Film Advvance Crank

[shashinka-ichiban]

I boguht a refurb 35GSN a few months back and it seems to have a light leak in it which appears to correlate with where the film advance is. I have noticed that the little round top screw thingy with the two tap holes in in tends to work its way loose. Every time I advance the film, it works itself a little more each time until the level itself feels like it is nearly ready to fall off.

I have been manually tightening this cap every few cranks, but I notice as the frames where the light leaks appear tend to be around when the cap is its loosest. I have removed it and the crank to find a rather torn up washer which I thought may be the cause, but am unsure.

After removing this washer to see if it was causing the cap to loosen, has found that the cap loosens without the washer there. (Of course this washer could be a spacer meant to keep the cap from turning, IDK all that much about the mechanics of this mechanism)

Anyone know how to keep the cap down, and if this is actually the cause of the light leak. I am only theorizing that this is the cause of the leak.

 

[Frontman]

There should be no way light can get in around the winding lever, it's not possible. The light can only be getting around the foam seals on the film door. It's kind of unusual for the retaining screw on the winding lever to come loose. I think there should be 2 washers under the retaining screw, a compression washer and a flat washer. Be careful not to over-tighten the retaining screw, it can break off in the winding shaft.

 

[shashinka-ichiban]

My knowledge of cameras sort of told me the same thing, though my knowledge is limited on the matter. I have found even when I close the door and hold the door tightly closed with gaffers tape even around the edges the leak is still there. It is a nice vertical line appearing directly two third of the way on the left side of the frame, nearly correlating with the relative position of where the crank is.

The leak appears to be intermittent it seems and occurs whether or not the gaffers tape is present. I seem to recall one time I shot an entire roll of film with no gaffers tape at all on the door and there was no leaks at all, and yet another time with the tape, two-thirds of the exposures had some sort of leak. Also to note, my original thoguht was the lab messing up, but subsequent rolls sent to different labs yielded the same general results.

Now two washers is interesting, as I only have the one that appears to be all benty, which I would assume to be a compression washer.

 

[Frontman]

The leak may not be on the side where the crank is, the film could be getting exposed on the opposite side before it is wound. Put your gaffers tape across the entire film door and see what happens. This is a good reason to use the ever-ready camera case, and to leave the lower half on the camera all the time, it protects it from falls, and helps prevent light leaks.

 

[farlymac]

Your camera isn't missing any strap lugs, or top cover screws, is it?

PF

 

[b1bmsgt]

The only thing that should be under the retaining screw, what you call the cap, is the wavy spring washer. You just have to get it tight enough to prevent it from working loose with the rotation of the winding lever. I personally use a pair of snap ring pliers to loosen and tighten them.

Also, as others have said, this is not the source of your light leak.

Russ

 

[shashinka-ichiban]

The leak may not be on the side where the crank is, the film could be getting exposed on the opposite side before it is wound. Put your gaffers tape across the entire film door and see what happens. This is a good reason to use the ever-ready camera case, and to leave the lower half on the camera all the time, it protects it from falls, and helps prevent light leaks.

The gaffers tape had made no difference at all. I do not have a lower half case.

The only thing that should be under the retaining screw, what you call the cap, is the wavy spring washer. You just have to get it tight enough to prevent it from working loose with the rotation of the winding lever. I personally use a pair of snap ring pliers to loosen and tighten them.

Also, as others have said, this is not the source of your light leak.

Russ

I did not think it really was, but it does seem to correlate as to when the problem seems to occur. It doesn't seem like no matter how tight I have made it, that it stays all too long. Regardless, this is not so much an issue if the leak is in no way related to that.

 

[micromoogman]

Load it with a fresh film, go into a dark room and point strong lamp on the rewind crank. A LED lamp with a concentrated beam is best. New frame and point it to another possible leak source. I did that one time when I had a strange light leak, and it helped me to pin it down to a missing screw.
Also, just checkning, up is down. So if you have a light leak on the upper part of the negative, the light leak comes from underneath. There should be light seal foam under the rewind crank. Always detoriated.

 

[Frontman]

Load it with a fresh film, go into a dark room and point strong lamp on the rewind crank. A LED lamp with a concentrated beam is best. New frame and point it to another possible leak source. I did that one time when I had a strange light leak, and it helped me to pin it down to a missing screw.
Also, just checkning, up is down. So if you have a light leak on the upper part of the negative, the light leak comes from underneath. There should be light seal foam under the rewind crank. Always detoriated.

It's difficult to say where the leak is coming from. I have had similar leaks in Electros, but all were the result of bad seals. None of the exterior screws on a Yashica Electro thread into the film compartment, so even if all the screws were missing there should be no light getting in. The foam seal under the rewind knob is to keep stray light out of the rangefinder, a missing seal here will not let light into the film compartment.

 

[shashinka-ichiban]

I'm hoping it is only the seal. I don't plan of using the GSN all too long. It was my experiential to see if I could shoot with a rangefinder. And I think the answer is that I can. Too may years of lugging around f/2.8 glass attached to professional dSLR cameras have left me sore, and tired. I just want to shoot light and fast, and I think the rangefinder is the way to go.

 

[shashinka-ichiban]

Update

Update

I blew out the seals, looked to make sure the door is not sprung, reseated the seal, and shot two rolls. The leak appears to be gone, though I have found there is still ghosting.

The first roll it was pretty bad and on most every frame. On the second roll, it was intermittent, and not that severe. Am preparing to post some examples. This was occurring prior to the seal replacement, but is still occurring now.

 

[shashinka-ichiban]

Older pix from a few mothns back

Older pix from a few mothns back

These came from a few rolls. Almost every picture in the roll had this effect.

 

[shashinka-ichiban]

Newer pix from this week

Newer pix from this week

These are from the last two rolls I did this week, and represent the worst of what the camera did from those rolls. Most the images in these three rolls did not show this effect.

 

[Greyscale]

Did you replace the foam washer/seal that goes between the top of the camera and the film rewind shaft? Often, these are deteriorated to the point that you might not have even realized that it was there in the first place. You can use a piece of felt or similar material and punch a hole in it the same diameter as the shaft, and put it around the top of the shaft before replacing the camera top.

 

[Landshark]

I would replace the seals first. It's inexpensive and a DIY project..If you don't want to wait for a foam kit, inexpensive foam from a hobby or craft store will do the trick for a buck or two. I've also used embroidery yarn from a fabric store.

there is usually a seal at the door hinge that's compressed when the door is closed. These do like to deteriorate over time and will give that top to bottom fogging effect.

I think the difference in density on the frames is from delay between shots. IE: the more time passed, the worse the fogging.

 

[shashinka-ichiban]

The seal at the hinge feels a bit stiff and feels sticky to the touch. I'm not sure how to do that myself. Have not replaced the seal at the rewind knob, however it does look and feel pretty solid. I am guessing by the location of the ghosting, I would assume that the ghosting is more realistically closer to the door hinge.

Note that in the last roll the entire compartment, door, seals, gaps and all were enclosed and covered with gaffers tape. But as Landshark noted, delay between shots in the last roll of film was no mare than a few minutes to fifteen minutes where as other rolls the time was much much greater.

In the long run it's not too big a deal as I bought this camera only to see if I would like to shoot with a Leica. I did not want to drop 2 or 3 grand on a Leica only to discover I can not manually focus, or parallax made me angry. Manual focusing is still incredibly hard on my left eye. (I have no right eye) and I have a glitch with the under/over exposure lights in the VF.

I want to try and narrow it down some more with one more roll. This does help a lot, looking at both the rewind knob and the hinge.

 

[shashinka-ichiban]

- UPDATE -

Replaced the little foam there at the back of film door along te hinge. Problems gone away completely.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

Thanks for the followup. Now we know that your sample images are showing light leaks at the door hinge. Enjoy your GSN.