Filmo 70-DR Jam/trigger failure

[Cole Seidl]

Hello!

I'm returning to 16mm after decades away, and I'm doing it with a recently acquired B&H Filmo 70-DR. I'm working through shooting my first roll of film as a test, and I've run into a couple hiccups. 

After winding up the camera, the shutter-trigger will be completely loose, as if the camera has not been wound at all, and will not do anything. I was worried that maybe there was an internal issue with the plunger, but I opened the camera in the dark and manually advanced the film 1 frame, and that did the trick. Closed it up, and was able to trigger the shutter like normal again...

That is until the spring tension finished and I had to wind it up again. Same issue. So it appears that perhaps the film is jamming in a way that is preventing the trigger from being able to do its job. 

I'd like to solve this, as obviously, opening up the camera every time I re-crank it is not ideal working conditions. At this point I'm hoping it's operator error, but I'm not sure where I could have gone wrong. 

I'm shooting a (very old) roll of Kodak 7277 4-x reversal,

I have 3 lenses on the turret. A Wollensak 0.7", A General Electric 1" Television lens, and a Wollensak 3". 

If anyone has any thoughts I could certainly use help with my troubleshooting. 

[Tyler Purcell]

The shutter is probably sticky and not fully returning to the position the switch needs it to be in. I have serviced many of these cameras, most have similar trigger problems. It's an easy fix, but if you haven't done it before, it's very tricky to get it back together again and keep it running. I'm happy to do the service if you want, I'm in Los Angeles. 

[Robert Houllahan]

Just shot some film with a 70DR I bought a few years ago which looked like it was brand new or had maybe shot 3 or 4 rolls through and then was sitting for decades. 

As Tyler said getting it "unstuck" is a pretty easy thing to do but there are some small spring loaded parts on the turret which will escape across the room when disassembling to CLA and get running again. Once they CLA and re-lubed they tent to run perfectly.

[Cole Seidl]

Great! Thanks Tyler and Robert!

I'll have to just keep opening up/advancing with each wind-up until I can get through the remaining 35 feet or so, since I don't want to waste my film. Once the camera is empty again, I'll look into trying to take it apart myself and see if CLA is within my capabilities. If not, I'll have to consider sending it off to LA!

Appreciate the input.