Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

One bad thing that happened to me at Fairie Festival on Sunday: one of my cameras broke. It was the Pentax Super Program -- late in the day when I hit the end of a roll, the rewind knob got stiffer and stiffer and then refused to turn at all (right about the time I should've been finished rewinding), and also wouldn't lift up (which is how the back opens to change film). I fiddled with it (and even partially disassembled it) in the back of Fred's car on the way home, and have poked at it over the past couple of days. Tonight I decided to have one more concerted go at it before resigning myself to looking up a repair shop and getting an estimate. About an hour ago, I think I finally fixed it, but I had to take apart another camera to figure out how. (Fortunately I didn't have to take it apart very far.) First I had to figure out how to get the back open and the film out without being able to lift the rewind knob...

I did some minor but noticeable cosmetic damage to the Super Program while trying to pry up the rewind shaft by the knob, and managed to lose a screw when I was trying to figure out how to take apart the bushing before I figured out how to get the back open (it turned out to not be relevant, which I didn't figure out until I'd removed it), but I seem to have a working Super Program again. *whew* Let's hope it continues to behave for me. I'm going to be a little nervous with it for a spell though.

It may be time for me to start looking for "parts" cameras on eBay or something. (Donations of broken Pentax bodies will be accepted. The bodies I've got are S1a/H1a, S3/H3, Spotmatic SPII, KX, K2, ME, and Super Program, so spare parts from the S (pre-Spotmatic M42 screwmount), Spotmatic, K, M, or A families will all eventually be useful.)

"OK. I give up. One can now STFW to find answers on how to STFW."
   -- Darren New (posted to a mailing list) on seeing a pointer to How To Ask Questions The Smart Way, which was described as "a general purpose guide to asking questions people will answer".