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...

A clue provided by another member of the Pentax-Discuss Mailing List was important in forming my plan of attack.

I opened up my Pentax ME (not the same basic series of Pentax cameras, but very close -- "M series" is ME, ME Super, MX, MG, MV, MV1, and ME-F, and "A series" is Super Program/Super A, Program Plus/Program A, and A3/A3000; but the "M" and "A" cameras are more like each other than either of those is to the "K" series or the "Z" series, for example) to examine the door latch, assuming it'd be the same on the Super Program, and figured out what shape I'd need to bend a paper clip into to open the door with the bottom plate removed, without lifting the rewind knob. Once I got the door open, I took advantage of the deformability of the plastic spindle inside the film cartridge (which was in fact already completely rewound) to pry the film out of the camera. Then I could get at both ends of the rewind shaft.

It was still very stiff (I stuck the handle of a tiny screwdriver into the slot to try to turn it to and fro), and I tried to see whether it was bent (the person who'd described a similar problem in response to my plea for Clue on the mailing list mentioned a bent part), but couldn't see any visible bend. I took the ME a little further apart to see how the shaft came out (it just pushes through once the rewind knob is unscrewed), and since I couldn't push the shaft up in the Super Program, I tried pushing it in. I had to punch it through with another tool, but it did pop out.

It may be ever so slightly bent, but if so, it's not enough for me to be sure what I'm seeing when I roll it along a flat surface. Or to figure out how to straighten it if it is ever so slightly bent. What I did notice was that the section that sits inside the bushing had a deep gouge in it in a couple of places, and was generally rough to the touch.

I rubbed a pencil over the rough parts to try to lubricate it, not having proper light machine oil. I also put the ME shaft into the Super Program and vice-versa to try to guage how screwed up the bushing itself was. (They're different lengths, so they're not interchangeable for use, but they do fit in the same size hole for checking it out.) Then I pushed the Super Program's rewind shaft back into place in the Super Program to check just how much of a pain it was going to continue to be, expecting to have to remove it again and polish out the rough part with a Dremmel, but when I did so it seemed to basically work. A little rough-feeling, but no major resistance to turning.

So I reattached the knob, put in a roll of expired film (the Price Club film that my lover's husband gave me when he noticed that it had expired in 1995 -- I figured it would come in handy for, well, situations like this, more or less), advanced it to the end with the lens cap on, rewound it successfully (leaving the leader out), and currently have it in there to shoot a "camera test" roll and see whether it acts up again in the next couple dozen frames. Wish me luck.

Along the way, I think I may have finally fixed the problem with the back of the ME (it likes to pop open mid-roll and expose the film)

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.)