On Mon, 4 Jun 2001 10:06:14 -0700 (PDT), Chaso DeChaso wrote:
>At some point in the evening, when re-loading my
>PZ-1p, I managed to press my thumb directly into the
>shutter curtains. It was hard enough so that I
>actually felt some deflection of the curtains under my
>touch. I cannot begin to tell you the feeling in my
>stomach when I realized what I had done. I am so
>angry with myself, I cannot even describe it. I am
>always so careful not to let even the film leader
>graze these curtains because I understand that they
>are manufactured to such a high precision that they
>may be misaligned and damaged very easily.
>
>My question is what to do next. How much damage am I
>like to have caused? Can this be assessed easily?
>What expense is involved in fixing or replacing this
>part of the camera? Should I send it to Pentax or
>what?
>
>The sad thing is that this was a brand new camera
>(one-month old!) - and now I feel like I will never
>trust it to be working properly unless I have so much
>of the "guts" replaced.
Chaso,
I take it that once you had pressed your thumb against the shutter you
then stopped using the camera? I'm not sure how sensitive the shutter
of the Z1p is, but these shutters can be stronger than you think. If
all the blades are still overlapping in the correct order there may be
no problems. The best thing to do if you are unsure is take it in and
have it looked at by a technician.
I can tell you a story about a camera that I once looked at because it
didn't work. It belonged to my wife's work and was used as a loner for
when people wanted to take pictures of something. It was a consumer
autofocus Minolta and it wouldn't wind film I was told. So I loked
through the viewfinder and it looked ok. I tested the auto focus and
the metering and that seemed to be ok. So I pressed the shutter while
looking in the viewfinder and noticed that the mirror didn't move.
When I opened the back - which I probably should have done to begin
with - I discovered the shutter blades pushed in towards the lens and
jammed tight. I looked at the blades they were gently curved with no
sharp bends. I told them to take it to a camera technician. The tech
just pushed the blades gently into place and the camera is working ok
again. Still cost them alot.
Good luck, if you are worried get it checked.
Leon
http://www.bluering.org.au
http://www.bluering.org.au/leon
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