Canon A-1 Help!

[faddius]

Heya,

I fancied having a play with film and doing some home developing so a friend of mine was kind enough to lend me an old Canon A-1 with a canon 35-70 of some sort. The camera hasn't been used in a very long time, no idea how long but several years at least doesn't seem unreasonable.

I've replaced the battery and the battery check button is confirming there is plenty of power and could see the led readouts in the viewfinder. So I dropped in a film hoping to head out with it today. However, when I go to take an exposure, the shutter button seems to do nothing. The shutter doesn't fire.

Is there something I am missing here?

 

[Mark8303]

Heya,

I fancied having a play with film and doing some home developing so a friend of mine was kind enough to lend me an old Canon A-1 with a canon 35-70 of some sort. The camera hasn't been used in a very long time, no idea how long but several years at least doesn't seem unreasonable.

I've replaced the battery and the battery check button is confirming there is plenty of power and could see the led readouts in the viewfinder. So I dropped in a film hoping to head out with it today. However, when I go to take an exposure, the shutter button seems to do nothing. The shutter doesn't fire.

Is there something I am missing here?

I have several 35mm SLR's including an A1 and if not used for ages they do become sticky, or stuck completely. Probably worth removing the film and just try to 'work' the mechanism, it might free off.

 

[excalibur2]

H'mm on mine, I have tried fiddling with the controls and can't simulate your problem...a wild guess might be:- the battery contacts might be a bit corroded and giving you enough power for readout but not enough for the shutter.
Just thought...... try the shutter without the lens attached.

 

[faddius]

I have no idea what happened, but I wobbled off to make a cup of tea before going for round 2 with the camera and it seems to be firing fine now on all speeds. :shrugs:

Madness!

Thank you for the responses

 

[Stumpy]

Ah! The power of TEA.

 

[MartynK]

Yip, the power of tea and the ability of inanimate objects to sort themselves out, if you just leave them alone. I rely on this for anything to do with computers.

 

[TheBigYin]

my A-1 had an intermittent problem with the shutter button - as it's just an electrical contact, I sprayed a very small burst of aerosol contact cleaner into the cable release thread and left the camera alone for a few minutes for the stuff to evaporate - it's worked perfectly every time for last couple of years since. Just a small amount of dust in the contacts can cause it to fail - hit the cable release thread with a blower and see if that clears it.