirror down  -- so SLR shutters don't have to be as light tight as the Rangefinder shutters."