How to elimitate light leakage in my Zenit-B SLR?

Question

This question is related to Why is there a strange white spot on all of photos from my Zenit-B SLR?

I found that the problem is in the shutter. When it is cocked left shutter blind looks like that (the right one that is used while shutter is not cocked is fine):

Front view of shutter. Note that the special opaque coating (looks like a thin rubber) is dried and damaged at the right side causing a light leakage.

That's why I get strange white spots on my photos. Now the question is how to repair it. Shutter replacement is not an option (I don't think that they are still produced).

I need something dark enough to block light and flexible enough to not to affect shutter operation.

Black marker didn't help (pretty naive, but some people advised it, had to try). Heared about glue with black ink. Any other suggestions?

P.S.: I know that in general case it is easier to buy new Zenit rather then repair it. But this breakage seems able to be easily fixed and this camera is dear to me as a memory.

Answer

Ask around in your local photo forums, perhaps someone has another Zenit-B (or its successor Zenit-E) for sale/giveaway; if you intend to use your existing lens, note that they usually came with M42 mount, but some were with M39. For example, a quick search in an Estonian forum found two recent offers, for 8€ (body+lens) or 5€ (body+leather case). That's less than I'd expect materials plus time for repairing be worth. On eBay, Zenits seem to be overpriced given how widespread they once were.

When buying another one, you can still keep your original Zenit as a memento - "the old dear camera". When trying a DIY fix, you might append "... that I clumsily broke" to that. Zenit isn't exactly designed to be serviceable by user.

To me, the holes in shutter fabric tell that the shutter material has become very fragile over time, and trying to attach some fixing materials might make it much worse. But that might be just me, I've never appreciated sock darning either. If it were my camera, and I'd choose to fix/kill it instead of keeping as is, I might try using something like black rubber spray to paint over the holes. I'd try on some other fabric first to see if it gives me a thin but strong layer.

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Why is there a strange white spot on all of photos from my Zenit-B SLR?

Question

I've taken some photos with my old Zenit-B camera. And I have some strange white spot on all of the photos in the upper right corner. Sometimes it is not too recognizable, but it is everywhere.

It looks like condensate, but I can't see anything like that on the lenses when I open camera. Also it is quite strange that this spot even appeared on absolutely dark photo.

Does anybody know what could it be and how could it be fixed?

Answer

I would say light leakage and possibly internal reflections of some sort.

Considering you get a "bright patch" in the top right, I would highly suspect there is light leaking in.

The "dots" look a lot like reflections to me. In the lens, on a piece - anything that is shiny and reflects light.

I'd say start by checking whether the back closes properly. Next check if you have light leakage from the viewfinder.

Lastly, have a good look if you can see a reason for reflections in the camera.

If none of the three turn up something, try a different lens and see if the issue still occurs. If no, then it is the lens, otherwise... I'm out of ideas...

A last common option for failure would be the shutter, BUT that tends to look rather different.

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