c330 lens cocked for 2 weeks!

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curious dude - 27 Jan 2004 12:45 GMT

Hello everybody,
I have been a lurker here for a while.
I forgot to uncock my 80mm lens shutter after shooting and left it cocked
for 2-3 weeks! I believe the spring tension gets ruined as a result?
Can you tell me roughly what to expect when i shoot a roll this weekend? Is
there a standard test i can do to determine if my shutter timing is off?
Also, KEH is closeby to where i live. Would they have some device to test
shutter timings?

thanks all,
sri

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BCampbell - 27 Jan 2004 13:48 GMT

Two weeks wouldn't usually be a problem with most shutters but I don't know
about yours specifically. Just cock and fire it at progressive slow speeds
(e.g. 1, 1/2, 1/4 seconds), see if the times seem to change more or less
consistently.. If so then it's probably o.k. or at least no worse than it
was before. What makes you think it might have been ruined?

Since KEH does camera repairs they almost certainly have a shutter speed
tester but you could call first and ask.

> Hello everybody,
> I have been a lurker here for a while.
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> thanks all,
> sri

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Bob G - 27 Jan 2004 13:51 GMT

>I forgot to uncock my 80mm lens shutter after shooting and left it cocked
>for 2-3 weeks! I believe the spring tension gets ruined as a result?

-------------------------------------------------
A much-debated question. According to Hasselblad, there is no evidence that
keeping a shutter cocked for long periods does any damage.

Bob G

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Stephen Leslie - 27 Jan 2004 22:24 GMT

Hi Bob G,

I pressume you are on about leaf shutter's not being affected by being left
cocked?

I've never handled one, let alone own one (Hass that is), but I would advise
anyone with a traditional cloth shutter, like my Pentax 67 and traditional
manual wind 35mm SLR's, that they should Not be left cocked as this Does
give un-necessary strain on the spring and may lead to problems in the
future.

The only down-fall is that you may miss that all-important once in a
life-time image when trying to wind on. But the more modern SLR's no longer
have that problem with their built-in winders, and I've never been told that
doing so causes problems with leaf-shutter systems.

Cheers,
Stephen

> >I forgot to uncock my 80mm lens shutter after shooting and left it cocked
> >for 2-3 weeks! I believe the spring tension gets ruined as a result?
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> Bob G

Reply to this Message

Mike - 27 Jan 2004 22:48 GMT

> Hi Bob G,
>
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> Cheers,
> Stephen

If you leave any shutter wound or cocked for 2-3 weeks and then have a
problem with that shutter, the cause had begun long before.

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Dennis O'Connor - 28 Jan 2004 13:38 GMT

ahh jeez, this old saw again? Look spring steel is engineered to be under
tension as long as it does not exceed the elastic limit... And when the
shutter is uncocked, the tension is NOT zero, it is simply less than when
cocked by some percentage... The molecules in the steel do not notice the
difference between being at 35% of the elastic limit versus 70% of the
elastic limit...
If the camera manual says to leave a cloth shutter uncocked, it is the cloth
that is going to stretch, not the springs...
I recently <about 5 weeks ago> unearthed a Mamiya TLR 180mm lens (chrome)
that had migrated to the bottom of a box that went into storage when we
built the 'empty nest' palace, over ten years ago.. Of course it was cocked
when found... I was in the midst of a big thrash over film/developer testing
that I have mentioned here in recent months and needed another lens <which
is why I went digging for the relic> so I didn't have to keep swapping
lenses from one body to another...
Anyway, I snapped the shutter a dozen times and it sounded ok - I compared
it to my 180 Super lens and it seemed the same at 1/60, so I put it to
work... The negatives are just fine, thank you...
So, if any of you folks you have some lenses that you left cocked for a few
months, just send em to me instead of throwing them away... I'm to dense to
notice that they are ruined...
denny

> If you leave any shutter wound or cocked for 2-3 weeks and then have a
> problem with that shutter, the cause had begun long before.

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Winfried Buechsenschuetz - 30 Jan 2004 19:16 GMT

I totally agree. No engineer would design a spring drive which would
get damaged by left under (high) tension. I have a RolleiB35 where the
lens can only be collapsed when the shutter is cocked. I did not use
it for years. Once or twice a year I take it out and fire the shutter.
Still works OK.

However, in an old french focal plane shutter camera (Foca two-stars)
I found a label inside warning the user not to leave the shutter
cocked for extended periods.

Winfried

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Bruce Graham - 31 Jan 2004 05:24 GMT

> I totally agree. No engineer would design a spring drive which would
> get damaged by left under (high) tension. I have a RolleiB35 where the
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> Winfried

I think my Mamiya TLR lenses have been stored with cocked shutters for
most of the 23 years I have owned them. One of them (135mm) has not had
a CLA in that time and still works fine. The 65 has needed a couple of
CLA's (about every 15-20 years!)

I bought them used - I think they were about 10 years old when I bought
them.

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diGoliardi - 27 Jan 2004 14:56 GMT

> Hello everybody,
> I have been a lurker here for a while.
> I forgot to uncock my 80mm lens shutter after shooting and left it cocked
> for 2-3 weeks! I believe the spring tension gets ruined as a result?

Everything is okay. No harm done. Take pictures and enjoy.

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curious dude - 28 Jan 2004 13:22 GMT

> Everything is okay. No harm done. Take pictures and enjoy.

Thanks guys, i'll shoot a roll this week and let you know how it feels.
sri

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