Yashicamat 124 - Is this lens flare? Anything I can do?

trythis said:

I have had this camera apart down to the shutter blades several times. It was very cheap and I have completely stripped the shutter, oiled it just so that the shutter timings are good and the timer works great. I replaced the battery wire to the meter and cleaned and lubed the winding mechanism. I have also repaired the firing mechanism as it was bent out of alignment. Of course during all that, I cleaned the lenses several times. The rear element is cloudy and the coating was damaged from the original shutter oil splatter these are known to suffer from. Baffles are one thing, and as stated later in the thread, I always shoot with a square hood but from all the helpful answers, I now know that I need new lenses or a new camera if the lenses are not available.

I have an email into Mark Hama to find out if he has a replacement lens in the event I send him the camera for reworking.

Thanks!

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When I got one with fungus (sent it back, seller was startled as he hadn't checked it in a while and he cleaned it successfully) he said if it had fungus he'd throw it out as he had no replacement lenses. But that was a few years ago. You might find a broken camera.

In spite of the flaring photo above I have plenty of others with backlight and little to no flare. I really like my 124.

Follow up! (quick summary for those that didn't read the whole thing: Yashicamat had hazy lens, pictures bad, sent out to Mark Hama)
I got the camera back from the rebuild and it ran about $180 for the repair and replacement lens. The camera itself is in much better shape, he replaces a bunch of knobs and pegs that had aluminum corrosion and painted any areas that couldnt be swapped out. The covers are glues on instead of falling off, and winding mechanism is very smooth. It clicks now when it completes the advance to where I can feel the click through the handle.

The replacement lens was not new and looks a bit crummier than what I would expect, but I thought I would give it a try before raising any issues with Mr Hama.

I tried to take the some shots from the worst possible flare inducing positions relative to the sun and flash to see if there was any improvement.

I am very happy with the ability to see clearly in the foreground on this shot. The sun is poking above the building but not fogging out the kid. There is plenty of info available in the sky, dodge and burn in a analog developing would bring it out although I might do the same as the scan anyway.

This looks terrible even if there is a lot detail where flare would have burned it out before. Its looking right at the sun, luckily I am not a solographer.

This came out much better than I expected. Flare fog would have nearly obscured the ladder before.

The last one has some odd flare from the flash behind my wife that I am not sure about. I think I had the flash (inside a mil carton) at the wrong setting at 100%

I realize that these are not masterpieces of photography, they are meant to be a torture test of the lens and compared to before it works remarkably well even in terrible lighting conditions. Yes, the latest $3000 Canon lenses can do much better, but they wont fit on a TLR.
I also took a shot in safer lighting conditions to check for sharpness to make sure that the focus was lined up and all that sorta stuff.

The replacement lens seems to do a fine job. Do you plan to flock the interior to further improve results or are you happy as-is?

I am fine with it but open to flocking. Any good resources on that?


Typos made on a tiny phone...

I'd just buy some telescope felt, make some paper templates of the interior sections and cut the felt based on that.

Word of advice, run some sticky tape across the felt before you install it to get rid of the potentially loose fibres

Several of my latest photos using some faster color film were ruined by flare. I really wish someone with some know-how would design a 3d printed baffle to insert in my yashica mat 12.

Try some flat matte black paint, I used a small bottle from a model shop.

Up until the "G", the inside was a shiny black anodize, which reflected any light that was just outside the frame. I had an EM where flat matte black paint made a big difference. Baffles would still improve it more though.

I've flocked it well (around the inside of the recessed lens, and most of the compartment). It turns out the inner element is all hazy and dirty! And only a couple of years after a cla! I don't understand why, but I'm sending it back to Mark Hama for another cla. It couldn't be from storage, my other lenses and cameras are fine.

zanxion72 said:

Unfortunately Yashinons are very prone to flare...

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That's nonsense. Downright shocking to say in sch a generalization that Yashinons are prone to flare. I suppose all of us who have not noticed (actually not seen any evidence of) it got a lemon then?

Poster reports oil residue on lens and some haze, that's most likely the problem. And for the flocking? Sure, if there are any signs of internal surface shining, easy to check on that.