RB67 Mirror Jammed

[Ross Chambers]

I'm in Australia.

Im pretty sure its kaput.


It's only $120 AUD for another RB67 body from the U.S.

Cheaper than repairing anything in this country, and with the 3-4 week shipping time, 2 to 4x as fast as having anything repaired in this country.

Yep, that was my conclusion, although I did pay some Sydney repair thieves to get the lens off, but not fix the body.

Bought a body in great condition from KEH for less than the Sydney lens extraction.

Only problem is that I'm faced with the old joke about the aged camera (and axe) with only 4 new lenses and one new body. I'd imagine that the guy I bought it off secondhand wouldn't recognise it at all.

Regards - Ross

[John Koehrer]

Unless the lens was malfunctioning initially I doubt that anything is really broken. It's just out of synch.
When the shutter is released the ring on the back of the lens rotates clockwise. When the camera is cocked the cocking ring for the shutter rotates counter-clockwise. If the shutter is partially through an exposure and you cock the camera, you have two opposing forces engaging & everything stops.
The lens release is just behind the front plate of the camera. It's not deep at all, perhaps a mm or so. Since the lens pulls straight off this is the solution for the separation. Try taking your paper clip & put a 90 degree bend in the end, 1-2mm long. Feed it through the hole & turn it, like a key, it should hit the locking lever. You may have to broaden the paper clip by smaking it with a hammer

[Curt]

Where is this hole, is it behind the covering material?

Curt

[Maris]

Im in Australia, I dont think we have any repair centers that would know how to fix this anymore, we dont have anything.

Id have to track down an individual I'd think.

Eric Owen can fix it. Given a Mamiya RB67 taken down to the last screw and spring he can reassemble it and it will work perfectly. He even has a RB67 on his coat-of-arms. Give him a call on 07 3821 6532 at his workshop in Thornlands, Brisbane.

[Andrew K]

RB's are tonka toy tough - and unlike a Hasselblad they don't "go out of sync"...

I've owned both, and repaired both when I was a camera tech, You cna mount a uncocked RB lens onto a cocked RB body, fire it, then cock it and it will cock the lens. Or mount a cocked body on a uncocked camera - it will cock the body, but do nothing to the lens.....

It sounds to me like a spring broke causing the lens to jam on...

Try pulling out the bulb shutter release on the lens (the round know with the shutter thread in the middle you twict when doing mirror lock up) - then try juggling the shutter cocking arm...while trying to rotate the lens release....

It may sound crazy, but I've gotten many a lens off a jammed RB by doing this....

At least if you can get the lens off you can work out if it's a faulty camera or lens....

And there are still a few people in Australia who can repair the camera...the bad news is you can;t get parts from Mamiya anymore....this was confirmed by Mainline in NSW who tried to get me a spring for a RB back..they were also surprised when Mamiya said they didin't do them anymore...

[John Koehrer]

Where is this hole, is it behind the covering material?

Curt

Yes.

[Curt]

Thank you.