camera service

**motion** · December 31st, 2002, 11:04 PM

I have purchased a Chinon 806 SM and I'm wondering if it needs to be serviced or if it's user error. I got back my first roll of Plus -X today. Here is the sequence of events as I remember them. I shot about 2 minutes at 18 fps and another minute at 36 fps...I thought. The Film counter was well past 3 minutes (closer to 4) so I assumed all my film was exposed. After pulling out the film I could see it was not at the end. I put it back in and shot another 3 minutes according to the counter. I watched the film today and confirmed that the film indeed was not fully exposed the first time I pulled it out even though the counter was consistently counting and appeared to be moving evenly. The other strange thing is that the footage that was shot after I put the cartridge back in was blurred in the way that if you put two layers of the same footage together and offset them slightly.

Is it possible I could have had a bad cartridge? I got it from Kodaks site.

If it needs to be serviced, does anyone know a place around Chicago that works on Super 8 cameras?

Thanks in advance. Hope the above makes sense.

**Alex** · January 1st, 2003, 02:06 AM

The Chinon has a quirk about it that makes troubleshooting problems more difficult. When you open the Film Chamber door, the motor won't run!

Chinon designed metal contacts on both the door and the Camera body, and these metal contacts touch together when you close the film chamber door, which allows for the camera motor to be activated when you push the trigger. The Problem with this is you can't look at the film path to see if the claw, shutter, and the film reel motor are working properly.

Anyway, I fired up my Chinon 606S for the first time! (I think I won it on ebay a year or two ago, it was part of a "grab bag" of 4 or 5 Super-8 cameras. The battery holder had a corroded terminal which had been sanded over. One of the contacts was barely there, but I put batteries in it anyway, and it works!

Sort of. [img]confused.gif[/img]

I put a completely exposed cartridge inside the camera and hit the trigger. I could hear the motor working. The camera is quiet. Definitely in the top 10-20% of all Super-8 cameras. Although my camera only runs at 18 frames per second, if it had a 24 fps speed, it would be a bit louder.

I then compared the sound the camera makes with a completely exposed
cartridge of film versus putting in a cartridge of film that is not completely run through. I could not tell a difference! But then I noticed one other thing, the film cartridge, which only had a couple of feet left, was not finishing!

I kept taking the film cartridge out, and it was not showing me the "exposed" graphic that is imprinted on the end of the film roll. By the way, you MUST use the EJECT button on the camera to eject your film.
This eject button is somewhat unique, I don't know of too many Super-8 cameras that have this feature.

The next step was to use gravity to help the situation. I began running the camera while it was pointed up in the air, toward the ground, this way, that way. Just in case some servo in the camera was not making contact, I figure using gravity might help loosen a stuck part.

I then noticed in the viewfinder that there is a see-through circle above the viewfinder. I figured this was the film running indicator. And I noticed it would flicker once or twice, and stop.

I continued to check the film cartridge after "running" the camera to see if I had reached the end of the cartridge. I still had not reached the end of the film. I then decided to note the position of the round metal shaft that inserts into the film cartridge and turns the film spindle, to see if it was turning. I checked the position of the metal shaft, inserted the film cartridge into the camera, pushed the trigger and did two short bursts. I removed the cartridge, and noted that the metal shaft had indeed turned.

On any other camera, I simply could have opened the door and looked inside and hit the trigger, but not with this camera, because the door has to be closed for the camera to run.

Anyway, the interior metal shaft had turned, and when I put the film back in, I noticed the circle above the viewfinder was now blinking. Sure enough, I could suddenly hear the ever so quiet "Cartridge Rumble" that all Super-8 cartridges make when they are running properly.

The blinking circle stopped blinking as I reached the end of the cartridge. I took the cartridge out and the exposed graphic was visible!

One other way to check if the film is moving through the cartridge is to put a sharpie mark on one of the six exposed frames, shoot a short burst, and see if the sharpie is no longer visible.

DON'T TRUST THE FILM COUNTER as proof that the film is moving through the camera. Definitely trust the round blinkie thing above the viewfinder.

My conclusion is that my camera was NOT properly working at first, but was giving the illusion that it was. The film counter was moving, the camera sounded like it was working, but the film was definitely not moving.

I believe the round blinkie thing is proof that the camera is now moving the film through the cartridge. When you first put a new film cartridge in a camera, sometimes the first trigger push is the hardest for the camera to get the film moving.

You can actually pull about 3 inches of film from the top of the cartridge down, making an oversized loop. Then, use the take-up spindle on the cartridge to "yank" the film back inside the cartridge.

This may reduce the inital tension needed to get the film going. For cameras with weaker motors, this could make a difference in how well the film runs through the camera.

**Alex** · January 1st, 2003, 09:56 PM

Status: U
From: [email protected]
Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2002 23:10:18 EDT
Subject: CHINON MOVIE CAMERA PARTS
To: [email protected]

CHINON MOVIE CAMERA PARTS AND REPAIRS , WE HAVE ALL PARTS IN CHINON IN THE
U.S .A SERVICEING CHINON CAMERAS FOR OVER 20 YEARS . PARTS, REPAIR BOOKS, AND
REPAIRS. IF YOU NEED INFO ON CHINON EMAIL ME AT [email protected] OVER
150.000 PARTS IN STOCK.

If you decide to use this person, please let us know about your experience. One issue that I do not have the answer to, "Does your camera need internal lubrication?"

**motion** · January 3rd, 2003, 12:19 AM

Thanks for the detailed response. I too marked my film with a pencil, ran it once and it was also gone. That was after I first removed the film thinking it was fully exposed. I found a scanned version of a manual, that says that the indicator in the view finder will flicker and will actually turn red near the end of the 50 feet. I also tried to press every pin I could find while the camera was open to see it run. Just like you were saying it never ran.

Anyway, I'm going to try one more reel and see what I get.
Thanks again.

**Alex** · January 3rd, 2003, 01:04 AM

If you would like the camera to run with the door open. You could attempt to make a series of wires that would attach, in the proper order, between the door and the Camera body.

The pins/metal connectors on the door and on the camera body connect to each other when the door is closed. If you could build "sleeves" that would go around each pin on the camera body, and run a wire to the camera door housing, in the proper order, then the camera will probably be fooled into working even with the door open.

If you try this idea, I would take the batteries out of the camera while you are connecting the wires and until you have connected all the wires correctly. This should prevent accidentally shorting out the camera.

I wouldn't try soldering the connections because when it comes time to remove the connections the solder bumps could interfere with the natural seal that previously existed.

It looks like there are two small screw directly below the pins on the camera body, I wonder if those two screws were removed if the pins detach.

I'm too chicken to try it on my camera.

**motion** · January 6th, 2003, 04:42 AM

I'm too chicken as well.

I've got a couple of places I'm considering sending (nervously) my camera to for repairs. Could you tell me how you came across this person([email protected])? It appears that he's a person as opposed to a business.

Thanks

**Alex** · January 6th, 2003, 04:59 AM

Yeah, they e-mailed me.

I believe they have never responded to one of my e-mails (I tried 3 times). Very disappointing in that regards.

They probably saw the forum, and sent me an e-mail.
But why not respond?

Perhaps the tech is older and only goes on the internet once a week or less. I e-mailed them to respond to this very topic, I gave them the topic link in the e-mail.

But no response.

You might as well e-mail them and see.

How does the camera sound when you run film. My chinon sounds nice.

**motion** · January 6th, 2003, 11:28 PM

I'm still checking all servicing options. It runs very quiet and I detect no difference (sound wise) when the reel reaches the end. I would also describe it as smooth.

I'll let you know my experience, whomever services it.
Thanks