I agree about the shutter. I'm having difficulty imagining where the back could leak in the lower left - the CL has a slide off cover that wraps all the way around and even up the front side... though maybe something to do with the rewind lever :?

Brian, do you have any ideas?

Thanks for all the helps so far,

William

It does off of the edge where it's brightest, but not off of the other edge.

William

(munch munch munch)

There are some very interesting thoughts in your post that will take me some time to digest. Thank you for them.

William

Brian,

After consulting with DAG on the issue, I do collapse it. According to him, I have about 1 or 2 mm of clearance in front of the meter cell. So that _shouldn't_ be the issue. However, because the real world is so annoying, I'll try testing that issue and see if I can reproduce the effect that way. Thanks for the idea, I appreciate it.

William

That's an interesting thought - but the CL has a vertically moving shutter. Is it possible to get a pinhole to cause an effect like that  one, but again, only occasionally?

William

Hello all,

Over the past couple of rolls, I've gotten an odd and only occasional light leak from my Leica CL The shot attached is similar to all of them. It's only happened on one shot per roll except for once when it happened twice - however it does not happen on every roll. They are from different light levels and different types of film, which I believe rules out processing errors. The only other constant is that all were shot with the collapsible Summicron mounted, but I can't imagine this look coming from the optics.

Any ideas?

William

Edit: trying to fix link... Ah, that part is better...

An uncoated Tessar is one of the most wonderful lenses ever made. Nice work with that one, Scott.

William

I did better than average with this one, I think. It came with this heavy monster of an old 38 - 90/3.5 Rokunar zoom. I may yet have to play with that one out of curiosity. But the body combined with that $12 50/1.4 (& a $20 spanner... :roll:   ) I scored earlier, I can't complain.

 

Eeek! Last time I recelled anything was for a laptop back in the days when a 386sx was fast and expensive...

William

Probably. It's the same with the Wien cells - which are simply glorified hearing aid batteries afterall.

William

As a followup, I've gotten the first roll back with only a couple of blowouts caused by pilot error (forgot to stop down my sticky 50/1.4). Overall the exposures indoors and out give me confidence that the meter is reasonable. The only quirks are getting used to the 12% semi-spot metering area and getting some strange readings while playing with an old cheap zoom (supposed to be constant f3.5, but when zoomed out it visibly gets darker... probably about 5.6... )

Looks to be a nice, if heavy, combination for when I want/need an SLR.

William

Scott,

I'll join those who say that the Tessar was the epitomy of lens design. The later designs (aka Sonnar) build upon it, but everything good in lenses since it was designed has had at least some influence from it. ...
A shot from a 127/4.7 Ektar on a 4x5 sheet is one of this world's simple delights. And there are a large number of photojournalists who will back that statement up... :eek: There are many other lenses that are far better out there on any technical level. But that old lens (127/4.5) was better than 90% of them and to this day it shows... :cool:

William

I'll suggest again, Raid, that this trip seems perfectly handled by the CL and three lenses - one of the 28's, the collapsible 'Cron & a 90. The CL is a much more sturdy body than people give it credit for, it's mechanical and with those lenses the base line is more than adequate. Plus it does cost much less to replace than a M3...  :shock:  If you really feel the need to have a backup, take the Natura (sp?).

Use the space for the second body for film. Lots of film. Caluclate how much you think you'll need and double that amount

William

I greatly enjoy doing both. My big problem is that John wants to say "cheese" and mug for the camera - getting a natural looking shot can be a bear at times. Lot's of fun when it does work, though.

What's really cool is those rare occasions when you pull off an artsy fartsy kid shot

William

Heh, I too saw the title and just knew it had to be a Speed Graphic thread. They are amazingly fun cameras. One little toy you may want to get one or three of is the Grafmatic. It's a neat little 6 sheet film holder that allows you to shoot those 6 sheets as fast as you can work the mechanism. One of those and a working rangefinder make for one heck of a good time doing street photography And they ward off the digi-kiddies really well too :twisted:

William

Hmm. Your right about it sounding like alkaline behavior, but I'm using a 675 zinc air hearing aid battery. Something to investigate further I suppose. In the end, having it adjusted for silver oxide is probably the best option. Still have to get my CL adjusted too... my wallet hates me  :twisted:

William