Camera problems - need help

Jim Moore · September 30, 2016

Last week I was given a B&H 70DR with a bunch of lenses. I started out be cleaning the lenses and camera body and started to do some testing.

The first issue is that the speed at 24fps is not stead, I can hear it fluctuate and it ramps down to 0fps close to the end of a wind, I'd say about 5 seconds before.

The other issue, a major one is that although the camera runs, it won't run when I wind it too many times, it will run when nudged with the hand crank, but only for a few frames here and there, sometimes not at all, other times it will run for 2-3 seconds and stop again, until it is helped by the crank. If I wind it a few times it runs fine, wind it too many there is a 5% chance it will run. When it does run and runs down I need to nudge the shutter closed before it will run again, it doesn't "reset" when I wind it as it should. However it did once, but that was it.

I oiled it at all 5 points and ran it via the hand crank the distribute the oil but that doesn't seem to do any good.

Can anyone point me in the right direction, and input, ideas or a repair manual? I'm not about to go pulling it apart especially the mainspring housing.

Thanks!

Jim

Jim Moore · September 30, 2016

Ok, so I got bored and my curiosity got the best of me so I ended up pulling the camera apart. I pulled the turret off and noticed that while spinning the gear that rotates the shutter there was an ugly metallic sound and some binding. The motion wasn't smooth so I know this was wrong. I used canned air to blow out any debris and then applied a light coating of grease. After moving the shutter by hand it felt like glass, VERY smooth and no more binding. Plus the metallic grinding sound was gone. I reassembled the camera and wound it and crossed my fingers.

SUCCESS! The camera is dead quiet, smooth and operates at a steady speed without an fluctuations!

I used white lithium grease to lube the area a very light coating. Is this ok or should I clean it out and use something else, if so what should I use?

Jim

Dom Jaeger · October 1, 2016

Normally you just use oil, but if the grease isn't creating too much drag it should be fine. I'm not sure what you've greased exactly, make sure the scraping wasn't a bent shutter for example. But it sounds like it's running smoothly now.. worst scenario is it just runs a little slow.

Jim Moore · October 2, 2016

Dom: the part that gave me the problem was a little gold colored disk that has a small arm that ran against a groove on the edge of the this disk. for some reason it was so dry that it was binding.

I ran the camera a few times with some fogged stock and it seems like the grease is doing it's job. Maybe next time when I lube it I will remove the grease and use oil to see if that makes a difference.

By the way, does anyone know the shutter angle of the 70DR?

Thanks

Philip Kral · October 5, 2016

I believe it's the standard 1/48 180 degree shutter angle. I've owned 2 of these cameras, they where great. Unlike you however, I could never get them to work right when I put the front plate back on. Kudos to you sir!

Almost all the professional 3rd party filmo support disappeared around 5-10 years ago. All the camera techs who where familiar with this camera seemed to retire around the same time. Which is kind of a bummer.

Dom Jaeger · October 5, 2016

Dom: the part that gave me the problem was a little gold colored disk that has a small arm that ran against a groove on the edge of the this disk. for some reason it was so dry that it was binding.

I ran the camera a few times with some fogged stock and it seems like the grease is doing it's job. Maybe next time when I lube it I will remove the grease and use oil to see if that makes a difference.

By the way, does anyone know the shutter angle of the 70DR?

Thanks

Grease should be fine for that application.

I haven't directly measured a Filmo shutter angle, but the online consensus is 204 degrees for most models or 216 for high speed ones. The 70-DL manual here:

http://www.intervalometers.com/pdfs/2003-filmo70-dl.pdf

describes the shutter speeds - at 16fps it's 1/28 sec, at 24fps it's 1/40 - which equates to a shutter angle of 216 degrees, but the DR might be 204 degrees. Not much difference in practical terms, 1/42 sec at 24fps instead of 1/40.