I have just bought a Minox 35 GT-E and have noticed that the needle which shows the shutter speed in the view finder moves slower than I would have expected. It might take 5+ seconds to finally settle in on a reading. Is this normal? When I push the battery check button it is a little faster, but not much.

Also when I put a flash onto the hot shoe the needle doesn't show 1/125 sec, it stays down at the bottom (or actually, where ever it would be for the ambient light). Should I expect it to actually show 1/125 or just to go ahead and set the shutter speed to 1/125s?

-- Jonathan Thron (thron@anl.gov), February 27, 2000

Answers

Hi Jonathan. The movement of exposure needle in your camera seems a bit odd. On my GT-E, I test the reaction of exposure needle by pointing the lens to a lamp, then use on hand to cover then quickly remove it from the lens, the needel reacts almost instantly.

The problem may be in your battery

• Have you use a new battery?
• Have you use a propoer battery, ie, PX27 5.6 v mercury battery or two CR 1/3n lithium batteries ?

Now for the question of needle movement when a flash unit is attached--- the needle does not switch to 1/125 position, instead it still points to where it was before the flash was attached.

What happens is: When you attach a flash unit, the center contact point on the hotshoe is actually a micro switch, it is depressed slightly by the flash unit-- when this switch is depressed the shutter always stays at 1/125 sec, regardless of where the needle of the meter is.

Another thing you may do is use a piece of Kodak cleaning tissue to wipe clean the hot shoe micro switch, as dust on the rim of microswitch may affect the meter-- not 100% sure, but just to be safe

Don't forget, the meter works only when you push the film advance lever at least once everytime after the shutter fires. Otherwise the meter master switch is turned off.

If all these fails, your camera may need to be tuned up or back for warranty service, which ever applies.

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), February 27, 2000.