----- Original Message -----
From: "Chaso DeChaso"
Subject: HELP! - Have I ruined my PZ-1p's shutter curtains by
touching them?
<snip>
> At some point in the evening, when re-loading my
> PZ-1p, I managed to press my thumb directly into the
> shutter curtains. It was hard enough so that I
> actually felt some deflection of the curtains under my
> touch.
<more snip>
> My question is what to do next. How much damage am I
> like to have caused? Can this be assessed easily?
> What expense is involved in fixing or replacing this
> part of the camera? Should I send it to Pentax or
> what?
The likelihood of having done any damage is pretty small.
An anecdotal story about shutters.
This took place several years ago.
I was working at my lab when I heard a customer being very loud
and abusive to my co-worker in the store.
I went to see what the deal was, and as I rounded the counter I
saw that my co-worker was holding a Pentax SF-10 body. Being the
sensitive girl that she was, she handed me the camera and ran
into the back room.
So, there I am, with a camera that I have never seen before, and
a screaming abusive customer.
Being somewhat larger than him, and definitely possessing a far
worse attitude than he was able to muster, I calmed him down to
the point where he became lucid again.
This didn't go far towards resolving the issue at hand.
At this point, he told me what he thought about my company, me,
Pentax, and the world in general, using multiple repetitions of
a rather coarse word that starts with "f".
He then told me to throw the camera into the garbage.
I asked him if he was sure about that, and he assured me twice
more that this was what he wanted.
After he left the store, I decided to see exactly what it was
that I had been abused over.
It turned out that the shutter curtain had been punched in hard
enough that they were actually deformed quite badly, and the
shutter was non functional.
The problem was that this was the second time that the shutter
had "failed", and the customer was miffed that Pentax wanted
another $170.00 to replace it.
I took out my Swiss Army Knife, gently pulled the blades out of
the shutter completely on their free side (the blades are
attached on one side only, on the other side they just run on a
guide).
Much to my surprise, the blades appeared to regain their former
shape, with no visible signs of bending or warpage.
So, I very carefully put the blades back into their guide. and
tested to see if it worked.
It worked perfectly. I ended up giving the camera to a friend
who is using it to this day, with absolutely no problems.
So, I would just put this little incident behind me and go out
and enjoy the camera. If you are really curious, you could take
the lens off and point the thing at the sun for a half minute or
so to see if the shutter leaks light and run the shutter through
all it's speeds to see if it is relatively linear.
Personally, I would just keep using it.
>
> The sad thing is that this was a brand new camera
> (one-month old!) - and now I feel like I will never
> trust it to be working properly unless I have so much
> of the "guts" replaced.
Suck it up big boy!! It ain't that serious.
>
> Thanks everyone,
Yer welcome.
William Robb
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