Slow shutter on Yashica-A

[dano1]

Hey all.

 

I recently purchased a Yashica-A on eBay for $31. It has come to my

attention now that I have scanned the negatives, that the shutter is

one stop slow at 1/100sec. I can tell this in three ways.

 

First, there is subject movement on two of my photos, both at

1/100sec. One was a dog turning his head (rather quickly) and the

other was of my father laughing.

 

Second, there is camera shake in one photo. It was a cold, windy day

and I was so cold my hands were shaking badly. I also accidentaly

jerked the camera as I pressed the shutter. (I'm still new at

handling TLRs) The camera shake isn't too bad, but once I enlarge to

8.5x8.5 the image looks a soft.

 

Third, I have taken some readings with Vuescan. I measured two photos

and both were almost exactly 1 stop over exposed.

 

So, what can be done? I know I could get a CLA, but that would cost

almost as much as a new camera. The other thing I was thinking of is

setting my shutter speed between the 100 and 300 marks. This of

course raises two questions. First, does being one stop off at 1/100

translate into 1 stop off at 1/200th? And second, is the shutter

speed variable?

 

Thanks in advance.

Dan O.

[conrad_hoffman]

It seems the one thing you haven't done is measure the shutter speed. I'd strongly suggest that before embarking on service. Find somebody with a shutter tester, or maybe somebody with a scope and a photodiode, or do the TV test (search for procedure). Once you have some hard data, then you can decide what to do. Try excercising the shutter a few dozen times- they get stiff with old age. Doing a CLA on a TLR is a pain. The leatherette has to be removed, is often junk after that and has to be replaced, and there is much checking and adjustment to get everything back as it should be. Then there's the matter of cleaning the shutter and hoping no major parts are needed. Hard to justify on a $31 camera, unless it's a collectors item of some sort.

[dano1]

I wasn't really thinking of getting a CLA. Like I said, it would cost as much as a new camera.

 

I put the shutter speed between 100 and 300 and it sounds quite a bit faster. What I don't know is if it's 1/100 sec or not. I'd like to try out the TV test, but I have film in the camera right now, so I'll have to wait.

 

I did go into my closet and fire the shutter about 20 times. I didn't really notice a difference though. I did however notice that when I used the 100 setting I felt and heard two scraping sounds while cocking the shutter. Perhaps dragging. Basically it was a sound of metal against metal, and it was very short, but there were two of them that I heard as I cocked the shutter. The 300 setting made no such noise.

 

 

BTW, I'm sure I metered properly because I used the sunny-16 rule. I set the shutter to 1/100th sec and the aperture to f/16. All but two of the shots were taken with the exact same settings, and the exact same light (bright daylight). Oh yeah, and the film was T-Max 100.

 

Dan O.

[art_nichols]

I have the same camera and the same problem. If you find that the shutter is off one stop consistently on all exposures, simply compensate on your meter setting (asa), or close down one stop on the camera, in the case you mention to f22. Another alternative with B&W, is to place a yellow filter on the taking lens and make no compensation for it.

Best, Art