Judith Frederick on fri 21 may 04
I just purchased a used Nikon EM. There appears to be either dust or scratches on the shutter curtain (the inside of the camera on the top plastic piece with the small circle on it). You can see it when you look out the view finder. Will this also be on the picture? Can this be cleaned or fixed? Is it costly? And the most dumbest question of all.... did I do this by wiping it with a tissue? Did I damage my camera or does it just need to be cleaned and it is only lint? I can't seem to blow the lint out of the cavity.
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Glenn Allenspach on mon 24 may 04
The dust and scratches that you see are not on the shutter curtain, but on
the camera's focusing screen. The focusing screen is the part that you described
as the plastic screen with the circle on it. This type of damage does happen
when the screen is cleaned using too harsh of materials. Best to clean it only
with a soft camel's hair brush dedicated solely to the purpose of cleaning
your camera's optical parts, the lenses, etc.
These scratches will not appear in the picture. If you'll notice, there's a
mirror inside the camera body. The screen is above the mirror, the film is
straight back from the mirror.
When you trip the shutter, the mirror flips up and out of the way; the light
projected from the lens then travels straight back to the film plane, where
the shutter, which is that black curtain you see when you load film, opens up to
allow the exposure.
Repairing this condition will depend upon whether you can find a repair
service with the correct part. As the Nikon EM was an early 1980's model, Nikon
themselves have not had parts for some time, but you may find a dealer who works
with a repair service that can harvest a screen from a dead EM.
Best of Luck!
On the verge of "Up North"
Glenn Allenspach
East Bethel, MN
GlennAllenspach@aol.com
651.779.8470
Phil Davenport on tue 25 may 04
If you take the lens off and look through the viewfinder and still see
the dust spots THEN the dust is either on the ground glass or in the
prism--which not a problem. If the dust or scratches are on the lens
then you have a problem. Dust can be gotten rid of but a scratch on a
lens (especially near the center of the lens) means that you will have a
loss of image quality.
You never want to touch the shutter with your finger--use an air
compressor or canned air. It is VERY costly to have a camera repaired
so use caution with you "mess" with the insides of the camera.
If the camera is very old, the shutter speeds could be out of
calibration and it wouldn't hurt to have the camera cleaned and
lubricated and shutter speeds checked as well as the light meter. This
will save you a lot of headaches later on.
Before you start doing any type of serious type of photography do some
TESTING. Use as many of the shutter speeds and f/stops as you can--this
will tell you if the light meter and the shutter speeds are OK. Keep a
good record of what you are doing and then check the results.
Hope this helps--
Phil Davenport
Garland, TX
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Judith
Frederick
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2004 7:25 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Re: OT Photography
I just purchased a used Nikon EM. There appears to be either dust or
scratches on the shutter curtain (the inside of the camera on the top
plastic piece with the small circle on it). You can see it when you look
out the view finder. Will this also be on the picture? Can this be
cleaned or fixed? Is it costly? And the most dumbest question of all....
did I do this by wiping it with a tissue? Did I damage my camera or does
it just need to be cleaned and it is only lint? I can't seem to blow the
lint out of the cavity.
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Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70/year
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Bobbruch1@AOL.COM on tue 25 may 04
Judith Frederick
writes: I just purchased a used Nikon EM.
There appears to be either dust or scratches
on the shutter curtain (the inside of the camera
on the top plastic piece with the small circle on it).
You can see it when you look out the view finder.
Will this also be on the picture?
Can this be cleaned or fixed?
Is it costly? And the most dumbest question of all....
did I do this by wiping it with a tissue?
Did I damage my camera or does
it just need to be cleaned and it is only lint?
I can't seem to blow the lint out of the cavity.
Just an educated guess, I have a Nikon F2 of
similar vintage, the main difference being that
you can remove the viewfinder with an F2 and not
with the EM. I had the same dust issues which
were easily removed once the finder was off.
My guess is that the dust and scratches
are cosmetic to the photographic process
and that they will only impact your view
of the piece and not the ultimate photo.
You need to check to see if any of the dust,
etc. that you are seeing through the viewfinder
is coming from the lens. If there are scratches
on the lens, or dust imbedded inside,
then it will impact your slides. If that
is the case, I would take it up with the store
that sold it to you, as you should have been
told about that prior to purchase.
As for getting rid of dust on the viewfinder, if dust
has gotten inside the viewfinder, it probably would
be fairly expensive to remove, since it would have to be
disassembled. If it is superficial dust, it can be easily
removed, but given your recent experience, that might be
best done by a camera shop that specializes in older
cameras, probably for a nominal sum. But it is a
(minor) annoyance that is easy to work around.
Also, it is advisable to check all lenses and lens
attachments for dust prior to every shoot. Use
a special lens cleaning paper that you can get at
an any camera shop. Cost is pennies per shoot.
Also, photo dust bags are a good way to reduce
dust for all lenses.
Bob Bruch
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