Yashica Mat 124G Composition Off Center?

[mcblue]

<p>I didn't notice it at first but now that I looked at the prints of my 5th test roll, I noticed that the composition shifted somewhat to the left side. I realized this because there were a couple of shots were I was very, very careful in creating a symmetrical composition. For a couple of shots in particular, I put the Mat on a table so took a few minutes to carefully compose. Is this common a common anomaly in the Yashica Mat 124G's or TLR's in general?</p>

<p> </p>

[diegobuono]

<p>It's aTLR, the image recorded come from a lens positioned lower than the one used to compose, this is a "parallax error" and is noticeable in close range picture.</p>

[tobey_bilek]

<p>Paralax can give an up down error, not left right.</p>

<p>The taking lens and viewing lens are not set properly and I have no idea if this is adjustable.</p>

<p>Mark Hama,com is a trained repair person on the TLR. </p>

<p>Mat 124 is a fairly cheap low end camera and tolerences are greater than if you bought a Rollie . </p>

<p>You also don`t know if this is a factory defect or if someone had it apart sometime in the past 50 years.</p>

[jim_momary]

<p>Parallax is only possible in the vertical plane as implied above. Any left - right offset is due to alignment of lens elements or a 'bend' in the mirror of the viewing lens unit, i.e. shifting the view a bit.<br>

I suppose that is correctable but may mitigate accurate focusing. The front panel of the camera comes off, with some effort, but that's a whole unit, not with independent adjustments. Might be best left to a pro or lived with.<br>

This is my opinion and not verified by any real factual source.<br>

Nice lil camera tho. :-)<br>

Jim</p>

[mcblue]

<p>Thanks for the feedback. That's what I thought -- if it's a parallax error, the shift in composition is vertical not horizontal. I'll drop a note to Mark Hama...</p>

[Dustin McAmera]

Since you mention the <i>prints</i>, it'd be worth checking the negatives, to see if the problem comes from cropping by whoever did the printing, before you look for a fault in the camera. I would have thought it would be hard to shift the image sideways by mounting one of the lenses wrongly, without doing something quite significant to the focusing behaviour.

[paul ron]

<p>Why don't you check the film plane to view finder? Putting a ground glass on the film plane then comparie the images?</p>

[mcblue]

<p>Thanks Pete and Paul.</p>

<p>Pete, you're absolutely right. It was the printing. I saw one of my negatives off center, but I think that was my error as it was hand-held. I did check the negatives of the ones that were taken with the camera set on the table. The prints were cropped, and the composition was sound.</p>

<p>Whew. Glad that I didn't try to have it fixed (I dropped an email to Mark Hama and he's on vacation by the way...). Shows what I know. Thanks again.</p>