Camera Talk

The exposures seemed to be lighter on the left side of the frame when I shot this with some Kodak Ektar 100, so I put in some Kodak Tri-X 400, and screwed an orange filter on front of the Industar-26m so I could shoot some frames at 1/250, then take the filter off and shoot the rest at 1/500 to check for capping.

Well, there isn’t a capping problem, but a light leak from the top of the film door manifested itself in flares along the bottom of the frames. I noticed it before with the Ektar, but thought it was just spurious as it only affected a couple of frames. With the more sensitive Tri-X it really stood out, totally ruining some shots.

I’ll have to see if I can tweak the first curtain, as the previous owner seems to have mangled that adjuster. To fix the light leak, I first sighted down the length of the door to check the straightness, and finding it off a bit flexed it back into shape. Then I put some Mouline Special DMC 25 #310 black threads (find it at your local hobby/arts/crafts shop) in the door channels to increase the seal. What’s great about the Zorki is it has felt seals, so you don’t have to glue the threads in, the felt will grab it after it is pressed into the channels by the door. And if that doesn’t work, it’s easy to remove before doing a total seal replacement.

BTW, I was also going to use the new-to-me Gossen Luna-Pro F meter, but got confused as to which way the buttons were to be set, and thought it wasn’t working right, so I Sunny-16’nd my way through the roll.


The Light Comes Through by P F McFarland, on Flickr


The leak took over this one, and there was no fixing it. The orange filter turned out to be overkill on the deep blue sky that day.

Flared Moon by P F McFarland, on Flickr


I was able to somewhat fix the leak in this one, but it’s still not right.

Tank Top by P F McFarland, on Flickr


I was able to burn in the leak areas of this frame, then figured out I could just crop it a bit to create a better scene.

Jackson River Bridge by P F McFarland, on Flickr


No filter this time, cropped to eliminate the leak, and center up the subject.

This Creepy Old House by P F McFarland, on Flickr

See all 13 photos and narration at https://flic.kr/s/aHskyzL9G2

PF

Not familiar with this camera, but what you show in both posts is a really classy result. Once you are rid of the light leak you'll have a fine unit. I'll look forward to seeing some more photos from it.

Same as Minoly - that is a very nice camera, IMHO the most usable of the Soviet RF bunch. I hope you can fix that leak. Sometimes the back door of the Z-6 gets distorted or misaligned because of bad treatment.

The Industar-26 is a fine Tessar-type lens, as your images show. If everything fails, you can use it in another Russian RF body.

I like that shot of the rail bridge - that one must be stunning in Fall colors. You are finding very fine subjects in your outings!

Thanks, Bill and Julio.

"The Industar-26 is a fine Tessar-type lens, as your images show. If everything fails, you can use it in another Russian RF body."

Actually, this is the fourth FSU camera I've used it on. Zorki-1D, FED-2C, and Zarya were the others.

PF