Canon F1 advance lever stuck.

[Artillero]

I was just given a canon f1 without a lens from an uncle. When I received it, I noticed that the advance lever would not move forward. I know nothing about F1's, I have an olympus om-1, and am wondering what would cause this.

[jmcd]

You probably checked for film inside at the end of the roll?

[Jeff Kubach]

You might send it to KEH for repairs.

Jeff

[Artillero]

There is no film and no battery in it. About how much does KEH usually charge?

[John Koehrer]

If this an F1N(matte black finish, not glossy) it uses a 6V battery installed in the front of the camera. If the camera is cocked and the battery is missing/dead You can't move the lever. If it's the older camera F1/F1n(battery in bottom of camera) it's all mechanical and the battery has nothing to do with advance.

[Artillero]

If this an F1N(matte black finish, not glossy) it uses a 6V battery installed in the front of the camera. If the camera is cocked and the battery is missing/dead You can't move the lever. If it's the older camera F1/F1n(battery in bottom of camera) it's all mechanical and the battery has nothing to do with advance.

I went found the actual battery slot on the front, not sure what goes in the bottom, popped the battery out, then the camera began to work perfectly. Thanks for the help.

[tokam]

Your F1N is not quite working perfectly at the moment as you have no battery to power the metering. You can use shutter speeds from 1/2000 to 1/125 plus 1/90 (flash sync) and B without a charged battery being inserted in the camera. At this point you will have to estimate the exposure or use an external meter. Canon deliberately provided the facility on the F1N to use the camera in totally 'manual' mode if the battery is removed. When a flat battery is present in the camera then the camera won't function at all. Not exactly intuitive but that's the way they did it.

So get yourself a PX28 or PX28L and go and enjoy what is probably the best, (certainly most solid) Canon FD body ever made. I enjoy using mine along with a T90 and I'm awaiting an EF as well.