At 11:21 1/20/01, Chuck Norcutt wrote:
And now I have to admit to having great quantites of egg on my face. As
I started reading the firt page he sent I noticed "Check also if the
mirror comes down when the mirror release lever and the MIRROR LOCK
RELEASE LEVER are released...". I said to myself: "What? This camera
doesn't have a mirror lock mechanism!"
But it does... and it was (you guessed it) locked UP. I obviously did
it myself so long ago I didn't even recall that the camera has such a
control. Sheesh!! What a dummy I am!! Please, all feel free to LOL.
Chuck,
Just so you don't feel so bad. Yesterday, a local pro friend gave me a
panic phone call at work. He was on location to do a group photo shoot of
120 honor students at a high school. His Bronica 6x6 would _not_ fire and
he was beside himself. Yes, he has numerous 35mm bodies, but like most
pros with smaller studios, cannot afford multiple MF bodies. The enormous
30x40 inch prints made from these large group shoots requires the
resolution of MF or larger negatives. Everything I walked him through
quickly over the phone did not work. He had to leave without doing the
shoot . . . and I felt real pain for him.
Went to his studio after work and started at page one of the Bronica
manual. We worked our way through batteries, MLU, multiple exposure switch
settings, dark slide lockout, and even checking the lens shutter ensuring
its cocking pin was in the right position.
After 45 minutes we found it. There is a shutter lock on the speed grip,
located on its base plate and tucked between the handle and camera
body. You cannot see it easily with the speed grip on the body, and it's
not documented in the camera manual. It wasn't discovered until I pulled
the speed grip off of the body to get it out of the way and we saw this
small button that slid back and forth with no seeming purpose in
life. Unlike shutter locks which keep a release from moving at all, this
one allows the shutter release to depress at least 60%, but not quite fully
enough to trip the shutter. Figured out the purpose for that too . . . it
allows activating the metering inside the prism housing with it
locked. It's that feature that had us thinking there was something wrong
with the body.
Not uncommon for a MF SLR body to have a shutter lock around the shutter
release button. It's the first I've seen one on a grip . . . but then I've
haven't handled too many MF grips.
-- John
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