Super 8mm camera repair...anyone???

[Chezdigtlstudio]

I've got this MINOLTA XL SOUND 42 camera that's in great shape, I've used it many times now all of a sudden it has no power- the battery contacts are clean and I put new batteries in it but even when I try the battery test button the test light doesn't come on and none of the camera functions work. NOOO!!

Doesn't anyone know of a place I can send it to be repaired? I use a special fitted wide angle lense with this one so I'd be willing to pay for it to be repaired.

Thanks for any advice.

[BolexPlusx]

Well,

The good news is that it sounds like something pretty simple, probably a disconnect between the battery compartment and everything else inside the camera.

The bad news is that not a lot of people do super-8 repair these days, and in most remaining cases it's high end cameras and big bucks! I brought a really mint Minolta XL-401 to a local camera shop about two years ago for lube and was told they wouldn't accept the work. After a lot of persuasion they did, but I had to suffer the "Why don't you just get a camcorder" speech in the process. (BTW: I told them I also had a camcorder, which really blew their minds!)

If this was my camera, I'd carefully open it up and poke around with a voltmeter looking for the open circuit, but then again I work in electronics and it's no big deal for me. If you or a friend (or even a really forgiving enemy) have similar skills you should probably give it a try. The Minoltas I've played with come apart fairly willingly as long as you have a set of jeweller's screwdrivers. (cheap ones from Home Depot are fine....)

[onsuper8]

We've assembled an up to date list of Super 8 specialists for equipment repair on www.onsuper8.org, have a look, hopefully someone local to you should be able to help.

[Chezdigtlstudio]

cool, thanks.