Zeiss Super Ikonta III Exposure Problems.

I recently purchased nice Super Ikonta III and am having some odd exposure problems. I thought it was my lab so I

sent the film out to A&I and I am still having the same problems. Here's a shot from it. Is this a light leak? I

have checked the bellows by shining a bright light into the film area w/ the back open in a dark room and nothing

seems to show up from the bellows. Also tried keeping the shutter open on B, closing the back, and shining a

bright light all around the back while peering into the lens to see if any light is leaking past the back into

the camera. Nothing. The fuzzy, hair like edges may be some magnified parts of the inside of the bellows. It has

got me stumped.<div></div>

hi steve,

 

i have played around with several light leaking folders. it seems that the suspect here is a light leak from the door, perhaps around the hinge. you can light up the film were it stood as you were shooting and start to sort out the angle where the light comes in and then put a bit of thin sticky back felt on the door to seal it up. do you have such exposure on every frame? only when outside in the sun?

 

rj

for "light up the film", read "line up the film"

 

sorry

Every frame has them Robert. Even the inside shots, although it varies from shot to shot as to how bad it is. The interior ones have it to a lesser degree. I guess I should put tape all around the back door and shoot a roll and see what happens. Here's another one that was taken inside. You can see it in the ceiling.<div></div>

It sure looks like a light leak from the door area, but you've tried shining a light through around the door and did not see anything.

 

Just case the light leak is coming from the bellows - try using a manual flash unit to test all around the bellows while looking into the back of the camera. It is better to do this in a darkened room.

Thanks for the tips guys. I read somewhere that a flash light isn't the best thing to ck light leaks with since it's not that bright and the light is very directional, so I am going to buy some batteries for my flash (can't remember the last time that I used a flash) and try that tonight in the dark. I love these old folders, but they can be a pain to get sorted out. My Moskva 5 will be the next patient. I have a Fuji GS645s that has none of these issues and takes really sharp photos, but after using these old folders it feels like what it is. Plastic. Has a shutter that sounds like a toy too.

Steve, I still think, as I said in your first post, that it's a leak in the crack between the camera body and door. When you ran your test roll it might have helped if you had done two things to determine if it really is a light leak. 1. Use a flash in a darkened room. 2. Cover the rear body of the camera with a light proof material(black leather jacket, etc.) and do a fast wind-expose-wind and make sure you go at least two frame past the test frame so the paper backing covers the test frame. Then do the same for the bellows using heavy black craft paper. Also, like has been suggested using flash, you can test the rear. Here's how you do it. Take a piece of white typing paper, cut it to fit on the film pressure plate, close and lock the back, take a card board center from a toilet/paper towel roll and fit it to the front of the lens like a long hood/snout. Now, lock the shutter open(lens f-stop wide open also), close one eye(you might want to also put your hand over that eye) and with the other eye put tightly on and looking in the tube, take your flash and flash it around the camera body, holding it close to the body, until you see the brightest like on the paper. With the white paper it might even be possible to use the flashlight. Good luck! JohnW

John, thanks very much for the tips. I will definitely try that before I shoot another roll of film in it. I did try firing a flash inside the camera in a dark room last night and saw no leaks anywhere in the bellows. I hadn't read your post at that time, so what I did to ck the back door was close the camera back up, put the lens to my eye w/ the shutter held open on B, and repeatedly fired the flash on all the edges of the back door. Didn't see any light inside the camera through the lens when I did that. However, this morning I opened the back of the camera and looked inside while holding the front toward the bright New Mexico sun and sure enough I saw a couple of bellows leaks on the bottom left side. What's odd is that they were not visible last night when I was shining light inside the bellows. I used something similar to liquid electrical tape to patch the inside of the bellows and will follow your advise to double check that there isn't leakage around the door. While I had the bright morning sun I checked my Moskva 5 and found several bellows leaks and got them all patched up too. A productive morning, and I made some headway in figuring out some of the light leaks in both cameras.

Steve, I'm glad you're making progress and hope you solve the mystery. I have another tip for you when testing the back seal. With the white typing paper taped to the backs pressure plate you now tape for small object near all four corners of the white paper( say something about the thickness of a round toothpick) as you want the paper to be up off the film gate(the actual metal film frame on the front half of the camera). Kind of like putting your car on jack stands. Now, do the flash check around the back while looking in the front of the wide open lens. You can and probably should do this before you run another roll through the camera. Takes a little time, but doesn't cost anything. JohnW

OK. I figured out the problem. It was a light leak in the bellows in the bottom left hand side (looking thru the viewfinder) and the hair like edges on the pic were the frayed bellows showing on the neg. I bought some Scotch Electrical coating in a can, which is similar to Liquid Electrical Tape, and applied it at the problem area. By the way, I found the light leak by holding the camera into the sun and cramming my eye into the opened back and cupping my hands around the sides to keep it dark in there. I had already fired a flash in the opened back of the camera in a dark closet and saw nothing. The Scotch stuff worked great, and the surprise is how sharp the Novar is now that the light leak is gone. I was planning on replacing it w/ a Tessar but see no point now. Here's a shot from it after the light leak fix.<div></div>