Electro GSN faulty exposure meter?

[Gurdie]

I got a nice-looking Electro GSN - had to pay only mailing costs, because the seller said, that it is faulty. I was willing to take the risk, because I hoped that it would be only a battery problem.

Here´s the picture:



The serial number is H830033. Does the "H" means Hong Kong -built?

Externally the camera is excellent, no rust anywhere and the lens is fine. Focusing is smooth, aperture working and so on. Understandably, I have to install new light seals. I bought a 4LR44 battery and installed it with some packing and a new spring. The battery test light lights up OK, but when I press the shutter release half-way, only the yellow light and arrow flicker and go off when the button is pressed deeper. When I tried with various apertures, the camera doesn´t seem to adjust the time accordingly. Is this the "pad of death" problem? When I rewind, I can hear a "clunk", but not very clearly.

Any ideas what I should try next?

[Orio]

A lot of these Electro cameras are faulty. I had a similar experience also, Cosmin too I think, and that makes three cases in our quite small group only. If you google around you will find many other similar experiences. It's surely a nice camera but in my opinion too risky to buy it now with this failure rate and the absence of an official support (and I assume also scarce availability of replacement parts).

[Sevo]

Well, there is semi-official support at least in the US, where a former Yashica senior serviceman operates the US support contractor, and has bought the Yashica inventory of spare parts for their old models.

And they have only two known points of failure - the "pad of death" (whose rubber usually has decomposed by now) and the battery contact solder joints (which often are destroyed, as its battery tends to leak aggressive mercury salts). Both are fixable with fairly moderate skills and tools, and without needing any spare part other than a smallish bit of rubber.

That is, while very many Electro 35's are semi-broken, most of them are easily revived - other than many other rangefinders of similar vintage, whose age-related failures hit unreplaceable shutter cogs and wheels or proprietary integrated circuitry.

Sevo

[F16SUNSHINE]

It looks nice.
The battery you are using is not the right one.
It is only 1.5v and this camera needs a 6v battery.
The Electro is a 30 YO camera.
I am afraid that many people think that it will work straight away for the usual $20-$30 that you can buy them for on Ebay.
I sell re-conditioned ones for $125-$150 dependant on exterior condition.
There are other Electro guys out there that do the same. Mark Hama in particular (although his price is usually double mine).
If the Camera is something you are passionate about there is a lot of info online for re-conditioning yourself as an option to buying one that is done.
Try an LR28, px28 battery I don't know what other model name you may find it under.
Here is a pic from radio shack website.
This one is overprice by 2x so look for a cheaper one locally.
You will still need a small spring to take up some space.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103195

[Gurdie]

@Andy

The 4LR44 battery is a 6 V one, and the same as PX28. It should be OK.

I think I have to open the top plate and check the POD.

If I can fix the camera that way, I think I have used my 8,50 euros well (and also learned something new).

[F16SUNSHINE]

Oh Yes Sorry Mark
I did not notice that you had 4.
You are correct of course this would provide the proper voltage.
It does now sound like a POD problem.

[Gurdie]

Think nothing of it Andy,

If I had an Ikon like yours waiting somewhere near, I surely would find it difficult to concentrate on somebody else´s electrical problems...