Can anyone tell what is wrong with my camera?

bramble66 · Nov 18, 2023

Hi everyone!
I found a Goldixette camera in pretty good condition and have shot a couple of rolls of film using it. The first roll came out very odd - every since frame was identical to the one I have attached. Since, this strange effect has been happening intermittently. It wasn't an issue with the developing, as I've used different develops for each roll. Wondered if anyone had any idea why this is happening?
Thank you in advance!

koraks · Nov 18, 2023

Hi @bramble66 , welcome to Photrio!

I must admit I'm struggling to figure out what I'm looking at. Are this scans of prints or negatives?

The circular shape suggests that the collapsible lens was not extended properly when taking the photo. Might this have something to do with the problems you're having?

bramble66 · Nov 18, 2023

koraks said:
Hi @bramble66 , welcome to Photrio!

I must admit I'm struggling to figure out what I'm looking at. Are this scans of prints or negatives?

The circular shape suggests that the collapsible lens was not extended properly when taking the photo. Might this have something to do with the problems you're having?

Hi, thank you for your reply.
These are the scans I got back from the developers.
I thought that it must have been the collapsible lens too to start with. However, I can take one shot that comes out complete fine, and the next - even if I haven't retracted the lens between - comes out looking like this. I'm a bit puzzled

koraks · Nov 18, 2023

Alright, thanks. Maybe the actual film negatives will give some more clues when you get those back.

bramble66 said:
However, I can take one shot that comes out complete fine, and the next - even if I haven't retracted the lens between - comes out looking like this.

Hm, that's odd indeed. Given how sharply delineated the circular anomaly is, I'd expect it to be fairly close to the film surface. Almost sounds like some part of the collapsing mechanism got unstuck and slides back and forth inside the camera body. Not sure if that's actually physically possible, though.

Is the actual image extremely unfocused on the affected images, but in proper focus on the ones that came out alright? If the affected ones are blurry as well, this suggests that at least part of the lens stack is moving about in an unintended fashion.

Is it possible to inspect the camera from the inside, and the collapsing mechanism in particular?

bramble66 · Nov 18, 2023

koraks said:
Alright, thanks. Maybe the actual film negatives will give some more clues when you get those back.

Hm, that's odd indeed. Given how sharply delineated the circular anomaly is, I'd expect it to be fairly close to the film surface. Almost sounds like some part of the collapsing mechanism got unstuck and slides back and forth inside the camera body. Not sure if that's actually physically possible, though.

Is the actual image extremely unfocused on the affected images, but in proper focus on the ones that came out alright? If the affected ones are blurry as well, this suggests that at least part of the lens stack is moving about in an unintended fashion.

Is it possible to inspect the camera from the inside, and the collapsing mechanism in particular?

The negatives have the same circular appearance. I have attached an example where the you can see part of the image.
The ones that have come out are in focus.
On inspecting the camera, once the lens is turned to lock it, it is pretty fixed in place and doesn't move.

Dan Daniel · Nov 18, 2023

Do you have the film in hand? If so, can you post a shot of the whole film? Not every frame, but two or three? Just put the film up to a lamd shade or a window. The idea is to see all of the film, edges, etc.

One quick thought- the shutter is not closing all the way at first firing. Then slowly creeps closed...

koraks · Nov 18, 2023

Is it possible the affected photos are unintentinded exposures that happened as you were carrying the camera around? The erratic compositions point in this direction.

bramble66 · Nov 18, 2023

Dan Daniel said:
Do you have the film in hand? If so, can you post a shot of the whole film? Not every frame, but two or three? Just put the film up to a lamd shade or a window. The idea is to see all of the film, edges, etc.

One quick thought- the shutter is not closing all the way at first firing. Then slowly creeps closed...

Sorry if these aren't particularly clear!
I hadn't thought of the shutter ...

Dustin McAmera · Nov 18, 2023

I don't know what kind of lens this camera has. It seems to me that to squash the image up into the corner like that, maybe the middle element of a triplet lens is loose and off-centre, and moving when the shutter is released? I would have thought you'd hear a rattle, and be able to see it by looking through the lens with 'B' shutter.

bramble66 · Nov 18, 2023

Thank you everyone for their advice. On looking more closely at the shutter, it looks like it doesn't always open fully, especially at 1/75. Now I just need to figure out how to fix that!
Thank you again

Can anyone tell what is wrong with my camera?

bramble66

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Can anyone tell what is wrong with my camera?

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