frank_wassmann Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 Recently my Leica iiif screw mount camera with chrome Elmar 5-cm f/2.8 lens was film tested and the processed pictures came out grainy and a bit blurred. See attached file. What would the chief contributing reasons for this be? and how could this be rectified? Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochen_S Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 What film did you use? - Did you ever get great results from the same lab & emulsion? How far was exposure off in your grainy example? Tripod? / flash? / shutter speeds? - Your examples look taken indoors. - I 'd question my hand holding skills below 1/500 (considering my current coffee tide) before I'd question the camera. How bad does your lens look? (grease dirt cleaning marks) - I'm not familiar with the LTM 50mms and have no clue how they should perform. - Did you only shoot it wide open or stopped down too? What are the odds your range meter is misaligned? - Did you perform an infinity check on a distant antenna (or such) before you started your testing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin McAmera Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 Grain, and somewhat off colours, could be caused by old film or old chemicals. None of these pictures is in great light though, and artificial light would also affect the colours. First, I'd check the rangefinder at infinity, as Jochen says. Then I'd expose a fresh (brand new) roll of film, in daylight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDMvW Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 Looks like old film or film that has been mistreated somewhere along the line. It's terribly grainy (or even reticulated), but the color could be brought back a little, so You need to do the job more carefully with adequate lighting and support for the camera -- and with fresh film. In any case, the problem is probably not with the camera at all, as a machine. As Hal says in 2001: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karim Ghantous Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 As others have said, exposure and light are your main culprits. Although, I must say that the shot of the moon is actually not too bad! The composition does of course need refinement, but that's another thing altogether. I'd be surprised if there isn't detail of the moon in that negative. I'd like to know what film you used, if it's out-dated, and what your settings were for those images. BTW you're welcome to post in the Leica forum - there are a lot of people who know the screw mount cameras very, very well. Just remember to not post the same question in more than one forum. Oh, and one more thing: I suggest downloading a light meter app for your phone. I use it even when I'm not taking photos. They're not 100% accurate but they are useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodeo_joe1 Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 What would the chief contributing reasons for this be? Film! and how could this be rectified? Better film, or shooting digital. The blur may be down to poor focus, and the cause of that could be anything from a misaligned rangefinder, through a dirty, scratched or otherwise damaged lens, to user malfunction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ed_farmer Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 Old film, underexposure, poor processing . . . These are main possibilities. For what it's worth, there's no reason to post these in the Leica Forum since it doesn't look like the camera is the problem . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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