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Leica I (1929) - shutter acting up


M9reno

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My Barnacks seem to be plagued of late.

 

The following is a series of 10 shots taken last Saturday morning, in short sequence.  I've uploaded them as scanned, in the original order.  Frame divisions on the negatives seem unaffected.

 

As you can see, there seems to be underexposure on the right of the frame, and overexposure on the left.  This is rather difficult to notice in frames 1 and 3, but much more obvious in 2 and 4.

 

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By frames 5 and 6, the entire right half of the frame is not just underexposed... but unexposed!

 

 

 

On frame 7, underexposure on the right and overexposure on the left reoccurs, this time compounded by some kind of (flare?) effect on the bottom right corner.

 

 

Frame 8 looks fine, but I think only because the sky (on the left of the frame) is overexposed, and the ground (on the right) underexposed.

 

 

The right third of the frame is unexposed again in frame 9.

 

 

Frame 10 looks like frame 8.

 

 

This camera was made in 1929 but CLA'd less than a year ago!  Perhaps I am asking too much from a Leica I, but really...

 

I would very grateful indeed for any thoughts/diagnoses of my new problem.  Thanks!

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Thanks, James.  I don't think my fingers were anywhere near the shutter dial, now that I've taken the camera back out to simulate a few releases.  I also thought perhaps I was careless in not winding the shutter fully (it is possible to release the shutter on a Leica I at any point during the transport), but this too doesn't make sense, since the negatives are spaced absolutely correctly.

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If I have things right in my head the film (images) are upside down in-camera. That puts the left side of the image on the right of the shutter gate, viewed from the back. The images are lighter on that side so the negatives are darker. Could the shutter be slow coming up to speed and continuing to accelerate across the gate, even at times stopping completely (causing the black portions)? Am I passable Mrs. Marple?

 

s-a

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Kind of a funny update on this 'mystery': 

 

This morning I loaded a new roll and went out, being very conscious about not touching the speed dial while releasing the shutter.  On the second shot, looking through the viewfinder, I felt my right index finger touching something...: the rim of my baseball cap!  Looking carefully, sure enough - the hat rim comes precisely down to the speed dial when I put the camera to my face, probably fouling the shuter, causing it to slow down or stop completely as it moves from right to left, and underexposing the right of the frame, or in a few cases stopping exposure completely (as s-a said).

 

The hat might also explain why shots taken in portrait mode seem unaffected by the problem.

 

All that remains is to developed the roll to see if this is the right conclusion. 

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...But if the hat's interference with the shutter is causing it to 'slow down' as it travels from right to left, why isn't the right of the frame overexposed, since the shutter travels across it more slowly, instead of underexposed?  My guess is that the slowing down is of the first curtain only, so that the gap between it and the second curtain, which is traveling normally, gradually closes, and by the end of the travel the slit is very small, or closed completely, causing underexposure, or no exposure at all.

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Ha, you beat me to it. This exact thing happened with my hat a couple of weeks ago. I guess I was lucky though. the hat created so much interference that the shutter completely malfunctioned....It only took me about three frames to figure it out. Boy was I relieved when I figured out what it was.

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From my second roll.  Looks fine, but is there some tendency for the right hand side to be slightly underexposed, I wonder?

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