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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Death of My Second Pentax SLR


(Above: My MZ-30 with my FA 43 Limited)

The week before, when I tried to use my MZ-30 for shooting film, the light meter first went nuts and then the mirror locked up after pressing the shutter and it did never come down again anymore no matter how!

I used nearly new Panasonic CR2 lithium batteries and its expiry date is in 2020, which worked completely flawlessly when they were put into my MZ-S. Really too bad.. :-(

And, my SFX did die twice like that, for exactly with the same symptom and for what happened. What an unfortunate "coincidence"! >_<

Btw, can anyone tell me that what has been going wrong with this "mirror locked up" issue? :-o


Related:-

When the Super Pancake Meets Different Bodies~

Can Pentax DSLRs be Made Thinner?

"Film is Dead"! ;-)

The World First / Pentax First: My (Obsolete) Pentax Collection

Comments (13)

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Check the voltage of your battery.
It's probably too high for the specifications, CR batteries are now 1.5V, in that time they were 1.35V.
Common rookie mistake.
3 replies · active 641 weeks ago
Of course it is not a battery problem.
Michael A.'s avatar

Michael A. · 641 weeks ago

Hi RH, the mirror lock-up is caused (usually) by cracked/broken plastic gear on mirror's motor. It can be replaced, but the MZ-30 is worth near nothing, so just say your last good byes and dump it...

I just "buried" my old Joe Oly 2100UZ what went crazy and died when I loaded it, after a year or so, with recharged batteries and wanted to give it to a friend. I guess it couldn't handle the prospect of a new home.. :o)
Well nevermind, I mixed CR and CR2.
Common angry guy mistake :)
My Z-1p mirror mounting failed on one side! Took a photo, heard a strange noise, and the VF remained black.

Any suggestions where it could be fixed? I do like that camera!
3 replies · active 640 weeks ago
Just glue it back! But the alignment of the mirror, especially the sub-mirror for the AF, is not straightforward. Or we can go to Jebsen on one day for the repairing of our film SLRs! ;-)
Seems to me a little screw has come undone. I'll take it to Jebsen and see what they say. Hopefully it won't cost more to repair than its used replacement value.
Their usual reply after the charged inspection was usually that the unit was too old to repair and there was no service parts available!
go buy another one for 10$ or less :)
1 K1000, 2 K2, 2 SuperA, 1 ME Super, 1 MZ1, 1 MZ1p still working but replaced by 1 K10 and 1 K5. A little sorry that I sold my Spotmatic.
1 reply · active 641 weeks ago
Oh I see now, you actually meant Z-1 and Z-1p!
Yes, I thought they were called MZ in the US. Here in Sweden it was just Z. But you´re right, it shall be a "-" in between. Forgot that. What was the US name of SuperA?
1 reply · active 641 weeks ago
MZ was the next generation of the Z line of Pentax AFSLRs where M means Mini. The US names of MZ and Z were ZX and PZ respectively. Besides, the Super A was named as Super Program in US.

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