I got an old Bronica 80mm S lens in a batch of stuff and decided to try it out. I've never seen this sort of problem before. What is causing it? Can I narrow the problem down to the lens, or could it be something else (testing a new body, too)? Thanks for any thoughts.
Wow! Some people get pretty creative with their problems!
I'll jump in a say that it might be more of a body/shutter problem than a lens problem. A second image placed over the main image, but offset to the right and slightly down. The second image was for less exposure -- as if the shutter hic-cupped after the main exposure and after you moved the camera slightly. Only the highlights recorded during the brief exposure (hense no double glasses). I first thought it could be film movement during exposure, but that would only have been in the up/down direction and not sideways.
Good luck in figuring it out -- try snapping the shurtter with the back off to observe the movenebt of the shutter.
Now that I think about it, I heard some strange noises while shooting, but didn't make much of at the time. I remember thinking "boy, the mirror return is slow on this body" because I would hear some sort of slight zip or whirl after I thought we were done with the exposure. Also -- in the way of clues -- the sync cord fails to fire the flash about one out of every six times. My other bodies have grips with hot shoes to hold my transmitter, so I don't use a cord much and didn't know if this was common.
The sample above is an example of how most, but not all, of the shots look. Some are much worse; some are fine. So the problem varies.
Don't want this issue to become the central focus of my photography, but I am curious about it. I'd hate to write off all the SQ-A / S series stuff because of a wacky problem. I've had perfect performance from my SQ-Ai over the years.
I can think of some experiments to further attempt to isolate the issue.
Same body/lens, no battery in camera (reverts to mechanical 1/500th shutter, I think)
Same body / different lens
Same lens / back on different body
Further ideas welcome.
Mick, thanks very much. That is a lot of grain - jut starting to try T-Max again after seeing great results from many here. I have a lot of work to do.
Vaughn, Not sure how to fire the shutter with the back off but I'll look into it. Thanks!
To me, this is a classic example of severe chromatic abberation. The rays of light passing thorugh this lens do not converge where they should. Before the knee-jerk reaction, I KNOW this was recorded on black and white film ... and panchromatic black and white film will record images composed of a wide variety of colors (chroma).
Something tells me this lens was once disassembled, and reassembled incorrectly - possibly with one element "reversed".
Ed, would not that abberation sort of radiate out from the center? This looks like an even shift to the right and slightly down -- just a thought as I am guessing here.
With the mirror locked up and the back removed, you can definitely see the leaf shutter hanging open from time to time. I haven't had time to switch out components to figure out whether it is body electronics or a straight up shutter issue. While the shutter hangs open, the red battery light stays on (as it should during shutter activations). That's why I don't just assume it's the shutter.
This is a neg scan, right? I'll see this kind of thing sometimes when printing, when the negative expands from the heat and pops into a different plane in a glass-less negative carrier.