Makina Plaubel 67 Consistently Underexposing Images

[fartssica]

I just bought a Makina Plaubel and have been running a few rolls of film through it, and I shoot with a light meter, so in theory the reading on the light meter should be correct, but most of the images coming through the Makina, even when shot wide open at 2.8 or at a low speed like 1/60 are looking incredibly murky and underexposed. I've even tried taking the same shot on a Mamiya 645 in the same light conditions, on the same film, at the same settings, and the one that came out of the Makina were so much darker. Does anyone know if there's anything happening that's a user error i don't know about, or if it's a problem of the camera? Am I supposed to just like shoot as though it's overexposed the entire time? I just haven't read that as a quirk of the camera so am confused.

The image of the woman in a sari that's correctly exposed is on the Mamiya and the dark one is the same settings on the Makina. The one of the dog was shot at f/2.8 and 1/60 in very bright indoor conditions. The woman in jeans was shot facing direct light in a studio at f/5.6 and 1/60.

I just opened the camera up and changed the shutter speed and tried firing to see if anything changes, and the shutter seems to fire at the same speed no matter if it's at 1/500 or at B.

Images: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lT9rCJEnNrP6kUvpdObO86Lc3evTqeLa?usp=sharing

 

[MattKing]

Welcome to Photrio.
That link doesn't give me access.

 

[reddesert]

I can see the images, but that's not the issue. It is likely that the camera isn't shooting at the proper settings. Either the shutter speed is too fast, or (less likely) the aperture isn't opening properly with the aperture ring setting. You can figure this out by visually inspecting the lens aperture and by listening to the shutter speed at various settings, which it sounds like you just did.

A leaf shutter that always fires at the fastest speed is probably a little dirty or gummy, preventing the delay escapements from delaying the shutter closing. There is another thread about this recently. It needs to be cleaned.

 

[itsdoable]

<snip>

I just opened the camera up and changed the shutter speed and tried firing to see if anything changes, and the shutter seems to fire at the same speed no matter if it's at 1/500 or at B.

<snip>

Sounds like your shutter is always firing at 1/500, which explains your under exposures. That means the low speed escapement is not engaging - the shutter needs a CLA.

 

[GregY]

Time to have the shutter serviced

 

[OrientPoint]

I agree with everyone else - your shutter needs service. Since you're in New York, you have local options for repair. Two that have done good work in the past:

• Nippon Photo Clinic on West 39th Street
• "WizCam" on Ebay... who is actually on Staten Island and, at least before the pandemic, had a space on in the West 20's near 6th Avenue.

I used WizCam in 2019 and was quite happy with everything. I was able to drop it off and pick it up in person. Payment was through Ebay. A friend used Nippon and was happy, although Nippon was quite a bit more expensive.

Frank Marshman (aka. "CameraWiz" - no relation to WizCam) also services these, but he's in Virginia which means shipping. His email address is camerawiz@msn.com. I've used him for other cameras and the experience has always been nothing less than excellent.

Since you just bought the camera perhaps you can simply return it, but if you do need repair I hope this list is helpful. They're wonderful cameras when they work, and they're not nearly as fragile as the internet would sometimes suggest.