first 35mm roll a disaster

Hi, new to this forum. I've shot a lot of 16mm motion, but i just shot my first roll of 35mm on a nikon fm i just got, and it was a huge disaster. I have no clue what went wrong, out of 24 exposures only 15 came out, the others weren't exposed. Guy at CVS said that I 'forgot' to take those ones. I know I took all of them, it's not like i accidentally skipped nine of them, so I'm not sure what happened there. Also, there are various things wrong with a lot of the ones that did come out.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/6258508...n/photostream/

Not sure why the bottom half of that is black.

If anyone has any ideas why 9 of the pictures didn't come out at all and why the picture above is like that, I would really appreciate hearing them before getting the next roll.

Joe Zakko wrote:


Hi, new to this forum. I've shot a lot of 16mm motion, but i just shot
my first roll of 35mm on a nikon fm i just got, and it was a huge
disaster. I have no clue what went wrong, out of 24 exposures only 15
came out, the others weren't exposed. Guy at CVS said that I 'forgot' to
take those ones. I know I took all of them, it's not like i
accidentally skipped nine of them, so I'm not sure what happened there.
Also, there are various things wrong with a lot of the ones that did
come out.
http://tinyurl.com/7s53lbv

Not sure why the bottom half of that is black.

Looks like it could be a tapering shutter (the gap between the shutter
blinds changes as it moves across, due to 1 blind moving slower than
the other). I think the FM has a vertical running focal plane shutter.

Do you remember what shutter speed you were using for the shots that
did and didn't come out? The tapering shutter is likely to be worse at
faster shutter speeds. With a bit of luck, a fairly straightforward
CLA (clean, lube & adjust) service should sort it.
--
Alex Monro
Exeter, UK
Running on Linux (Kubuntu 10.04)

Thanks so much, that makes a lot of sense. Do you know where I could get a CLA? Would it be a bad idea to do it myself if I'm relatively unfamiliar with the camera?

Joe Zakko wrote:


Thanks so much, that makes a lot of sense. Do you know where I could
get a CLA? Would it be a bad idea to do it myself if I'm relatively
unfamiliar with the camera?

You don't say where in the world you are, but in the UK I've found that
Asahi Photo Ltd. in London are quick and efficient. Although they
specialise in Pentax, they should be able to do basic repairs on your
FM.

http://www.asahiphoto.co.uk/

Alternatively, try Googling "Nikon camera repairs" and your location.

I wouldn't recommend doing it yourself, since specialist equipment is
needed to properly adjust shutter speeds, and parts may be required if
the problem is more severe.
--
Alex Monro
Exeter, UK
Running on Linux (Kubuntu 10.04)