Argus AF test roll, what happened?

[Proteus617]

I just dragged an AF out of it's long retirement. A very fun camera. The viewfinder is much longer than the lens so you have to compose generously. I'm only 50% sure that I did not reverse the middle lens element during re-assembly. I'm pretty sure I glued the velvet light seal in it's proper position. Check out the vignetting when focused on infinity:

Tough to get a sense of scale here; that tower is 300m tall.

Fog rolls in:

The thin single mast behind stands almost 1300m. Vignettting greatly reduced when focused at 20':

 

[Mr_Flibble]

I'd reverse the middle lens element and try again with a short roll of film.
I doubt it's the light seal as the big spring inside it would be a more likely suspect.


I've had my A apart a week ago to fix the shutter, but did not go as far as to disassemble the lenses from their mounts though. It's ready for its first roll of film.

 

[Proteus617]

I've had my A apart a week ago to fix the shutter, but did not go as far as to disassemble the lenses from their mounts though. It's ready for its first roll of film.

Rick,

The folks over at the ACG confirmed that my middle element is flipped. A 30 second fix, and I and can even change the orientation
mid roll (not a bad feature). Before your first roll of film, I would highly recommend that you replace the velvet light trap in the barrel of the body. I re-glued my original trap when I should have replaced it. The 70 year old velvet sheds fibers onto the neg whenever I collapse the lens. The first photo of a series always looks like this:

Easy to gimp out, but almost unprintable in a darkroom.

Regards,

Matthew

 

[Ducky]

#$%@#, now I have to dig out my AF and shoot a roll. It's long overdue anyway, thanks.
Nice shots.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Glad to hear it is a quick fix. I assume it's a simple matter of unscrewing the front lens unit and then unscrewing and flipping the rear lens in the unit.


I'll see about replacing the velvet, though mine appeared to be in very good shape when I had the shutter off the camera. I'm more worried about the DIY film pressure plate (http://www.flibweb.nl/flibweb/cpg143/albums/userpics/10001/ArgusA.jpg).