Fell into a Spotmatic SPII with a Super Takumar 50 f1.4 attached on Craigslist for a good price and after much gnashing of teeth managed to get its meter to work with a 1.5v battery (or so I thought). Ended up woefully underexposing a roll of film to the point where it was essentially blank. So much for my exposure guesstimation skills <g>. Tried again, armed with a Weston light meter and had better luck...
SPII, Super Tak 50mm f1.4, Ultramax 400
...or so I thought until I saw the last four frames on the roll, all of which looked similar to this one, with the shadow falling in the same part of the frame on each one:
Clearly, there are some issues with the shutter. I'm hoping it was just the cold temperatures of the day. I've cocked and released shutter several times with the back open and can't replicate the above issue at room temperature (which I believe is caused by the shutter not fully closing after opening). Am I correct in this diagnosis or can someone point me in the right direction? Had a great time shooting this camera and I'm hoping to use a few other M42 lenses I have kicking around on it (55 f1.8, 200 f4, 28 f3.5) without having to send it in for work. Any thoughts from the forum would be greatly appreciated.
Best to all,
Kevin