Hi everyone, I just bought a minty second-hand F3HP body. Upon handling the camera in the shop I noticed that the AE Memory Lock button had little or no travel (0.5 to 1 mm or so), although the function itself works well. Also the button comes back up very slowly and hardly noticeable. Given the perfect state that the camera is in, I thought this was simply a minus for the Nikon engineers (just like that silly red LCD illumination button on the finder). I have been told now that this is not the normal way this push button should behave. Does anyone have the same experience? Do they have to open the camera to fix this? (I hate the idea someone peeling off the leatherette of this nice body...) Thanks. Benny.

-- benny stevens (b.stevens@jvc.be), September 28, 1999

Answers

This just might be the coffee syndrome. Thats when you're shooting outside in the cold at a sports game and you're drinking coffee. After you spill it on the camera you wipe it with your shirt but later some of the buttons are still sticky. Before I would bother having someone dissassemble a fine machine over that almost useless button, try GENTLY, (YES GENTLY), spraying a VERY SMALL amount of Windex on the button so that it seeps in a little then work the button, the problem may just go away. The Windex will evaporate in a few minutes and it is basically harmless. If this doesn't quite do it, you can also use a LITTLE (SMALL AMOUNT) of plain 70% Isopropyl (medical) alchohol which will cut any residue and also evaporate very quickly. If this doesn't work, you really don't need this button that bad. One caution, any alchohol "might" slightly discolor older leather dressing so if you're worried put some electrical tape around the area just in case. For many years, these are the ONLY two products I used to solve my camera problems and cannot report any ill effects. While doing industrial photography I would often just Windex my whole camera on location, lens and all, because of the crap on it and never once did I have a problemI'm sure you'll get some other suggestions, so wait and see what others reccomend also.

-- Dave Wilson (wbigdave@home.com), September 28, 1999.

Jezus, Dave... I hope the previous owner did not spill his coffee or hot cacao over what is now my F3! I'll soon know, since I decided to take the camera back for repair under warranty. Thanks for your reply.

-- Benny Stevens (b.stevens@jvc.be), October 01, 1999.