M3 blank frame issues

brennanphotoguy

brennanphotoguy

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Hey! My name is Brennan McKissick and I'm new here but not to Leicas or rangefinders haha. Recently, however, my M3 SS has developed an issue that I have no clue about. Over Christmas I shot a roll of Delta 3200 and got 22 frames out it. There were some blank frames near the front of the roll, then got about 12 shots, then two more blank frames then about 10 more frames then the rest is blank. I thought the lab made a mistake in scanning at first (I hadn't seen the negs). Then about two or three weeks ago we had a little photo walk and I got all 36 frames out like I was supposed to. The black and white roll and the photo walk roll were dev'd and scanned at the same time. Then this past weekend I got scans back from a new lab and it was only the last 20 or so frames. The entire front of the roll is blank. I have taken the camera and held it up to the light and fired it at every shutter speed numerous times to make sure. My initial thought was the entire camera is mechanical and for one thing to fail, pretty much everything would have to fail. The lens cap was not on during any of this so I know that is not the issue.

It was CLA'd 6 months ago by Youxin Ye because the shutter had gone out of sync and I've had 0 issues until now.

Any advice?
 
First, welcome.

Second, intermittent faults are a bar steward -- and an intermittent fault is what you've got. Have you contacted Youxin Ye (or any reputable repairer) for advice? I'd not agree that "for one thing to fail, pretty much everything would have to fail". Just one thing has to fail -- one gear train hang up, one tab fail to release one blind -- for everything to fail. That's one thing slightly out of adjustment, so it catches sometimes, and doesn't catch others...

Cheers,

R.
 
Yeah, I contacted him and he just told me to send it in and he would take a look at it. I'm gonna keep it for a weekend since my parents are coming in and my lab is gonna scan the roll for me to see if it happens again. It just baffles me as to how that could happen so sporadically like that. Very frustrating because my Mamiya 7 is having frame spacing issues as well that I found out on the same day and they are both my main rigs -_-
 
If the film has definately been advancing then you need to know what shutter speeds were used. My guess is that it was all high speed 1000 and the shutter is firing way too fast.
Take the lens off, open up the back and point at a light source and fire at 1000. Does it look correct? Light across the full frame?
 
Yes and it was CLA'd 6 months ago. These were (I believe) at random shutter speeds. Like I said, one roll was fine and I know I was at the same shutter speeds on the other two rolls.
 
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