Yashica lynx: Broken aperture!?

[frydham]

I recently bought a Yashica rangefinder on ebay. I'm newbie when it comes to rangefinders, but it seemed to be in working condition. Except one thing... The aperture ring would get stuck at 2.8. It went pretty smoothly from f/22 - f/2.8, but would get stuck before getting to 1.8. Well, I decided it just needed a little push, and forced it to open... Bad idea. I had freed up the aperture but something happened to the shutter. Sometimes it when it would fire, it would just stay open, sometimes nothing happened. After fiddling with for a little while, the shutter seems to be working again, but now I can see there something wrong with aperture blades. Does anyone know what happened to this, and how to fix it? I'm in way over my head with this thing.

[frydham]

[OsmosisStudios]

Time to find a good technician.

[inkista]

+1. Looks like you popped one of the blades. Aperture irises are delicate spring-loaded mechanisms. It might have simply been stuck with old grease gone sticky from the decades of disuse, but then you forced it, so....

Whenever I buy vintage gear, unless the seller states that it's in good working condition and has been tested/reconditioned whatever, I always mentally tack on (at last) $100 for a CLA (cleaning, lubrication, adjustment). For Leicas, I'd probably double or triple that. I would also probably have the Yashica gone over, or at least inspected for light tightness (although I suppose it might be cheaper just to sacrifice a roll to find out).

There are reasons I buy from KEH, Adorama, and B&H, instead of the 'bay. The prices are higher but everything's been checked and they accurately list when something doesn't work properly and will require a CLA or repair. Saves time and angst.

If you really want to live dangerously, I'd suggest trying to google up a repair/disassembly manual or diagram for the lens and see what's involved. Most of the times I've done that for old manual lenses, I just decide to call my local vintage camera store repair guy instead, but some lenses, like an old Oly 50mm f/1.8 turn out to be relatively simple to mess about with if you have the right touch, knowhow, and tools. You may need to get a spanner wrench or some kind.

Karen Nakamura's "photoethnography" site has some great information if you're going to go down the vintage rangefinder path.