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

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Subject: [Leica] R8 winder woes.
From: "David Strang" <dstrang@up.net>
Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 14:02:44 -0400

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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