Mamiya Sekor 1000DTL: stuck mirror?

[awwwnuh]

hey all, I bought a 1000DTL earlier this week at a thrift store for $10(US)... I bought it mainly for the lens, but wanted to try the camera out too. I had my mom load the film and she took a few shots to get the film to advance. Everything was fine. Then I took a photo and the mirror got stuck! Is there any way to fix it or should I just move on? Or... even worse... am I cursed to never shoot film?

[unclemack]

Hi, I don't remember much about your camera specifics but there are some things common to many older slr's you can check.
There's usually a strip of foam used as a mirror buffer and the foam degrades & becomes sticky. Especially at slower shutter speeds the mirror can stick to the foam. You often see a smear of residue across the front lower edge of the mirror. Replacing the foam is the permanent solution but cleaning the residue from the mirror usually helps short-term.
If it's an electronic shutter (I just can't remember! Got old.) then the battery could be the problem.
If you can rewind the film without losing the film leader in the cassette then dry-fire the camera for a while - it may just not have been used for years.
Otherwise almost any part of the shutter or mirror mechanism could be the cause and it's probably best to cut your losses & move on.
Someone else here may know your camera better than I do though...

[dakoo]

might be a silly suggestion.
But i had such problem a few days back. The problem turned out to the timer knob. It was pressed, and half stuck & hence the mirror was stuck.

[awwwnuh]

hey sorry it took so long for me to reply.. I don't have internet at home anymore.
I was just going to take the suggestion of forgetting about it and cutting my losses (it wasn't the timer knob) but then last night I was bored and organizing my camera equipment. I played around with the mirror again and all of a sudden it snapped back in place. I don't know what I did but it's fixed now.