Does This Look Like a Light Leak?

[gone]

I have this Zenit 11 (unfortunately) and I thought it had a light leak, so I taped everything up on the back and sides and shot another roll. Looks exactly the same as before. Is this a shutter issue or a light leak? It is not there all the time.

 

[JW PHOTO]

I'd say you have a shutter issue.

 

[oldlincoln]

The Zenit 11 has a horizontally travelling shutter. These stripes on the film are horizontal and unexposed. A light leak would result in exposed or fogged areas, the shutter should make a vertical defect when malfunctioning. Look at your processing and handling.

 

[DannL.]

Take a peek here at the segment where it mentions "banding", irregular shutter travel. I think a similar trouble exists with your shutter at present.

 

[gone]

Thanks Dann & JW. I think that's it. It's not my processing, as I just developed several rolls of film in other cameras w/o this issue. These bands show up in exactly the same place on the first roll I shot in this camera, so the odds that I screwed up on processing in exactly the same manner, and coincidentally w/ the same camera, on two separate rolls of film, would seem to be nil. Must be the shutter.

Too bad because I like the Helois lens on this, and the camera is fun to shoot, but my luck w/ Russian cameras is like B.B. King's luck....if it weren't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all. I'll maybe get an adapter and use the lens on my Canon FTb.

 

[JW PHOTO]

This came off a Lomography web site. You can do a search and come up with more. The repair is simple and I have done it on cameras such as Pentax Spotmatics.. You actually are just adjusting the tension on the first curtain spring or follower curtain spring.


Getting half overexposed or simply way overexposed film back from the lab? It's time for an inspection, your Zenit is most likely suffering from old age!

So you get faulty exposures and you just don’t know why?

You go to the lab to pick up your film and you find out that they are all badly overexposed or they are half overexposed. This could be due to a faulty shutter curtain this is sadly a pretty common problem with old Zenits.


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We’ll start off with a introductory story.

Stashed away at the attic in an old box is a lonely neglected Zenit E, the owner an eighty years old man, flips trough old dusty albums full of super nice pictures, washed by the essence of time. While swimming through memories of the old and sunny days, he suddenly realizes that his photography stuff is still packed up in the attic.

With crackling bones he rises out of his chair and makes his way to the stairwell. After a 4 minute climb, he arrives at the hallway on the second floor. While muttering about his old bones he reaches for the cord to pull down the ladder. While ascending the ladder, the man slips, and with a loud huff, he blowed out his last puff while breaking his back on the floor.

A few days later his children come to the house to remove the belongings of their late father. ‘If it still looks good, we’ll sell it on Ebay’, said his oldest son.

And so the old Zenit E found his way to a new owner via Ebay. The new owner didn’t know much about the camera and after fiddling with it for a bit he loaded a film and set out to shoot. He sent his film to the lab and after a few days, went back to pick it up and was horrified by the outcome…

’The Zenit is sick," he cried out and went to his room, crying for the rest of the day.

Now, this is a sad, but fictional story that leads us to a problem: faulty Zenits!

The shutter curtain may be the problem so let’s do a check up, pop open that sexy back and wind on, release the shutter and see if the curtain closes nicely. In case it does not, it will either not close at all or get stuck somewhere half way.

This is due to the curtain losing the tension after several years

But fret not! This is easily fixed, my friends!

“this is how it should be after releasing, nicely closed all the way trough”

There are but few things you will need for this repair:
•a very small screwdriver, flat head
•an unbreakable concentration
•a potion for steady hands
•a big pot of patience
•about 10 minutes of your life if you are well prepared and handy with very, very small screws.

My set of super screwdrivers

Now, let’s get started!

So we grab our feisty little screwdriver, ready, steady, unscrew that bottom!


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Use something to put the screws on, if you lose them…well you know what you are when that happens!
Now, the bottom plate is off and we get a nice look at the not so very interesting inside. We see here, a couple of screws…



So you should hold it like in the picture, we zoom in on the important part, to the left.



The two star-shaped screws are the ones that are in connection with the shutter curtain.

So the one we need is the one I am unscrewing on the photo’s below.

First, we need to unscrew the teensie tiny ‘locking’ screw. That done we can now turn up the tension on the curtain.

As you turn that screw, you can feel the tension building up, that is what we want but don’t go too far! If you do, the spring might break and that would be a very, very sad ending for your glorious Russian friend.

So you turn up the tension afterwards lock the screw by fitting in that teensy tiny locking screw. When you finally, got that screw back in it’s place and locked down the star shaped tension screw you can cock the shutter and release to check how it’s doing.

If it shuts like a train on all shutter speeds, you are a hero and you fixed this in no time! Bravo!

If not, you will have to unscrew the locking screw and turn up the tension some more and try again until it’s working smoothly again!


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I left the locking screw on the bottom plate so that I could not lose it, unless I would drop the camera along with it.
Remember, this is a repair done by an amateur and I cannot guarantee that you will succeed with your own competence, as I cannot see if you are capable. Be patient and cautious as not to break anything.

Now, this tipster on repairing the Zenit E is sort of part of my guide to using this wonderous Russian camera.

That guide is to be found here: Zenit E: The Sturdy Metal Heart of Russian Photography.

More articles are coming up containing shooting tips and reviews on cameras. You can always contact me to ask questions about all sorts of stuff! Or, you can become my friend so that you’ll be posted with my new reviews and tips for ever and ever, aaand ever.

Thank you for reading and have fun!

All information for this article were taken from Tom tiger’s Lair.
You can find more repair tips and photography tips and stuff on this site, have fun reading!


The Zenit E is one of the most popular SLRs ever. This camera oozes ‘60s Soviet charm with its built-in Selenium light meter and Helios 44-2 lens. Lightweight and functional, the Zenit E is ready for anything. Get your hands on this piece of photographic history here.


written by reminator






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Liking articles helps us to present the best ones to you and others. 13 people like this article. 13 people like this article: andrethunder, mikerph, zorki, earlybird, vytaute, aldrin, herbert-4, ester_s_ch, jawatembak, vicker313, marcel2cv, schemerel, and mj_crn.


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12 comments
1. herbert-4
herbert-4


Outstanding... this can apply to a lot of cameras with cloth shutters!!

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2. reminator
reminator


Thank you very much, I haven't seen the problem with other camera bodies, nor have I seen how it works with other cameras. But I assume it is quite the same yes. The site of Tom Tiger has a lot more to offer!

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3. ester_s_ch
ester_s_ch


Genial

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4. materne
materne

looks about the same I fixed my zorki. I guess all those ancient russians have the same shutter-boddy

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5. anthropus
anthropus


Loving this article. I have a broken Zenit E too ;( On mine the shutter curtain is "ripped" at the seams/joints. In other words, it is not joined together anymore. How can I fix this?

over 1 year ago · report as spam



6. reminator
reminator


Hmmm, haven't found anything on fixing a ripped shutter curtain. You could try the page of Tom Tiger and links from that page may lead to other sites that could have usable info.

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7. schemerel
schemerel


just preformed surgery, all went well, the patient is stable, and the shutter works great, thanks !

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8. reminator
reminator


That's just great, good to know this article helped. And how is the doctor doing, no mental breakdowns?

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9. earlybird
earlybird


thank you @reminator problem fixed! great tipster!!

10 months ago · report as spam



10. reminator
reminator


@earlybird Awesome!

10 months ago · report as spam



11.
madielz

So, I'm trying what you're suggesting... but did you have any trouble unscrewing the star screw? Mine seems to be very tight, and won't budge!

6 months ago · report as spam



12.
andrethunder

Hi! I think I've got a big problem and I'm sad that my camera looks dead. I've lost the "teensie tiny ‘locking’ screw" and then the star-shaped screw broke It didn't even moved...looks like it was calcinated. I tried to put some lubrificant and tried to move it with a nippers but nothing resulted. Do you think it still have a chance to survive or its my zenit dead?

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Leave Comment Please login to leave a comment

 

[jerrybro]

Every 5th frame, crosses the boundary between frames, height in frame not consistent, bright area on negative means unexposed area not overexposed.
Not a light leak. Light leaks lead to overexposed area not unexposed.
Not a shutter problem. Shutter will only affect in frame image, not the boundary between frames.
Since the mark is clearly visible in the boundary, that could point to something taking the emulsion off the film in that area. That would lead me to look for something physically scratching the film or a weird processing problem.

 

[JW PHOTO]

Every 5th frame, crosses the boundary between frames, height in frame not consistent, bright area on negative means unexposed area not overexposed.
Not a light leak. Light leaks lead to overexposed area not unexposed.
Not a shutter problem. Shutter will only affect in frame image, not the boundary between frames.
Since the mark is clearly visible in the boundary, that could point to something taking the emulsion off the film in that area. That would lead me to look for something physically scratching the film or a weird processing problem.

Hmm! I must be missing something here or my monitor is faulty 'cause I'm having a very hard time seeing this inclusion into the boundary area as you say. I see the light vertical strip to the left in the frame, but that's all I can see. Let me know where this light strip leaves the frame. Shutter bounce can sometimes lead to lighter areas in a negative and is also varying with certain shutter speeds.

 

[Chris Lange]

Every 5th frame, crosses the boundary between frames, height in frame not consistent, bright area on negative means unexposed area not overexposed.
Not a light leak. Light leaks lead to overexposed area not unexposed.
Not a shutter problem. Shutter will only affect in frame image, not the boundary between frames.
Since the mark is clearly visible in the boundary, that could point to something taking the emulsion off the film in that area. That would lead me to look for something physically scratching the film or a weird processing problem.

That's a specular highlight glinting off the plastic film sleeve due to tri-x's curl, not a lack of density in the film.

 

[jerrybro]

Fair enough, saw that first and thought that was the issue.

 

[JW PHOTO]

That's a specular highlight glinting off the plastic film sleeve due to tri-x's curl, not a lack of density in the film.

That's all I was seeing too. Guess my eyes and monitor are both good yet(just barely).

 

[Arctic amateur]

Could you please explain exactly what the problem is? It's difficult to tell from the photos with the uneven background light.

 

[JW PHOTO]

Could you please explain exactly what the problem is? It's difficult to tell from the photos with the uneven background light.

Look at the denser negatives in shot one and two and you'll notice a light vertical strip running up and down the left side of the negative. I believe a scan would have been better, but it can be seen in these shots anyway.