Got frustrated with this...

timor · Aug 2, 2012

I've get a bit frustrated with the reality of old equipment. My camera, which I like most, Zenit 11 (only emotional thing as this camera is hardly best) is letting me down. In strange way, I can't really say what is it. I cannot account everything to my shaky hands as other cameras are not displaying same problem. Zenit seems to be unable to take a sharp picture, 8x10s look just soft, with most, but not with every lens I use on it.

This is taken with Sekor 4/21 at 1/60
So I have question to folks with better technical understanding. Could it be a distance from the lens to film plane, which might be different for each of my m42 lenses ? Or damn thing has an inner micro shake I am not able to dampen. I did not try it with tripod, but then what's the point, small format is intended to be shot from a hand.

Derrel · Aug 2, 2012

A flange-to-filmplane mis-calibration is possible I suppose. Tracking down a problem takes a well thought-out testing protocol. A TRIPOD, or electronic flash, to provide a stable camera platform OR an ultra-quick exposure to prevent vibration or subject movement from showing up, is a good start when trying to figure out a problem. For example: the mirror and shutter assembly in an SLR...a LOT of older, low-tech cameras have horizontal-travel,cloth focal plane shutters and poorly dampened mirrors...like "a piece of foam, glued to the mirror stop area"...a LOW_TECH solution that is not anywhere close to the sophisticated systems used in say, the Olympus OM cameras, or the newer Nikons. Mirror slap +first shutter curtain bounce can be BIG PROBLEMS at slowish speeds, like 1/3 to 1/80 second....mirror flips up---bam! first curtain opens and comes to a slamming STOP!...brief exposure begins with a LOT OF VIBRATION being present at the very start of the exposure's overall length...on a 30-second exposure that slap + bounce occurs over a small % of the total,overall exposure time...but the danger speeds are the shortish-buit-not too-longish speeds!!!

Also--real world issues....like the focusing screen's PRECISE placement can be at issue...same with the flange-to-film plane issue...OR, the doggone PRESSURE PLATE in the camera: the pressure plate must be placeds at a precise locational distance...if it is not, the flange-to-film distance will not actually work out right, because the doggone FILM is not in the right PLACE!!!!! ACK!!!!!!!!!!!!! With a film camera, if it shoots crummy pics with every lens...one area to suspect is that the camera's back has been knocked out of whack,and along with that, the pressure plate has been messed up...

Here's a quick test. Take a sheet or two of newspaper and tape them to the wall at about 15 feet. shoot multiple sequences of 1,2,3 shots: Flash, then tripod, then hand-held.

See what's up working from that point with say,your easiest-to-focus lens. Also, your 21mm f/4...man...a wide-angle that slow and wide...yeesh...I could not always nail focus with a lens like that when my eyes were young and super-good...

timor · Aug 2, 2012

Thank's Derrel, I gonna do how you suggest with the test, just for a sake of it. I am just scratching this body from my use, as is not worth it, to loose opportunities like that. You listed a whole group of possible problems from which I cam say right know, that the pressure plate is on the weak side, the action of the shutter not so soft an probably not accurate and the trigger is also quite stiff. But getting different results with different lenses might suggest, that they might go into the mount at different depths.
When comes to that sekor 4/21 is an OK lens. With that small aperture like 4 the DoF goes from 1.5m to infinity so the focus must be somewhere in between, but the idea of using them is in getting large zone of apparent sharpness with the circles of confusion small enough to not to loose anything from that zone with larger (11x14) magnification.

amolitor · Aug 2, 2012

If it's a misalignment problem, the symptom should be that SOMETHING is in focus, just not what you intended. The plane of focus is always someplace. The various mechanical and optical alignments in the camera do exactly two things:

1) they make the plane of focus parallel to the film plane
2) they make whatever focusing aids or systems in the camera accurately reflect where it is

When things are misaligned, the plane of focus might be askew (not parallel to the film plane) and it might be somewhere other than where you "focused" the camera to.

If nothing whatsoever is sharp (which requires many shots to determine -- if the plane of focus is in midair it will LOOK like nothing is in focus) then you don't have an alignment problem, you have a problem with vibration, lens softness or one of a couple of other things.

compur · Aug 2, 2012

There are many fine M42 cameras available. I would put the Zenit on a shelf and try a Pentax, Ricoh, Yashica or Chinon.

timor · Aug 2, 2012

compur said:
There are many fine M42 cameras available. I would put the Zenit on a shelf and try a Pentax, Ricoh, Yashica or Chinon.

You are right off course. I have to that Zenit just emotional attachment. I like the way it is sitting in my hands, it has just about the right proportions for me. Oh well, Spotmatic will go to work and let see, the lenses I am using are rather OK, mostly super taks and mamiyas. On other bodies they are sharp enough. Even in that picture sample of which I posted (sorry, bad scan. I don't know how to properly scan prints) the main lines are OK, is the small detail in between which is lost giving the print overall soft feeling. And that is happening on this body only (so far) so I would suspect as you guys suggested; soft spring in pressure plate and vibrations. By by Zenit. Now I gonna have to wait again long time for such a cloudy weather to repeat this pictures. Or maybe never.