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Plaskey
Tinkerer
Username: Plaskey
Post Number: 4
Registered: 03-2011
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, May 12, 2011 - 09:41 am: | 
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A few words of warning to anyone intending to shoot with one of these excellent little cameras. I got a complete outfit with two bodies, flash, winder and two Tokina lenses as an exchange - naturally the light seals had returned to their primordial tar state, so I cleaned these out and replaced them - I put a cheap Chinese film through the better of the two bodies and noted serious fogging on it after processing - no prob thinks I, it's a cheap Chinese film (it didn't even have edge markings)and probably faulty. Later I put some 100 ISO Fuji in it and go out for a days shooting on the coast. When I get the photos back - the negs were fogged. All of them. Worse, I also put an expensive reversal film through it, which I haven't seen yet. What had happened was that I hadn't replaced the foam seal by the back hinge properly - my new seal wasn't wide enough - it should fit the whole width of the back from flange to flange. (Ironically I had replaced the same seal in the other body correctly). So I stripped all the light seals and re-did them, adding some felt strips in the back opposite the wind spool, and a felt strip under the back hinge. Haven't put a film through it yet, but I will be surprised if that doesn't fix the problem... so beware of the Contax 139, those light seals are critical!! |
Monopix
Tinkerer
Username: Monopix
Post Number: 209
Registered: 11-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, May 12, 2011 - 03:30 pm: |
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There's nothing special about the 139. I've resealed several. What you say is certainly true but I wouldn't want anyone to think it's a particularly difficult camera to reseal. They're too nice for that.
As an aside, I always put an extra strip of seal on the inside of the door to coincide with where the frame counter lever is on the body. It's necessary to split the body seal at the lever (in common with many other cameras) and it's a potential source of a light leak. |
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