Haze? Flare?

[MatthewThompson]

I've been getting anomalies on negatives under a certain set of circumstances. Is this just garden variety flare? I seem to have "selective focus" issues as well when the lens is opened up" IE: my little girl will have her trouser legs in sharp focus, but not her torso.

There are light marks on the front element of the lens, but it looks clean front to back. Also, in brightly lit situations (F16) the full frame is exposed evenly with not loss of sharpness or tonality present. sorry about the lab-scans, Fujicolor 200, Olympus RC. Same roll, same hour, just different ambient lighting.

I got the camera off e*ay and cleaned the VF/RF, replaced all seals, cleaned the accessible areas of the lens and treated it to a LowePro/Domke Gripper. Great hiking camera, but I am stumped on this one. I've just been goofing around until I know the unit is reliable, so nothing but family snaps.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Shine a strong light through the lens, you might spot some flare.

The image does not look sharp across the frame, the top of the image looks blurry. One possible explanation is a misaligned element. Shoot wide open on something like fence slats. That's my misalignment test. Boring, but telling.

 

[charjohncarter]

Check to see if your RC35 has a loose lens, also look at the shutter as it is being released. It may be slow at one phase. This look a little like a lens I have that is auto where the aperture leaves were slow to close on shutter release, leaving an overexposed spot in the middle (or maybe it was vice versa). It only was really noticeable on certain lighting. Anyway, that is why I suggested the shutter (RC). But really, Brian is giving the most realistic advice.