ME Super Shutter jammed open. Advice sought.

Hi,

Wanting some advice on how to proceed on my ME SUper who's shutter jammed open on the weekend. I have salvaged the film (half unused which is annoying and it's a B+W film!) and hopefully at least the pictures on that will be ok.......

It's in mint condition apart from this problem and I don't want to have to retire it, but I don't think it's a fix I could do myself or that I would like to risk myself. I'm a little frustrated over this which is why it's taken me a few days to get around to looking at it and posting this!

Thank you!

Whatever you do, don't force it!

There is a website detailing the most common cause of this problem, or if you don't fancy trying to sort it you have two options:

Buy another ME Super, they are usually very cheap without a lens (as people mostly want them for the 50mm prime they generally came with)

Get in touch with a servicing/repair place and ask for a quote to give your camera a full service.

The latter will almost certainly be more expensive, but you'll have a camera that's ready for the next twenty years and it'll be your camera with all the attached memories, rather than any old ME Super.

Jetsam - if it's a mint copy, then it's worth spending 56.50 that Harrow Technical quote for a service - but you'll need to speak to Robin first to chat through the shutter problem as it might infuence the finial price. Robin's cleaned 2 lenses for me and repaired an LX and an ist* with shutter problems - so comes with a genuine user recommendation.

Alternatively, ME Supers are easy to pick up on E-bay - but as in all such cases, its an auction and there are no guarrantees. Caveat emptor - buyer beware.

HTH

Steve

The main thing to watch for with older cameras (assuming that they do actually work) is the light seals and mirror bumper foam turning into horrible sticky goo which trashes the focussing screen and makes a horrible mess. You can buy kits to replace it for under £10 including delivery from the USA, I've replaced the foam on all of my film bodies this way.

Weirdest thing. The ME Super was just sitting on a shelf and all of a sudden there was a "click".....

The shutter just closed back. How odd. I really have no idea whether this was something I pressed when it originally happened or whether it's just a slightly sticking mechanism. Though I have run two films through it and testing it now there doesn't appear anything wrong, the mechanism operates fine.

Peculiar. But nice!

They can do that, but it's probably a sign that the camera needs a proper service. Whatever caused it to jam in the first place probably will happen again.

I once had an MG which would fire reliably for 36 shots (without film, it was sold as broken so I was testing whether my attempt to fix it had worked), but if you put it aside for a day and then tried again it would invariably jam! That one ended up donating parts to a working but scruffy MG and a rare chrome MV1 with a missing winder lever.

I've now acquired a jammed but tidy ME for a tenner, going to try lighter fluid (widely recommended as a cleaning product for camera mechanisms) and see if I can get it to play again. I quite fancy tracking down one of those belt clips Pentax made for the ME, if I can get it working.

Yep, I think eventually I will get it in for a proper service as condition wise it is as new, probably never really used much. It's a keeper.

Still enjoy using these old cameras.

There's something wonderful about the way they handle, isn't there? I love my K-m but its 1970s ancestor is currently sitting next to me loaded with B&W film, and my MX with its newly-acquired motor wind is upstairs. I try to rotate the film bodies to even out the wear and ensure that they all get some use, need to try my ME Super next.

I have an SFX, but it just isn't as nice to use as the older gear. I mostly bought it as I wanted the 35-70mm lens for use on digital, but decided to try putting a roll of slide film through. The next roll is going in a mechanical body!