Electro 35 GT Pad of Death, on and off?
Sept 12, 2023 11:15:34 GMT
on Sept 12, 2023 11:15:34 GMT
Posted: Sept 12, 2023 11:15:34 GMT
Hello everyone,
I got my hands on a Yashica Electro 35 GT recently and I absolutely fell in love with the camera. I did not know the camera before so after doing some research, I ordered the battery adapter, and the camera seemed to work like a charm. I read about the issue with the "pad of death" and dry fired the shutter about 50 times at all different speeds/f-stops and everything seemed fine. I loaded some Kodak Ultramax and began shooting. My camera came with the auxiliary lenses and the viewfinder and I decided to mount the wide angle lens onto the camera. I had already taken about 8 shots before that and every time I advanced the film, the camera would make the "thonk" sound that Mike Elek described in his article about the pad of death. Once I had mounted the wide angle lens and taken a photo, the "thonk" sound no longer appeared when I advanced the film. I tried it three more times with the same result. Then I unscrewed the wide angle lens, took a photo with the "naked" lens and the "thonk" came back.
I was really confused and decided to examine this issue further, asking myself if the conversion lens caused the issue or not. After taking out the film, I fired the shutter about 30 times, with and without the auxiliary lenses (I tried both of them) and there were no issues at all. Every time the camera made the "thonk" sound when I used the film advance lever. After putting my film back in, I advanced to the frame that I was at and the camera "thonked" like it was supposed to. Next morning, I took it for a walk and once again, no "thonks."
I am now asking myself two questions:
1) Is the camera still able to take a properly exposed photograph when it did not "thonk" ? It seemed to me that even when the camera did not "tonk" the shutter went off with what seemed to be a pretty reasonable speed.
2) Have you had similar problems before, e.g. camera doing the "thonk" only occasionally?
All the best and thank you very much for your help,
Valentin
I got my hands on a Yashica Electro 35 GT recently and I absolutely fell in love with the camera. I did not know the camera before so after doing some research, I ordered the battery adapter, and the camera seemed to work like a charm. I read about the issue with the "pad of death" and dry fired the shutter about 50 times at all different speeds/f-stops and everything seemed fine. I loaded some Kodak Ultramax and began shooting. My camera came with the auxiliary lenses and the viewfinder and I decided to mount the wide angle lens onto the camera. I had already taken about 8 shots before that and every time I advanced the film, the camera would make the "thonk" sound that Mike Elek described in his article about the pad of death. Once I had mounted the wide angle lens and taken a photo, the "thonk" sound no longer appeared when I advanced the film. I tried it three more times with the same result. Then I unscrewed the wide angle lens, took a photo with the "naked" lens and the "thonk" came back.
I was really confused and decided to examine this issue further, asking myself if the conversion lens caused the issue or not. After taking out the film, I fired the shutter about 30 times, with and without the auxiliary lenses (I tried both of them) and there were no issues at all. Every time the camera made the "thonk" sound when I used the film advance lever. After putting my film back in, I advanced to the frame that I was at and the camera "thonked" like it was supposed to. Next morning, I took it for a walk and once again, no "thonks."
I am now asking myself two questions:
1) Is the camera still able to take a properly exposed photograph when it did not "thonk" ? It seemed to me that even when the camera did not "tonk" the shutter went off with what seemed to be a pretty reasonable speed.
2) Have you had similar problems before, e.g. camera doing the "thonk" only occasionally?
All the best and thank you very much for your help,
Valentin
