CLE repair question

[Little Prince]

Once earlier I had a scare with my CLE shutter. It seemed to have been minor and was working ok and I shot a couple of rolls of chromes that came out fine.

Recently I developed a roll of Neopan 1600 from the CLE. There may have been problems with development, I don't know, but I observe strange artifacts in some of the frames. I also recently acquired a scanner so I might be able to upload something for you to see and diagnose. There is a shot with a strange vertical discoloration (a 'bar' so to speak, but I'm afraid of that term because it was well popularized by one frank g. 😉 ). I wonder if this is a shutter problem.

In any case I'm not very sure about the general health of the shutter. Could you recommed a repair person for this camera so I can have it checked out? Please also include contact information if possible.

 

[dkapp]

Could your negatives have been touching in the tank?

I would think any shutter issues w/ the CLE would show up as horizontal bars since its a vertical shutter.

I don't have any recommendations on repair people, but a search turns up some answers on google.

Dave

 

[kruskee]

I had my CLE repaired by DAG Camera (Don Goldberg). The ISO setting wasn't working so he replaced the circuit board in it. He seems to have some spare bodies for parts. It took awhile, but he got it done and everything is fine. He has a reputation as one of the best Leica repair people around. Just type in DAG Camera in a search engine and you should find it.

Also, I recall seeing a posting somewhere saying that Minolta Japan will still repair the CLE. Might be worth checking out.

 

[jlw]

I would think any shutter issues w/ the CLE would show up as horizontal bars since its a vertical shutter.

The CLE's shutter is a conventional cloth focal plane type (although electronically timed; very similar to the one from its contemporary the XG-7 SLR) that runs horizontally -- so any hesitation in its travel would show up as vertical streaks.

You may be thinking of the CL, which did have a vertically-running cloth focal plane shutter.

Back to the problem -- if it only happened once, I'd say don't worry too much. If it seems to happen occasionally, it would be worth having it looked at. Sorry, I don't know anyone specific to recommend.

 

[Little Prince]

Hmm.. I'm thinking I might have been too quick to jump to conclusions since it's the first time I actually saw something in the pictures. I have no clue how to develop Neopan 1600 from any previous experience and just did what it said in the box. Might have messed up many things. The whole roll was a disaster. Probably not the best roll to judge anything from.

I'll give the repair plan a rest as I plan to take it with me on a trip in less than 2 weeks time. No chance to send it anywhere before that. I will shoot meanwhile to reassure myself that it is ok.

I'm hoping to find some time tomorrow to post a couple of things from that Neopan roll and ask people what's going on in there. Yeah, I'm pretty sure the CLE shutter is a horizontal traveling one.

 

[Frank Granovski]

My CL's dark bar runs across the top of the frame when shooting in "normal" landscape position. Your CLE's shutter is different; so if you have a similar issue your bar should be somewhere else in the frame. My CL's shutter problem could not be fixed, or adjusted. I don't know why. Both Horst and Sherry couldn't fix it. That's why I'm thinking R3A for my 40 and 90mm lenses. I wish you luck. 😉

 

[Palaeoboy]

Without seeing a sample photo is difficult to say but if I had to guess at this stage it would be the light seal of the camera back. CLE's seals have compressed too much after 20 years of use and they leak. The leaks occur more often with faster films which you have used. The leaks often appear as strange bars. Good news is anyone can repair it and only costs 20 dollars or so. You can even get light seal kits off ebay if you want to do it yourself for 7 dollars or so,

 

[Graham Line]

If the discoloration is a dark strip on the negative, it's probably overexposure from the light seals. If you're in the habit of quickly shooting rolls of less-sensitive films - putting the roll in and out of the camera in a couple hours instead of letting it sit around half-shot for a week - it might not have been noticeable. My money's on the light seals.
Haven't heard of many shutter problems with the CLE, and mine hasn't had any.
If the discoloration is an opaque gray strip, you probably had the film touching on the developing reel.
If there's a one-hour place near you, you could shoot a roll of ISO800 color neg or something like Ilford XP2 to check it.