This time in Porto … something went terribly wrong. Getting back my films from the lab, they wrote that some images were underexposed. Seeing the results, around 1/3rd of the frames were near black and I’m still guessing what happened.
The Contax 167MT with its Carl Zeiss Distagon 2.8/28mm worked quite well with the Kodak Ultramax 400 film and I was really impressed how flawless this combo handles, shooting in aperture priority mode.
On one situation I noticed, that the aperture setting on the lens and the aperture display in the viewfinder did not match. The viewfinder display showed f/4 when f/11 was set on the lens, which results in an underexposed frame, as the camera reduces the shutter speed to get a proper exposure.
I found out that the lens was not locked properly. Seems, as when taking the camera out of the bag, I accidentally hit the lens release button and unlocked the lens. This was a mess, as I did not know how long the lens was unlocked, as I usually do not check the aperture in the viewfinder, knowing what aperture I set on the lens.
Well, this might have explained the issue on one film, but I have 1/3 of the frames ruined on both films I made. I’ll shoot another roll to see if this behaviour returns when carefully watching the lens is locked properly. In addition, some of the ‘well exposed’ frames show massive amount of grain, as if the lab has tried to ‘rescue’ them.
As I made some digital frames besides the analog ones, the loss is not disastrous, but it annoys me that it happened at all, not noticing the aperture discrepancy. I was … too careless this time. Or maybe I was simply too distracted by the beauty of that city.
UPDATE:
In the meantime I shot another role of film in the Contax 167 MT with a Carl Zeiss Distagon 2.8/35mm lens attached.
When it came back from the lab, it was dissapointing.
The 36 frame film came back with 17 frames – all more or less heavily underexposed.
The lab has tried to rescue as much as possible during scanning and so there is massive grain visible.
This let’s me assume that in the origin, it was not my fault with a loose lens, but it seems as if the camera has some deeper issues – as also frames were skipped, which might be a hint that the electromagnetic shutter release is no longer working reliable.
So for the moment, the camera goes onto the shelf.
Let’s see what comes up from this story when finally posting the images made – both analog and digital.
In case you’d like to comment, it’s appreciated … and maybe, you want to visit my website or my flickr page too.
So long … and thanks for all the fish.