Repairing a Canon 514XL-S

Paul Lammertsma · May 22, 2006

I know this is a bit of a shot in the dark, but I also know there are a lot of 514XL-S owners out there.

A friend of mine gave me an old Canon 514XL-S and Yashica Super 60-E since she knows I'm into this sort of thing. The Yashica works like a charm, no complaints in that department. On the other hand, the Canon seems broken, but in a strange way.

You'd kind-of expect these things to either work or do nothing at all. In this case, I popped in six charged NiMH penlites and turned the main switch to 'R'. Following the instruction manual I grabbed from the internet, I pressed the battery check button, but saw no LED indicator. The batteries, however, are charged. My immediate conclusion was that the camera is totalled, fried, no good.

Looking through the viewfinder, however, I then suddenly noticed that the light meter was moving! From the 'OFF' position to 'R', the meter swings out to f4 or f4.5 and slowly drops down to steady out at about f2.5. It doesn't appear to really react to light, although it does move slightly to a higher or lower f-stop when aiming at a lighter or darker subject.

Noteworthy is that the meter hops in a seemingly random direction the moment the shutter release is (half) pressed. There are otherwise no signs of life from this devine piece of equipment that undoubtedly had made some previous owner a very happy person. Well, until, of course, the moment it stopped working.

It is also perhaps relevant to mention that the meter jumps back to f1.4 when the camera is switched off or if the 'battery check' button is pressed.

I'm interested in restoring the camera if this is in any way possible. Any suggestions on where or how to get this repaired are welcome (although since I live in the Netherlands this could be somewhat difficult).

A.Oliver · May 22, 2006

Hi, change the batteries for new duracells, then try the batt test see if that led glows. Once new batts are installed, switch cam to 'R' operate the trigger, if no signs of life, keeping the trigger depressed, flip the handgrip to the side of the camera, basically wiggle the handgrip, have known problems before with power getting into the cam from the grip, may have dirty wiper contacts. Last resort, give the cam a wack in the palm of your hand, motor could need freeing after years of lying idle. Try new batts to start with.