repair | Camera Go Camera

This camera was a complete gamble. I know I usually buy cameras that are in junk bins and are a gamble, but usually they don’t cost much or I can test them a little in the shop to check them. But this for this one I could not test it at all and it was electronic so there could be things wrong that I could not fix. The price of the camera was $25, so it was more than I would usually spend on a broken electronic camera. I figured I could at least sell if for parts and get some of my money back if it didn’t work. At the end of the day it was a Yashica T and I probably would not be able to afford one in any other circumstance.

As you can see it was fairly clean with just a small crack on the lens cover. The flash did not stay retracted, but it still worked when I put in two AA batteries and slid the button. Also it seemed to want to load a film when you opened the back door. When I pressed the shutter the lens cover retracted and it seemed to take a photo. It activated 4 times then stopped completely. I opened the back once more, and again it tried to load a film, but then the shutter button would not do anything and the lens cover didn’t retract. So the shutter was stuck or sticky. Bugger. I did a search online and found this video.

That seemed to be exactly what my version did, maybe I could fix it too. I followed the video and did the same thing. Low and behold it worked. I pressed the shutter many times and fake loaded it many times, it carried on working. So now to test it with a film, but holy moly I was excited at the prospect. I liked how the lens cover retracted for each shot then returned to its original position. So there would be no forgetting the open it for shooting or closing it for protection. But that movement added to the electronics and might add to the issues. I also liked the slider which turned on the camera as it covered the shutter button when it was turned off. No bag shots with this camera. Plus the flash is off until you slide it on, so no random flashes

Here is the test roll, or half a roll as I had previously used it on another test camera.

I tried a few repeat shots, with and without the flash to see the difference and how the camera coped. For outdoor infinity shots, it seemed to cope very well and the exposure choices were great. For the closer shots, like the flowers, the focus is a bit off. So the minimum focal length can catch you out. I would suggest at least 2 meters to be sure.

Introduced in 1984 it was a top of the line point and shoot. The camera has a shutter speed range of 1/30 to 1/700 seconds, and has film choices of ISO 50 to 1000. Of course it has a Zeiss Tessar lens, but for me I have other cameras that performed better and I don’t think that has anything to do with the sticky shutter. For instance the Pentax PC35 AF which is turning into my favourite non-zoom point and shoot.

Keep or sell: It sold immediately.

I must have been in a weird mood the day I took these photos and tested these cameras. I was so sure that one of them wouldn’t work that I decided not to waste a full film on both of them. After taking a few shots on one I rewound the film and used it in the second camera. I rewound the film too far and had to use a film puller/retriever/picker.

The first time I tried to use a film puller I just couldn’t get it to work. Then after watching a video like this one I have not had an issue since. Thank you camera people on youtube and Jack 🙂

Anyway I tested two cameras this day, two! I wonder how many cameras you can test with one film?

The first camera tested was the LOMO LCA that I sent away to be fixed. I bought this camera on eBay and it didn’t work. As you can see by these photos there should be two red lights in the viewfinder, this originally had none.

I contacted the seller and he offered to send me another free of charge, which was very generous. I tested the replacement and wrote this piece. A few weeks and a bit of money later the once broken camera came back from Hobby Nexus. They did a great job and I highly recommend them. Here are the few shots from half the film.

I decided to sell this camera as I didn’t need two. I didn’t really make any money on it due to the repairs, film, processing, postage etc. I didn’t mind as the seller sent me two and I would have felt obliged to repay him some money. I decided to keep the replacement and not this one due to this one having Russian din numbers in the iso selector. The replacement was just easier to use. I am not giving any details about the camera as I have written about this model before.

Then I retrieved the film end and placed it in this camera. An Olympus Mju Zoom 105 deluxe. I wrote about a similar camera here. It is from 1995 and I got it for $3.

As I have already tried this style of camera, I don’t think there is a need to repeat the details. You can read more about it here. As with the other one I own, this one worked well and was easy to use. I mainly bought it because it was in good condition and very cheap. I thought I might eventually make enough money back for a film or two. Here is the rest of the film test.