Rolleiflex 2.8E blurred images

I picked up one that I new needed repair but didn't know about the blurred images. It was an as is purchase but with a 30 day return. I was told it had 3 problems, slow shutter which I don't see, fungus on lenses but it's more cleaning scratches than fungus and the meter didn't work which I was ok with. I also noticed a film advance problem that I only seemed to happen with HP5 plus. I ran a few well outdated film through just to check the mechanics and I noticed that when you advanced the film to cock the shutter it stopped in a different position on the clockwise stroke. Sometimes it would be 9 o'clock sometimes 8 and sometimes it just kept rotating, but it all advanced to 12 as normal. When I put a fresh roll to test for picture quality with the HP 5 it would sometimes bind up and not advance and I also noticed after a few pictures the counter didn't advance. when I developed the pictures all were blurred and some were double exposed which I assumed it was the film advance problem or a problem with the double exposure mechanism. It all pointed to a cleaning so I took the side off and using an electronic cleaner sprayed all the linkages and then oiled them with a sewing machine oil. After several times I seem to have the film advance problem straightened out so I put another roll in for testing. I don't think anything I did is going to correct the blurred imaged but maybe I will get lucky. I did a quick check on the focus by placing a small ground glass on the film plane and set up a target at 3 feet and checked the focus and it looked ok. Now I am thinking it's either the scratches on the taking lens causing it, which doesn't appear to be bad enough or the front element is a mismatch. I also want to mention when I put everything back together I noticed that a tiny pin fell out and I believe it's for the double exposure dial so that's not working but so far the advance is acting normal, so maybe it was a double exposure problem to begin with. Any suggestions on troubleshooting the image problem?

You sprayed electronic cleaner in a Rolleiflex? And 'then oiled them with a sewing machine oil....'

Oh my....

And you expect to be able to return it after opening it up?

I think you have some confusion about what it means to buy used equipment, and about how to work on Rolleiflexes. No more comments from me in this thread.

While 30+ year old designed to run dry mechanisms benefit from a drop of oil about the size of a straight pin point on shafts and gears a spot of grease about the size of of a straight pin head spread out over all the gear teeth sewing machine oil is no better than 3in1 and will gum up and dry out leaving a sticky residue to clean up. Use TriFlow or clock oil. Less is more.

Can you post a print from the 'blurry' negatives.

Dan Daniel said:

You sprayed electronic cleaner in a Rolleiflex? And 'then oiled them with a sewing machine oil....'

Oh my....

And you expect to be able to return it after opening it up?

I think you have some confusion about what it means to buy used equipment, and about how to work on Rolleiflexes. No more comments from me in this thread.

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I only oiled the pivoting post of the levers. As far as returning it, I had bought a 500C/M from them a while back that was jammed and it turned out to be the lever for the mirror lock up. I returned it because I had another 500 C/M that was better and a couple of weeks after the return they had it on the website again for $50 more than what I paid and it sold in less than a week. They will be getting this back in better working condition then the one they sold me.

The images are very soft and lack contrast so I am pretty sure the coating scratches are causing it. They told me it was fungus but it's not. If it wasn't for the condition of the taking lens and the poor pictures I would keep the camera. Everything is put back together including the tiny pin and is working better now then when I received it. If anyone has a Xenotar 2.8 that has good front element but camera is trash let me know.

Is the pressure plate ok? That would be more likely to get you soft images. Or whatever not keeping the film tensioned ok. Also is what you are seeing coating damage, fungus or just the lens elements separating. That would more likely get you soft/low contrast images than coating scratches alone.

Oh dear! Apart from the problems you have outlined is the possibility that the focussing mechanism has been dismantled in the past and not put back in the same (correct) position. As I understand it from diagrams the focussing method has gearing with which can be re-assembled in an innacurate position which will show up as out of focus images.

Looking at it from another direction. Unless the lenses are really badly scratched, the sharpness will not be affected to any severe degree, so what you will most probably find are a slight haziness alongside sharp edges, very much on the lines of a soft focus filter. The sharp line will still be there, but just softer focus, not out of focus. I have seen professionally used press lenses that were so badly scratched you could almost use them for a ground glass screen, but they still worked OK.

As well as the other problems, I think you have what is called in the trade as a 'lemon'.

I sold the camera for parts or repair and bought a near mint 3.5F. The marks on the lens were in a swirling pattern as if it had aggressive cleaning. I took a focus glass off an early Ikoflex and taped it to the back and it looked soft but that could just have been the ground glass I used.

If you focused and it looked sharp on the ground glass of the camera, but the images you took were soft and de-focused, it is possible the lenses were out of collimation. That repair is not one to undertake if you are not a properly equipped professional who knows how to do it.It would depend on how the images looked as to whether the cause was de-collimation or if there was some inherent issue with the taking lens. Without seeing photos of the lenses and the prints you made from the mushy negatives, it's very hard to tell what could be causing it, or what symptoms of the lens issues would be expected to be.

TheFlyingCamera said:

If you focused and it looked sharp on the ground glass of the camera, but the images you took were soft and de-focused, it is possible the lenses were out of collimation.

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The Rolleicord V I have on hand had to have the front cell tightened very tight in the shutter to be sharp wide open, snug was not good enough. It has a f3.5 Xenar.

Sounds like the camera needed a trip to Harry's.