Fujica STX-1N Shutter Speed Indicator Problem.

Fujica STX-1N SLR film camera with 50mm Fujinon lens attached

The Fujica STX-1N with Fujinon 50mm Lens.

I picked up this camera in Cash Converters for £3.50. A bargain, even if it didn’t work. Luckily it did work, and I’ve had some nice photographs from it.

However, there was one small problem.

Looking through the viewfinder of the Fujica STX-1N, showing inverted shutter speed indicator.

As you can see, the Shutter Speed Indicator and Exposure Indicator are both inverted. This really didn’t bother me too much as I always used a separate light meter. I recently thought it would be nice to have it working properly, and spurred on by my first camera fix (re-aligning the rangefinder on an Agfa Super Silette), I decided to have a go.

Initial searched found very little on tearing down the STX-1N, but I did find a video on YouTube By TOMMY Official tearing down an STX-1. This helped particularly with the removal of the rewind spool.

I probably didn’t do this in the best order, but it worked. Also, I couldn’t capture everything I did, as I only have two hands, I could have done with a stand for the phone I was taking the progress photos with.

Step One.

Remove external screws.

There are a total of 8 screws located around the exterior of the camera.

The first two allow the removal of the front nameplate and exposes 2 more underneath it.

Fujica STX-1N with front name plate removed.

This leaves 2 on the front, 2 on the rear and 1 on each side to remove.

Step Two.

Remove rewind spool.

Open up the rear of the camera, and using a screwdriver lodged in the spool, this allows you to unscrew the top rewind knob.

Jamming the rewind spool to be able to unscrew the external rewinder.

With the knob removed, this exposes a split screw around the shaft. I don’t know if there’s a correct tool to remove this, but a flat head screwdriver and some careful pressure allowed it to be unscrewed.

Step Three.

Removal of Film Advance Lever.

This is relatively easy. There are two screws on the underside that allow the plastic cover to come off.

Once the cover is off, there is a top screw holding the lever in place. Careful removing this as there are 2 washers and a dust cap under the lever that come off too.

Step Four.

Removal of Top Cover.

As I had already removed the screws, the top cover just needed to be jiggled gently to come off. Be careful of the wire leading from the hot shoe into the camera body.

Step Five.

Removal of Prism.

The prism is held in place by the copper bracket at the front, held in with the two screws either side. I advise unscrewing these just a little, then holding them with tweezers as you unscrew all the way, to ensure it doesn’t fall into the camera.

There is a black plastic cover over the prism, and once this is off, the prism can be carefully lifted out from under the wires above it.

Once the prism is out, the overlay with the numbers can be removed carefully with tweezers.

After this, it was a case of flipping the overlay over and reassembling by doing everything in reverse order.

A thing to note during reassembly, be careful of wires sticking out from under the top cover, especially just above the viewfinder. And the battery cover will slide out completely when the cover is lifted, so maybe taping this down before removing the top cover would be advisable.

Once reassembly is completed, a look through the viewfinder confirms the overlay is now the right way around.

2 Responses

  1. Thanks a bunch,
    got my mothers Fujica stx-1n back in working order again.
    best Martijn

    Martijn 1 year ago Reply
    • Oh that’s cool. I’m so glad this article helped you with that. Hope you get to take some good shots with it too.

      David 1 year ago Reply

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