Benjamin Marks
Veteran
Good lord. what a discussion. Take a deep breath. Get a grip. Repeat to self 10 times, "it is only a camera". Take pictures.
Ben
Ben
kully said:Hey atelier7, did you get this sorted? Did the streaks look anything like this:
http://superkully.com/images/photos/cameras/zorki_mir/mir_lightleak1.jpg?
kully said:It is a Zorki Mir, ZorkiKat.
What you say makes me feel good, last night I was shining a torch around the camera and although I saw no leak, I did notice that one of the screws holding the top plate on is pretty much on the same vertical as the light leak...
Time to blu-tac over the screw and shoot some frames.
One thing I cannot explain is why in six of thirty-six frames there was no leak (I discounted factors such as winding with the cap on, changing shutter speed, holding it vertical rather than horizontal or getting my finger caught on the shutter selector as it does its twirl). May be the top plate is flexing.
atelier7 said:i've finally got my camera back! 🙂
from what i can see on the outside, the problem area is at the corner next to the slow speed knob and lense where the vulcanite joins the metal frame.
the technician has added some sort of black rubbery material.
i can just see a bit of it next to the vulcanite but he's done a really good job
you can hardly tell it's there.
maybe light was leaking through there.
thafred said:.....When I reached the end of my roll on the IIIa I as usual spun the Film advance until feeling the resistance of the film (who needs frame counters?) and then flipped the rewind lever and began winding...What happened was, that the curtain (which was sitting at middle of film gate ..overlapping and light tight since I did´t wind on a full cycle) popped open for a few milimeters exposing a vertical band onto the Film (when winding the exposure must have been minimal cuz the rest of the pictures is ok but the band obviously occured when I changed my grip on the rewind knob..and the film sat there for fractions of seconds) ... further "research" 😉 showed that on my IIIa the shutter release doesnt get pulled down as far as on my Leica I (It sits metal on metal) when flipping the rewind lever and I was still able to slightly press the shutter release while rewinding and the first curtain released.
my cure is...when reaching the end of the film, simply press the shutter release before you flip the rewind lever...that way the curtains travel back on the rollers and can´t "gap"
I hope everything is fine with your camera and that you can finally enjoy this fine machine!
best regards
fred
ZorkiKat said:One source for light leakage in IIIc Leica is under the slow-speed knob. There is some flocking placed in this area. The original is just a strip of felt stuck on the body shell and runs from the notch where the slow knob sits, down to the bottom of the crate.
I also got a consistent fog pattern (somewhat diagonal, and doesn't go into the sprockets) whose origin almost made me crazy trying to determine. The shutter speed / exposure time never seemed to matter. I thought the fogging came from the shutters, the upper plate, or some loose screw. I also suspected shutter fog, but firing flash behind closed shutters proved that they were leak-free.
Then I noticed that the felt strip became worn and got a bit dog-eared at the upper end. The fogging actually occured whilst the film was wound in the take-up, as light breaching from the gaps between the body shell and slow-speed knob struck it. Fogging happened more when the camera was brought out in bright daylight.
I decided that this worn flocking was the cause. The old felt strip was removed and replaced with black velvet paper (the black plush lining 35mm cassette lips can be used). I covered the metal plate cover of the shutter crate found under the slow speed dial with black felt. Fogging has been eliminated totally.
Ask the your technician to check this black flocking, and have it replaced if possible.
Jay