Hello all,
I'm new to this forum and to medium format photography in general and would appreciate some help troubleshooting my new (used) camera.
I recently bought a Yashica Mat-124G off ebay and shot a couple of test rolls with it, one being a Fuji Superia 400 and the other a Velvia 50.
The Superia was first and I had it developed at my local lab. When I went to pick up the negs + prints, the guy commented on the sharpness of my images and asked if I'd used a Hasselblad. Unfortunately, I wasn't half as impressed as he was and felt certain I'd taken sharper photos with my Zenit EM with a Helios 44M lens. As this was my first try with the Yashica I put it down to inexperience and nervousness about handling the camera, although a couple of shots had been taken with the camera placed on firm support (e.g. pavement slab) so camera shake couldn't have been much of a factor really.
The camera was advertised as fully working and in very good condition. The taking lens looks clear from the front but when looked at with the shutter locked in 'B' it's obvious that there are two whitish spots on one of the rear elements along with a couple of much smaller bluish ones. The whitish spots have frayed edges (though these are barely visible to the naked eye and I haven't got a loupe or magnifier that I could use). Could this be a case of etching of the glass surface from cleaned-up fungus? Or an ongoing fungal infestation?
Also there's not much left of the light seals on this camera. When I flip open the top to look at the viewfinder, there's always small bits of foam disintegrating and falling on the surface of the viewfinder. I can actually catch a glimpse of the light meter from the slit.
Anyway, I thought I'd have a go with a second roll of film and that's when I tried with the Velvia 50 (shot at 50 ISO) on a sunny afternoon. This time I used a tripod and cable release for some of the shots to eliminate the possibility of camera shake. I sent off the roll to Genie Imaging requesting E6 development and scanning. The results were just as disappointing as previously but being a novice with colour film and with slide film in particular I'm not sure if it's the camera that's to blame or my exposures. All of the metering was done through the camera's built-in light meter which is powered by the original 1.5 volt mercury battery. To my eye, there's a lack of sharpness, the colours look unnatural and there's a purplish tint in some of the darker images. The negs do look better when held up to the light and viewed with a reversed 58mm lens but the scanned images look pretty awful.
All in all I'm very discouraged and not sure what to do.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13130584@N08/
(I tried uploading some pics onto my TP gallery but it didn't work, no error message, just nothing uploaded).
I'm new to this forum and to medium format photography in general and would appreciate some help troubleshooting my new (used) camera.
I recently bought a Yashica Mat-124G off ebay and shot a couple of test rolls with it, one being a Fuji Superia 400 and the other a Velvia 50.
The Superia was first and I had it developed at my local lab. When I went to pick up the negs + prints, the guy commented on the sharpness of my images and asked if I'd used a Hasselblad. Unfortunately, I wasn't half as impressed as he was and felt certain I'd taken sharper photos with my Zenit EM with a Helios 44M lens. As this was my first try with the Yashica I put it down to inexperience and nervousness about handling the camera, although a couple of shots had been taken with the camera placed on firm support (e.g. pavement slab) so camera shake couldn't have been much of a factor really.
The camera was advertised as fully working and in very good condition. The taking lens looks clear from the front but when looked at with the shutter locked in 'B' it's obvious that there are two whitish spots on one of the rear elements along with a couple of much smaller bluish ones. The whitish spots have frayed edges (though these are barely visible to the naked eye and I haven't got a loupe or magnifier that I could use). Could this be a case of etching of the glass surface from cleaned-up fungus? Or an ongoing fungal infestation?
Also there's not much left of the light seals on this camera. When I flip open the top to look at the viewfinder, there's always small bits of foam disintegrating and falling on the surface of the viewfinder. I can actually catch a glimpse of the light meter from the slit.
Anyway, I thought I'd have a go with a second roll of film and that's when I tried with the Velvia 50 (shot at 50 ISO) on a sunny afternoon. This time I used a tripod and cable release for some of the shots to eliminate the possibility of camera shake. I sent off the roll to Genie Imaging requesting E6 development and scanning. The results were just as disappointing as previously but being a novice with colour film and with slide film in particular I'm not sure if it's the camera that's to blame or my exposures. All of the metering was done through the camera's built-in light meter which is powered by the original 1.5 volt mercury battery. To my eye, there's a lack of sharpness, the colours look unnatural and there's a purplish tint in some of the darker images. The negs do look better when held up to the light and viewed with a reversed 58mm lens but the scanned images look pretty awful.
All in all I'm very discouraged and not sure what to do.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.http://www.flickr.com/photos/13130584@N08/
(I tried uploading some pics onto my TP gallery but it didn't work, no error message, just nothing uploaded).
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