Pentax S1a Repair

I've just won these 2 Pentax S1a bodies from ebay this eveing... £15 for both of them delivered! They seem like a bargain but, well, we'll see what they are like when they arrive. Cosmetically they both seem in very good condition -

[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/BWZClsCGkKGrHgoH-DYEjlLl4iEBKNH63jj.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/BWZCqoQBGkKGrHgoH-DkEjlLly9hRBKNIK5.jpg[/IMG]

The advert states that both have the same problem, the Film Advance Lever is moving freely but wont engage. From what I can find out on the web, a lot of these models and also spotmatics seem to suffer from the lever sticking or not moving, would this be realted to a similar problem?

I want to get stuck in an try and learn how to repair an old camera such as this, for the price it seems it wouldn't really matter if something goes wrong - rather than attempt my first repair on something more expensive and it all going competely wrong!

Obviously i'm new to this, although i'm not affraid to take something apart but I want to try and do this properly. To repair something with your own hands and get it working again I find quite rewarding, any advice / help would be very much appreciated.

I understand that this model, the S1a is a lesser model - but the main difference that I can see is that it lacks a self timer and only goes up to 1/500 of a second with the 1/1000 of second speed hidden one click after. Is there any other major difference between this model and the others?

They almost look unused. It must have cost him almost £15 to pack and send them to you.

I know nothing about repairing things like this and wish you luck but I would suspect that they might need parts that you can't manufacture yourself (unless you can). There's always Harrow Technical who advertise on this site. Trying to fix one yourself and not managing it is one thing, doing it to both might be sacrilege

Models from this era tended to be offered with lower cost versions, but the differences were often very little. You've correctly identified that 1/1000 sec is available as an unmarked speed - cheaper to hide it than produce another shutter.

Also the 50mm f2 lenses available later in the screw thread era were in fact the f1.8 lens with a baffle in the optical path to reduce the aperture! Cheaper than making a separate lens!

The S1a was very successful, but is not as durable as the Spotmatic, which was a major redesign.

Oh, an afterthought. Oldtimer Cameras supply a manual "How to repair 35mm cameras" that you might find useful.

Thanks for quick replies, I thought I might be the only one up now

The book that you mention sounds usefull, I'll look into it. I think I just need some sort of guide to follow and I should be fine, we'll see.

Harrow technical do seem very good from what i've heard, i'll keep them in mind although sending it to them might be too easy and will take the fun out of fixing it myself.

It is bit a of a cheek really if you think about it, they must have charged more for the higher spec models [i'm not sure how much they were new] leading customers to believe they were getting more when in fact they were just paying extra for the 1/1000 speed on the dial!

I remember years ago being told that's how IBM used to operate. I don't know if it is true but apparently they would sell a company a mainframe with all the bells and whistles built in but not enabled, so they could sell them the 'upgrade' and apparently all they then did was go into their mainframe and enable a few hidden featurs and voila suddenly you now had the better, faster, smarter computer now you've paid the extra money for their top of the line model instead of their entry level model. I suppose that's how a lot of software is sold - it's already got everything there but you just don't know how to access it without the access code

By the way, we never sleep

Well you could look at it that way, but equally you could think that in the markets that demanded it a lower cost version was supplied that was still basically the the same quality as the Proper Thing.

Not having to put a self timer in would certainly reduce costs significantly on its own.

More thank likely that is the case, but from a marketing point of view, the camera was capable of that speed so why hide it? Like you say the self timer would have reduced costs significantly but then to hide the fact it could go up to that speed seems silly? Do you think they may have sold more if they hadn't done that?

Who needs sleep

At the time it was a convention that cut price models only went to 1/500 sec, so it may have been as simple as fitting in with the expectation.

The 1/1000 sec speed was actually uncalibrated on the S1a and if I remember correctly the one AP tested actually delivered more like 1/1250 sec.

For an on line service manual see this link

The S3 one covers your model, and the password is 'Pentax'.

These manuals are freely available, but some jokers cut them onto CD and sell them on ebay. Don't buy of ebay, download and print it out, although it's a large document at 54 pages it's worth doing.

I did it for my MX and Spotmatic and they're very useful.

Incipiently I got 3 Spotmatic sp500s as spares or repair, 2 work fine, the third doesn't focus to infinity. Try playing with the bodies first, they might just need a clean if your lucky.

Well you never know whats the best thing to lubricate any moving parts inside the camera?

Oops!

Should read incidentally, as for lube, DON'T.

just make sure everything is clean and dry, any oils, even watch makers oil, can stop shafts rotating!

I did it on a Spotmatic and spent Hours trying to clean it out

!! thanks for that - one costly mistake avoided already then

It may probably be too fiddley for me to fix myself, I don't want to ruin them - I want them to work so I can use them. Seeing the condition in a picture and then seeing them when they arrive will decided whether they go off be fixed or I attempt it myself. Things always seem to look better in a picture!

Well, it turned out that they weren't too fiddley for me to fix!

I'm not sure how to explain how I fixed them, but after removing the bottom plate on each and had a poke around, they both had the same problem - the shutter was ready to be released but it wouldn't. I moved a small plate at the centre or the base, the shutter released, and then, from what I could see I moved the plate back into the correct positing [a guess really] and the lever engaged and worked fine! Its as if whoever used it last was too rough with it and forced it foward to hard, but im not sure. After inspecting both this is the one I am going to keep - I took the front, bottom and top plate off, cleaned the entire body and switched some parts that were in better condition from the other one. I've also changed the light seals today so its all ready to go Its a shame the paint has come off a bit around the viewfinder, thats the only bad bit on the camera.

[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/_IGP5403.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/_IGP5405.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/_IGP5406.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/_IGP5409.jpg[/IMG]

The other body, after releasing the shutter and engaging the lever, its seems sticky and on speeds below 1/30th of a second the shutter wont close until i've released my finger off the shutter release button. Its far more dirty so i think i'll give it a clean and use it for spairs. I've got a lens now on the way off ebay, a M42 Carl Zeiss Jena f2.8? Not sure how good it is but i'll be able to use the camera at least so if anyones interested i'll posts some picts once i've Put a couple or rolls through it [as long as I can manage a few good pics without a meter!]

Take bits off and prod them - my personal favourite method of camera repair

The lens you speak of sounds like the Tessar. Not the best in the world wide open but a little stunner once it's down to around f/4-5.6, really nice colours and negligible distortion too. Plus being a Tessar it's small and light and this particular example has a front element that is recessed far enough to never have to bother with a lens hood - overall you should find it a pleasure.