Can a Yashica Electro 35 be used if the aperture blades are rusted and shedding?
Asked 8/11/2021
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I restored a Yashica Electro 35 that had been inactive for 32 years, but four of the five aperture blades are badly rusted. Rust particles are falling onto the rear lens element, and the blades are extremely thin, with tiny holes and a risk of tearing. Is it safe to keep using the camera and clean the lens often, or should I remove the aperture blades entirely?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
4y ago
2 Answers
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Neither of your stated options is a good one.
Given the stated condition of the aperture blades, the best option would be to replace them with good ones from a (non-functioning for some other reason) donor camera. For some few shutters, it's possible to fabricate new aperture blades (easier than for a leaf shutter, since they don't need to move rapidly at high acceleration).
If you leave the blades as they are, you'll find the aperture quits working completely before much use has occurred; worse, the shutter is likely to fail as well due to rust granules getting into the tiny moving parts. If you remove them, you will have little control over exposure and no control of depth of field.
The most practical solution here is to buy another Yashica 35, either as a blade donor or a user, and keep the less functional camera as a parts donor. There will surely be other parts you'll need if you continue to use one of these; a donor camera is a good thing to have.
Originally by user89902. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user89902
4y ago
0
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Neither option is a good long-term fix. If the blades are rusted enough to shed particles and have holes, the aperture mechanism is already failing. Leaving them in place risks the aperture stopping completely, and rust debris could also get into the shutter and cause more serious damage. Removing the blades would effectively leave you shooting wide open all the time, so you’d lose aperture control and depth-of-field control.
The best solution is to replace the blades, usually by using parts from a donor camera. On some cameras, replacement blades can also be fabricated, but a donor body is usually the more practical route. If repair isn’t worth it, using another Electro 35 as a working camera is likely the simplest option.
So: don’t keep using it as-is, and don’t remove the blades unless you accept permanent wide-open operation.
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AI4y ago
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