😀 Yesterday I developed the only test roll I did a month ago with my (new) GTN. I was so disappointed, I decided -after an hour of a long face- to place it (gently, inside a plastic bag!) in the trash can and just forget about it, and accept it was my mistake buying one through ebay... In maybe five points of the roll (different frames, not equally separated) there was a spot of light (in different amounts, same vertical elliptical shape, a bit shorter than the whole frame in the strongest ones...) and the roll also seemed maybe a stop underexposed to me... I was so upset, I cut the roll immediately after washing it, using the scissors I use for cutting the film leader inside the bag, and threw it in the trash can...
This had never happened to me, ever, with any camera, so I felt really bad... I even thought maybe some forum member would like to receive the damaged camera for parts or anything, but yesterday I was so bored after checking that roll, that I thought I'd better keep all that crap away from any forum member because it had a damaged shutter and a damaged meter, and being $90, who would bother working on it?
Today, after a good sleep, while I was happily running in the morning I thought again: “Damn! It's a shame! That Yashica seemed great for ISO 1000 and/or really selective focus at 1.7 with its 45, and with that price, I could be taking it everywhere here in Colombia without any worry... If there's less light than I need for my XA stopped down, then the Yashica is always with me for cheap 1.7 shooting...”
Then, having lunch, I thought: “How must that shutter behave to produce such a strange light leak? Mmmm... It seems impossible...” So a moment ago I took the camera out of the trash can to open its back door and see the shutter act with the lens aiming at a source of light... The shutter works well! I was amazed! I had seen -the day I got it-the back door had no foam seals but the door's edges were bent metal that fits perfectly (and a bit deeply) inside the body, to avoid light leaks... So back then I assumed the camera used no foam seals, but today I started to take a better look to see what could have caused the big and changing light spots on my negative...
My first conclusion was the spots “happened” during the times (days) between the series of shots I did on different days... I shot at ISO1000 and at ISO25 (camera's ISO limits) with an ND64 filter: should have been 16 but who cares...) The underexposure I saw was worse than that... And it did affect both 1000 and 25 shots... But it was worse in some frames, so maybe those were the 25 ones...
Then I saw real close the place where the door swings (I don't know the word in English: where it touches the body when it's totally opened...) and in that 2 inches vertical line there's nothing, no foam, but in its extremes there is a millimeter of something black and creamy I touched and had not noticed before: I think that cream was foam decades ago, it's sticky and with some texture, and for sure it was a solid line of foam in the beginning, but it had totally disappeared except for the extremes of that line...
And I just checked the places where the bent metal parts of the door fit in the body: there's a very small amount of the same creamy residue of foam, both on the door borders (the bent parts) and inside the thin places where the body receives those bent door borders!
So I understood: the most dangerous light leaks because of all that foam lack, came from the vertical part of the door close to the body, just very few millimeters away from the place the already shot roll starts to be rolled...
So I guess I will have to restore the short vertical foam in the door's internal extreme, and also the two longer, deeper lines inside the body... I have never done it for any camera... Any idea on what kind of foam and glue should I use? I wish I was in Spain for this: I don't know what foam to look for... And no idea where!
After that, yet I'll have to check another roll to see if the light leaks disappear, and also check what's up with the meter... Maybe it's one of those meters that require “a bit more light/development” than others... By the way, I guess the power is OK: I am using the new battery that came with the adapter I got from Yashica Guy a month ago, and the battery check gives a bright green light...
Thanks for any tips on foam seals!
Cheers,
Juan
