FG-20 Broken? Please Help!

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koomber

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Basically I bought an FG-20 of ebay it arrived at my work and after checking for any signs of damage I left it alone and finished my day. When I got home I had a look in the manual and noticed the Apeture metering lever was in the wrong place (with a lens of it should be in the 1 o'clock position, with the lens of on my camera it is in the 4 o'clock position)

I need some help since I'm fairly certain on looking now that you can see the aperture lever is in the wrong place looking at this picture:
GarageSale_1236283215_378.jpg


If the aperture lever were in the right place it would be visible in this picture....

If someone could confirm or deny I would be very happy :D

Thanks for advice,

Koomber
 
Not sure what you mean
But this site has some pictures of the camera without the lens on if it will help

http://www.mir.SPAM/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/emfgfg20/fg20/index.htm

If you are refering to the 'tab' that connects the AI lens to the camera then it should move from about the 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock position f2.8 to f22 (depends on which lens is fitted)

I would carefully remove the lens from the body, when remove the 'tab' should be at roughly 1 o'clock
 
Yeah, the tab is way round the wrong way. Speaking to the guy to get it sorted. It looks like an honest mistake. Very easy to overlook. I didn't even notice that there was a problem until I chucked a battery in and couldn't get it to meter. I didn't even know what that bit was for :D
Hopefully Everything will be sorted out soon.
 
Good to see you got things sorted koomber.
 
Yeah, its looking good but I'm a bit gutted as I really liked the feel of the camera :( Guess It's back to looking for a new (old) Nikon
 
I've been offered a refund of some money for the camera (not the full amnount, just the cost of the camera) which will mean I get the camera and the lens. My only question now is: do I try and repair or do I just go through my life with no metering (and possibly buy a nice vintage light meter to go with mah camera :)
 
HMMM!!!!!!

A decent vintage meter ala Weston Master could cost anything from £30 - £50 depending on type, so worth finding out how much it would cost to repair the camera.

The other thing is, if the meter tab does not connect to the lens, if you set the lens to f16 will it close the aperature when you firs the camera?

If it does not, then the camera would have tobe fixed I think.
 
Just stuck the camera on B and stopped down to F16 and the aperture does change when taking a shot.
I've got an EM coming soon from the states which should have scavangeable parts to transplant I believe they are mechanically very similar camera
 
An EM?

I rember selling them, they were in competion againist the Pentax MESuper and Olympus OM10 as an "entry level camera" and worked well.

The FG-20 has the same body as the EM but as more features in it, the EM was an Aperature Priorty camera only, where as the FG-20 had manual and I think Program mode as well. Be interestign to see if you can scavenge bits off the EM lens mount to make the FG work.

Lets us know how you get on.
 
Quick update. I managed to get the apature lever back where it is meant to be. It had been twisted to far round ( I'm thinking a non-AI lens on the camera).

The leve makes a nice clicky noise now, but does not do anything. With any luck something just went sproing and needs to be reattached. Worst case, something went snap.
 
Another Update:
I've manaaged to get the little begger apart and identifie the problem. The Wiper contact for the variable resistor that controls the apeture is completely mangled. From the spread of the damage, this happened when the aperture lever was twisted too far forward. Surprisingly, this is the only major damage.

To be honest, the camera would be simple to repair if it were pretty much any other fault. This will need to be replaced with an actual nikon part. Since I don't have one the variable resistor is retty much useless. Providing it hasn't shorted :)

I think if I can find a replacement aperture control lever I'll be okay, but otherwise, this little camera will never meter again. I just hope I'm right about the EM being internally the same.
 
Thats the issue resolved. Myself and the ebayer in question have resolved the issue. I say issue, but to be honest it never was an issue. I discovered the problem, the guy seemed honestly shocked and gave me a refund that was completely acceptable. Really a first class chappy. I'm going to use the refund to repair it :)

Just out of curiosity, and if anyone is still reading this thread, would anyone be interested in seeing some pics and a thread on the repair? I believe it is a common piece of damage that can occur when putting on non-AI lenses. It might be a help, or maybe just genreally interesting.

Also, I'm planning on renewing the light seals and could post pics for those who are interested...
 
Did the swap on Friday at work when the EM arrived. Easy job. The EM was in a right state though. Remains of the mirror dampner on the mirror, but the aperture lever was mint and best of all so was the viewfinder.

Total Works:

Replace aperture selection lever from FG-20 with one from EM. Was a direct swap I think, and the camera appeared to meter, but I won't know for certain until I stick a film through it. I might have to swap the variable resistor too but I think I'm safe for now :D

Remove all light seals from the camera:
Dead easy when you don't need to worry about the view finder. Everything ripped out and rubbed down where the mirror hits with meths to remove the sticky paper. Is now imaculate.

Replace the viewfinder from FG-20 with one from EM. Dead easy. The only concern was finger prints on the viewfinder. Latex gloves solved the problem.

The camera now has a clear (ish) viewfinder and appears to meter fine. The aperture selection bit moves smooth and free. The only bugger was that the 50mm Nikkor 1.8f that came with the EM (and was the reason I bought the EM) has more oil on the apertures than the North Sea!

So now the project has switched from repairing the camer to repairing the lens. That shouldn't be anywhere near as difficult as the camera...
:bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::help:
 
I've not that kind of patience, I'd bin the whole thing and buy a camera that works lol.
 
I'm a cheap cheap cheap man.

I'll spend 3 months figuring out how to do something for free rather than spend £5 to get the proper part.

Seriously though, I'm having as much fun fixing these lemons as taking pictures :D
 
FINAL UPDATE:

the lens is cleaned and is now snappy and respnsive and the aperture seems to open to the right values (within tolerences)
 
Sounds good.

So when is the first film going to be run through it?
 
The film is in it right now. The light seals seem good though the metering might still be off. I slapped the 50mm on the d70s and its a peach. Took me a while to realise that the aaperture needs to be locked at f22 to work lol. I thought it was broken when I tried spinnin it and got the fee error :D.
I stuck some illford fp4plus in it but since I'm going to be developing it using home brew chemicals, and it will be the first I've dev'd it probably won't tell me much about the state of the camera lol.

Here's hoping for some good weather :)
 
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