Forgive me for I have strayed..

Hello Raftman
Concerning your previous post, if the batteries are fresh and the electrodes are clean, that is certainly an electrical circuit problem. I regret to be unable to advise on this but check the Tiger’s Lair (see bellow).
Now about the lightleak : I believe that abnormal light in your pictures may be a curtain speed malfunction. Please check the negatives and see if the abnormal light extends out of the frame: if it does it is a lightleak (probably from the back door area – damaged light seals??). If the abnormal light is within the frame limits, it may be due to a slow curtain.
If it is, it can be improved: 1) remove all possible dust, dry grease, rust, etc from the curtain rails. Use a toothpick or some thin device to do it, and resist the temptation of using pressurized air as this would spread the dust to other camera parts 2) place a very small amount of lubricant (domestic oil+ lighter fluid) in the curtain rails 3) the boring part: cock & fire the shutter as many times as your patience allows.
If this does not improve the problem, maybe a curtain retensioning is needed.
You can see a lot of detailed information on this at the Tiger’s Lair (the Zenit Repair Project)
http://www.xs4all.nl/~tomtiger/
I also recommend a friendly place where I have found the best Zenitophilia gurus: the great Zenit Camera Group
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Zenitcamera/
Best regards
Joao

RF: Zork(1, 4), Fed(5, 2), Sokol (Automat, 2), Junost, Iskra, Kiev-4,
TLR: Komsomolyets, Lubitel (2, 166B), Flexaret
SLR: Zenit (3M, E, EM, ET, TTL, 12XP, 122K,19, Photosniper), Kiev-10, Olympus OM-2
Other: FED-50, Kiev35A, Smena (7, 8M), Estafeta
 
Actually the meter problem seems to have... resolved itself somehow. With the negative scans from the 122k, doing "auto-levels" in Photoshop only very slightly tweaked things, and sometimes it "auto-levels" didn't change a thing, so the meter has for some reason or another (perhaps a heavenly miracle) become pretty good.

The peculiar streaks don't seem go outside of the frame.
You know how below the mirror there is what looks like a little black box with the little slits on top... and simply acts the housing/cover for the "wheel" that turns when the shutter is fired... the wheel in turn is what acts on the "L bar" type thing, which causes the mirror to flip up during the exposure? Is the light leak or flare or whatever possibly caused by the fact that this housing was missing, and the wheel was simply "naked." Even though the wheel is black, I notice it's sort of shiny/reflective, certainly moreso than the housing, could the problem be that light is reflecting from it this wheel and affecting the images? The reason I took the housing off the wheel was to conduct some repairs, and now that the camera is functunal, and the cover doesn't actually effect mechanical operation I pretty much forgot about it until now.

In any case, I think I may have just solved my own mystery by simply trying to explain the problem. Heh, thanks!
 
raftman said:
In any case, I think I may have just solved my own mystery by simply trying to explain the problem. Heh, thanks!
Click to expand...

Good to hear that !
“Zenits move in mysterious ways…”
(Old Zenitologist saying)
Keep shooting
Joao
RF: Zork(1, 4), Fed(5, 2), Sokol (Automat, 2), Junost, Iskra, Kiev-4,
TLR: Komsomolyets, Lubitel (2, 166B), Flexaret
SLR: Zenit (3M, E, EM, ET, TTL, 12XP, 122K,19, Photosniper), Kiev-10, Olympus OM-2
Other: FED-50, Kiev35A, Smena (7, 8M), Estafeta
 
Is that likely to be the culprit however? I mean, shouldn't the lens direct the light to make the image on the frame and the mechanism should be completely clear of the path? Is it only when light comes in at some extreme angle... or...?
 
Hi
It was probably the cause. If there were shiny parts, even if they are out of the way, they can always reflect light
Best regards
Joao

RF: Zork(1, 4), Fed(5, 2), Sokol (Automat, 2), Junost, Iskra, Kiev-4,
TLR: Komsomolyets, Lubitel (2, 166B), Flexaret
SLR: Zenit (3M, E, EM, ET, TTL, 12XP, 122K,19, Photosniper), Kiev-10, Olympus OM-2
Other: FED-50, Kiev35A, Smena (7, 8M), Estafeta
 
Finally got the results of a test roll that was taken after everything was put into place where it should be... while the photography was not very good but at least no more bizarre streaks of light! The lesson I guess is that even seemingly useless parts do play a pretty important role sometimes.
 
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