Yashica Electro 35 GSN not "exposing" when taking photos

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leeks

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Hi everyone,

Need a little bit of help here, and this is the background. Have this ancient Electro 35 GSN lying around and decided to take it with me on the trip to Japan (not before giving a good generally cleaning and putting it in the dry box for a bit)

I made sure the shutter appeared to be "working" before taking it away with me, with a film roll of course.

However, after the trip, to my dismay, nothing seems to be exposed on the film (appears to be clear). It was as if the camera did not get exposed at all.

What could be the problem and how should I be able to find out? I thought the battery wouldn't matter as that would just affect the shutter speed, and even if the battery was "dead" something, would have been exposed wouldn't it.

Please help. I would really love to get this old junk working.

Thank you for any advise in advance!
 
Hi!

Could it be that your films got exposed to X-Rays when they checked your luggage? If your films are for color prints and the negatives are clear, this means they are exposed to the max. Either you have a mighty light leak or it could have been the X-Rays. Just shoot another roll and find out (after you have checked the light seals and if the times are okay, of cource)!

Good luck!

Michael
 
2 possibilities either the shutter is not working or the film was not installed on the take-up spool properly..

Open the back door and fire the shutter while looking into the rear of the camera. If it is working then I'd say not loaded right..

Film exposed to x-rays will still show fogged images..
 
I once shot a roll which never loaded properly into the film advance spool and received nothing when developed. The best check for that is after the film is placed in the camera and a few shot exposed to get to frame #1, see if the takeup spool is tight by trying to rewind the film. If it's tight then you know the film has been loaded properly. A stupid mistake on my part, but a learning experience.
 
As I said before - if the negatives are clear (which means they are not dark) then the film is definitely exposed. That rules out the non-properly loaded film. Okay, there could still be the chance, that you didn't load any of your films properly and THEN they got x-rayed at the airport. :)
 
Sorry bundok but what you've said is completely incorrect. A transparent negative means that the piece of film in question was not exposed to light (or X rays)
 
Sorry bundok but what you've said is completely incorrect. A transparent negative means that the piece of film in question was not exposed to light (or X rays)
Click to expand...

I'll second that! Absolutely correct!

Russ
 
Okay - I retract my statement and claim the opposite! :eek:

Damn! Sometimes it is better to take a look than to "think" about it. Although I can only guess what my train of thoughts was. It must habe been something like: "Okay, when the positive is exposed to light it becomes dark, sooo ... a negative, that is exposed, must therefore be clear (because that would be the opposite)." :bang:

Shame on me.
 
The shutter on an Electro defaults to 1/500 without a battery. The battery is used to delay the closing for longer exposures. So you should be able to use 400 speed film and Sunny 16 to get acceptable results. It looks like either the fillm wasn't engaged on the takeup spool (been there, done that), or there is a problem with the shutter (done that too, on a different camera). Or, you left the lens cap on, but that seems unlikely for an entire roll.
 
With a dead battery, the only way to tell if the shutter opens is to open the back of the camera and look through the lens whilst aiming it a bright light. If you look at anything dark like the desk, then the default 1/500th is just too quick to register (with my eyes at least). If the battery's OK and you get the slow shutter speeds, then if you stop it down to f11 say, and point at your face indoors, then you should be briefly able to see the iris from the front as the shutter opens.
 
nthearle said:
With a dead battery, the only way to tell if the shutter opens is to open the back of the camera and look through the lens whilst aiming it a bright light. If you look at anything dark like the desk, then the default 1/500th is just too quick to register (with my eyes at least). If the battery's OK and you get the slow shutter speeds, then if you stop it down to f11 say, and point at your face indoors, then you should be briefly able to see the iris from the front as the shutter opens.
Click to expand...
I've checked that prior to the trip. Just checked that again to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

So I guess I could say, Shutter's working since when aimed at bright lights i could clearly see the "other side" when I try to take a photo.

I have another roll of film, I'll go about try to see if the film spools proper. But I'm guessing it would, what are the odds that the camera is OVEREXPOSING everything (i thought it would be highly unlikely since the shutter speed seems to be so fast in bright light)

The film rolls were with me when I boarded the plane, so I assuming they shouldn't have been exposed by X-ray, I'm doing a check the that other roll I brought on with me, perhaps, pull some of it out to see if they're already exposed or otherwise.

Any ideas what other siily things I could have done, or should I just try to get it repaired without knowing what is going on with it?
 
If the film was grossly over exposed, the negatives would be dark, not clear. When you load the film, wind the advance lever a couple times before closing the camera back to make sure the film is engaged well into the take up spool. Then when you are taking pictures, watch for the rewind crank to rotate when you advance the film.
 
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