Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/05

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Subject: Re: [Leica] R8 winder woes.
From: "Robert G. Stevens" <robsteve@hfx.andara.com>
Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1999 17:04:51 -0300

David:

I had problems with one of my winders, a fresh set of batteries cured it.
It never hurts to clean the contacts where the winder attaches to the
camera using a clean cloth.  I think the R8's are sensitive in this area,
as well as the contacts on the back door.  If either are not making good
contact, the camera fails.

Regards,

Robert

At 02:02 PM 9/5/99 -0400, you wrote:
>I shot a football game yesterday with my R8 (winder and auxiliary battery
pack).
>The winder has a almost fresh set of batteries and the auxiliary battery had
>just been recharged last week. After my third roll of film, the R8 started to
>act strange. First, the winder would seem to stop prematurely. Touching the
>release part way again would see the winder advance an extra frame and
then arm
>the shutter. Finally, I just tried using the manual crank from the stand off
>position and the display would light up, but the shutter would not fire.
>
>The only thing I could think of was that conditions: temperature 90F+, 95%
>humidity, hot sun on black camera. Maybe the electronics were over heated, or
>maybe the batteries were over heated.
>
>Looking at the film, that third roll had spots where 1, 2, 3, or 4 frames
were
>skipped over erratically.
>
>Has any one seen, experienced or heard of this happening with the R8 and
winder?
>
>I replaced the winder batteries with a fresh set, and after firing a few
shots,
>the winder seemed to sound almost normal again. My opinion is the R8 and
winder
>is VERY sensitive to fluctuations in battery voltage. A couple of weeks
prior to
>this the same problem occurred on similar conditions.
>
>Any suggestions?
>
>BTW, I just picked up a DEMO 180f2, but the diaphragm was slow to close.
Either
>dried lube or a weak spring. I sent it into Leica NJ where they specked it
as a
>3 hour bench job (covered by warranty) and turn around would be SIX weeks,
>though they would expedite to THREE weeks.
>
>The thought of being without my R8 and winder for 6 weeks makes me
hesitant to
>send it in to Leica.
>
>Regards,
>
>Dave Strang
>dstrang@up.net
>
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