Leica IIIc "stepper" trouble

[Mr_Flibble]

I hadn't used my '42 IIIc since December and so I loaded it up with some Kodak BW400CN and screwed a 35mm Elmar with a Waltz yellow filter into it. Then I proceeded to carry the camera with me wherever I went for the next couple of weeks.

Unfortunately the problem with the shutter, that I had put down to the cold temperatures in December, had not gone away. It sounded off on some occassions.

(ignore the line along the top, that's from my crappy HP scanjet)

At the lower right you can see a spot that's brighter then the rest of the image, as if the curtains hung there for a second.
All those little white spots, what are they? They're not dust on the negative...are they light leaks? 😱 I can't really afford a CLA right now 🙁 , but wait, if they are that obvious on the image, why can't I see them on the negatives? I guess I need a better scanner 🙁

Disappointed by the results I started to disassemble the camera setup, but as I unscrewed the lens my eye fell on a piece of purplish material sticking out from under the right curtain drum. Ah-hah! A piece of torn off film. So I pry at it with a paperclip and the little piece gets bigger as I pull it from under the drum with a pincette, next thing I know I've got a centimeter long piece of torn film in my hand.
after that I tried the shutter a few times and it sounded a lot better now. Let's hope that solved that problem!

 

[LeicaTom]

Rick,

You`d be surprised at what`s laying in the bottoms of some of these old Leica`s I`ve found crazy things......No CLA`s since the 1940`s and ton`s of film chips and torn teeth off leads etc. etc.

Those spots might be light leaks, is the Stepper IIIC a Red Curtain?

Red Curtains are notorious for having bad fabric, (age was NOT kind to the red fabric) ,they are mostly good now as paperweights unless they have new black curtains installed, it`s really a collectors camera and NOT a good user.

Shoot another test roll through the camera, make sure it`s still doing what it was doing before, it sounds like the camera does need a CLA, but those light spots on the photos, something is NOT right.

I have a IIIC K now that`s acting up, something wrong with the film advance *SKIPPING SHOTS AND PART ROLLS* and the shutters dragging, I`m sure it`s film chips and junk in the bottom of the camera. 🙁

Tom

 

[Mr_Flibble]

This is my youngest IIIc with black curtains and a slow-speed dial lock.The red-curtain IIIc in my collection is in great working condition but like you said it will never be a user.

Anyway to clean the curtain rail myself? Compressed air would probably just blow the junk into spaces where it could to more harm.

 

[payasam]

The white spots could well be pin-holes in a curtain -- or they could be dust at the time of scanning.

 

[john neal]

Rick,

Like Tom said. First run another roll and check the negs with a loupe to see if you gat those bright spots. You might think about winding on and pause for a while, letting some light hit the first curtain - this one is wound around a smaller diameter and is the one that tends to develop holes first.

If you have pinholes, they can be temporarily treated by painting with a black, flexible paint (I use PVA and black acrylic mixed 50/50 plus a little water) it normally lasts for a couple of years. Of course, you have to remove the body shell, but that also gives you an opportunity to check for film chips 😉

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Thanks John,

I've got a pot of Liquid Electrical Tape I used to patch up the bellows on a Kodak Vestpocket.

Last time I took a 'Leica' apart was to see what was wrong with it......Let's say it turned into a paperweight after that 😉
Good thing your suggestion doesn't involve taking the shutter apart completely.

I'll see what I can do, but first I got to finish the rolls in my Praktica and my Exacta.

 

[Vince Lupo]

Another 'fix' you can try on shutter curtains is a black fabric marker. It's meant to be used to decorate t-shirts, and art supply stores should carry them. About $ 3.00. I tried it on the curtains of a Reflex Korelle, and it worked pretty well. If there's a way that you can figure out where the holes are without having to take the camera apart, you might be able to do it without dismantling it -- maybe!

 

[Mr_Flibble]

I think I've fixed the white spots so far. That problem had nothing to do with the shutter. It's was dirt on the glass inside the lid of my HP scanjet G4050.
I removed a lot of screws and cleaned it with glass cleaning spray and a dry cloth making sure to get all the dust off the glass and out of the lid.

Currently testing the scanner with some fresh negatives out of my Praktica MTL-50