arhphotographic

I’ve had this camera some time, thinking it worked. However, when I picked it up to take part in my 365 Camera project I found it didn’t. Not only that, and of more concern, the battery grip got very warm quickly after putting batteries in. That cannot be right. However it seemed to indicate there may be life in the camera.

But just look at it! How do you go about opening this injection moulded plastic casing? Well…

I started by taking the film door off

Then I looked for any screws I could remove from the base.

Plastic base plate removed.

What about the top plate?

I managed to get all the screws around the top plate of the camera off, along with the film rewind crank. However I could see no way of removing the film speed dial.🤔

Perhaps it would help to take the lens mount off???

Then there were the side panels…

That top plate can’t be removed with the plastic front panel in place, which in turn can’t be removed with the top plate in place?????.

Eventually I discovered two plastic lugs were holding much of the front plastic in place. So very carefully I lifted the plastic and they came apart revealing the battery compartment.

Could all that battery leakage be the cause of a ‘short’ and the heat buildup??

So I used some surgical spirit and some clean cloth which seemed to clean it up really well. Replacing the cover back in place and holding the base in so I could put batteries to test. Yesssss. The camera sprang back into life. Result🥳

Lesson learned. Never say never. This could be useful else where in life I think.

In the meantime lets put some film in it and see how it performs!