I had my sold CLE returned to me because of jumpy diodes.

I then field tested the camera myself. Not only did the diodes jump around, the speeds followed suit giving uneven exposures.

I took off the shutter dial in order to clean off the contacts and put it back together. Now there are no diodes lit. The camera does function, but only via the self timer (the shutter button sends a signal).

The diy was done with the batteries in and the camera on-my mistake i guess.

is there anything i can do?

did i short out anything?

-- steve (leitz_not_leica@hotmail.com), May 28, 2002

Answers

i would be very surprised if you shorted anything, the volts/amps are probably too small. most likely, you did something to foul the contacts. send camera to apc camera repair in haverhill, mass. p.s. i assume you've turned camera on/off, and removed/reinstalled batteries. p.p.s. does camera work in "manual" mode??

-- roger michel (michel@tcn.org), May 28, 2002.

And did you try new batteries *before* you started all this?

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), May 28, 2002.

roger,

it fires in manual using the self timer only. in ae, it fires and stays open (no film) for a while.

-- steve (leitz_not_leica@hotmail.com), May 28, 2002.

michael,

the battery check still works.

the ae and manual work, but only in selftimer mode. the diodes light and picks an appropriate speed.

-- steve (leitz_not_leica@hotmail.com), May 28, 2002.

the shutter button trips the selftimer, but doesn't trip the shutter, strange since it's electronic.

-- steve (leitz_not_leica@hotmail.com), May 28, 2002.

Steve,

I know about the jumping diodes. One of my CLEs has been doing this for the last 17 years. It does so rarely and a good shake and a slap puts things right. The jumping diodes is a common CLE problem.

It's not a good idea to try to do camera repairs yourself, especially with an electronic camera. I suggest you leave it alone and let a repair person work on it.

Minolta has stopped servicing the CLE but independent repair people can deal with it.

Do this. Go to Stephen Gandy's Camerquest website and see what he has to say about the CLE and what you need to tell repair people about it. (The CLE shares parts with a very common old Minolta SLR.) You might try his repair service. I sent my Leica to him and was very favorably impressed.

Do let us know how things are going or have gone with you.

Best,

Alex

-- Alex Shishin (shishin@pp.iij4u.or.jp), May 30, 2002.