A major issue with mine, and with many other of my 6x9 folders, is parallel lens/film plane problems. It has spoiled my experience of a few folders and now must be checked before I invest too much trust in a camera.
Initial test shots on this cam were very pleasing in terms of not seeing any light leaks (after liberal use of foam seals within). Many of the shots showed areas with very good detail, making me quite enthusiastic and hopeful for the performance of this particular one. But, After seeing similar soft (OOF) areas in several pictures began to suspect that the film/lens plane was not right, I measured them.
I had an nice, straight alloy extrusion about 40mm wide (I think it was once the runner for some hanging wardrobe doors). With the back open and the film guide rollers sat on the alloy piece, I was able to hold a long steel rule against the bezel of the lens. Initially, it ran out over about 350mm by a few mm. Easily enough to ruin the focus across the frame of a negative.
I have had other cams which I could not get right and/or lost the will to continue, so put this away for a few months to allow my disappointment to settle.
I have eventually come back to it and got this problem rectified, but now the shutter speed selector will not move past 1/100, so this is a new issue.
For future test shots with this cam, I will include some object at around 7-10m distance and large aperture on one side of the frame, then invert the camera and catch the same image without any further adjustment. This will show if the lens plane is set well enough for my purposes.
At least some part of my test images had very goo detail. If it can do this over the full frame (and I see no reason why it wouldn't) it will make an excellent landscape cam.
Good luck with yours, please let us know how you progress.
Dave...
