Leica IIIF for $60

[t3hx]

Hmm... Im not sure I knew what i was getting into when i got the camera lol

But I do understand what you guys are saying... I guess ill try to do some more research...

By the way the camera does have a red dial on the top... its not clean but if you look at it at an angle you can see that it is red

t3hx added 2 Minutes and 8 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

I have another question tho... in loading my film into the camera... just to run one roll thru I cant help it.

From what I have seen online on loading the camera... the film is loaded in backwards? The it looks like the emulsion is facing the back of the camera and the hallide layer is facing the shutter?

Am I crazy or is that the way it should be?

[Colyn]

Originally Posted by t3hx

I have another question tho... in loading my film into the camera... just to run one roll thru I cant help it.

From what I have seen online on loading the camera... the film is loaded in backwards? The it looks like the emulsion is facing the back of the camera and the hallide layer is facing the shutter?

Am I crazy or is that the way it should be?

No the emulsion will face the shutter. Go to the below link and you will see links showing how to load..

http://www.rangefindercameras.net/leica.html

[t3hx]

excuse my stipidity... so the "shiney" side should face which way... because loading my camera the way the manual says the dull side is facing the shutter...

[venchka]

Correct. Dull side toward the light-lens-shutter. The shiny side is the base holding up the emulsion.

Did you GOOGLING a YouTube video for loading help? I found one for the Hasselbald and it showed me how to do it right.

Bottom loaders are fun, no?

[t3hx]

I did but the people I saw didnt say anything... it was actually kind of creepy

Ok I loaded it up right... and I am not a fan of the bottom load business..

[johnastovall]

You also need to trim the film leader or you will at some point jam things up with bits of sprockets from the film broken out.

Trimming film leader...

[venchka]

Read this:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/foru...92#post1184392

And this:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/foru...ad.php?t=22421

[t3hx]

So... I ran film thru the camera... kodak gold film I had

and it came back terrible...

I didnt get one single frame out of it... there was a funny spot in the middle of some of the frames... on other frames it looks like a sliver of something but I cant really tell what...it is.. im going to try to scan it and see...

any of you guys seen that before?

[venchka]

Sounds like shutter curtain problems. The shutter may not be opening and closing correctly. You may have holes in the shutter cloth. Assuming you did in fact load the film correctly. Not saying you didn't. But it's possible. The first roll I loaded in the Hasselblad didn't feed at all and broke the backing paper before the film got to frame 1.

Call Youxin Ye. He has probably seen everything there is to see. He should be able to give you an idea of repair costs. Be careful. Primo copies of these cameras sell for $200-$300. It's easy to overspend fixing one.

Good luck!

You could end up with something like this............

[t3hx]

hmmm well I just pulled my scanner out and im going to see exactly what is in the frame

t3hx added 7 Minutes and 48 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

The black one looks great.... i think it may have been the film.. or that i took it to walgreens to get it developed... the film was in a fridge... not freezer... so i think that prolly had something to do with it...

Im going to test another roll to be sure...

but when I had the lens off and the film loaded I noticed that the curtain didnt open all the way on the faster shutter speeds like it did on say 25 or 50

on 75 it would open maybe 3/8 of the way and on 100 it would do like 1/8 of the way... i thought this was strange b/c in my slrs the shutter opens completely... but then again ive never used a camera like this

what do you think?

[johnastovall]

As Wayne says sounds like a shutter problem. Get a CLA as this will only get worse.

johnastovall added 2 Minutes and 2 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Originally Posted by venchka

Sounds like shutter curtain problems. The shutter may not be opening and closing correctly. You may have holes in the shutter cloth. Assuming you did in fact load the film correctly. Not saying you didn't. But it's possible. The first roll I loaded in the Hasselblad didn't feed at all and broke the backing paper before the film got to frame 1.

Call Youxin Ye. He has probably seen everything there is to see. He should be able to give you an idea of repair costs. Be careful. Primo copies of these cameras sell for $200-$300. It's easy to overspend fixing one.

Good luck!

You could end up with something like this............

You can never over spend on keeping a classic Leica functional and in use.

[venchka]

I thought focal plane shutters used a variable width opening to change speed. That's how my Speed Graphic works. The film is exposed by a moving slit. The slit moves at the same speed. The width varies to get faster shutter speeds. Narrower = shorter exposures. For the slow speeds, the whole thing opens and closes.