Elan/EOS100 Sutter Curtain Problem (fix or find another body?)

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Hi, I have an Elan/EOS-100 body. The shutter curtain seems to be sticking/not going through its entire cycle. It has gotten progressively worse so that for the last roll of 36 only about a third of the images came out. The rest of the frames were blank. Some frames had a horizontal strip on the bottom where it looks vignetted. In operating the camera the shutter curtain will seem to occasionally stick (so that when you look through the viewfinder it is black). Cycling the power on/off is required to clear it and advance a frame.

I don't have any experience with having cameras repaired. Used Elan/EOS 100 bodies go for about US $200 on Adorama's site. I am a beginning photographer and need a reasonable camera to learn on/have fun with. Is it worth fixing the Elan (e.g., would the repair cost be cheap?) or should I try to find another body?

Thanks for any input!

-- Matthew Marshall (spacestrategies@att.net), June 02, 2001

Answers

My guess is the repair shop will want to replace the shutter. That's probably as much as replacing the Elan.

I have repaired several older 620, 650, 630 shutters that were sticking. You might be having the same problem they often have. It seems that some plastic part starts to melt when it gets old and the camera is left in a place where it gets hot (like inside a car on a sunny day). This plastic gets kind of gooey/sticky and gets on some of the shutter blades. If you open up the back of the camera you might be able to see the contamination. it's most often found in the upper right corner. If you see it, here's what you might want to try:

Use lighter fluid (alcohol works but not as quickly) with a Q-tip or other disposable cotton tipped stick and dab some of the fluid on the shutter. Fire the shutter several times. Repeat several more times to get a moderate amount of fluid worked into the shutter blades. Then using clean Q-tips, dry the shutter blades off as best you can. You will need to do this on the inside of the shutter as well, so lift the mirror out of the way & get some in there too. Dry it off some and then fire the shutter several more times & dry it off some more.

You will need to repeat this whole process several times before you get it all out. Then let it dry for a about fifteen minutes and fire the shutter several times. Keep doing this every fifteen minutes for a couple of hours to make sure it doesn't lock up on you while it dries completely.

This isn't the only thing that goes wrong with Canon shutters so you may have something else wrong, but it's worth a try on a camera that you would otherwise throw away. If you can't get it fixed for less than the cost of replacement, sell it on Ebay with an accurate description of the problems. You will be surprised what it will sell for.

-- Jim Strutz (jimstrutz@juno.com), June 02, 2001.


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