This is the third post in a series of four related to cleaning my used Yashica Mat 124. The first post in the series describes the task in more detail and includes links to all of the other posts.
NOTE: I haven’t had a lot of success with this fix, but I can’t tell if it is the felt or something else. More at the bottom of this post.
As mention earlier, my Yashica Mat 124 had some issues when I got it, specifically a decent-size light leak. So, an important part of my cleaning task was to replace the old crumbly seals in the door.
The Yashicamat 124 uses a combination of black foam and black yarn in the light seal on the main door. The foam fills in the larger areas at the top and bottom of the door while the yarn seals the narrow slot along each side. In the shot below you can make out the yarn covering the sides (like all of the images, click to see it larger).
After almost 40 years, these seals tend to break down, causing areas of bright spots in images. Luckily, fixing them is not a huge ordeal! All you need is a little patience and a willingness to do work on your camera.
(Note: Yashicamat 124G seals are completely made from foam, even along the sides. I have heard that they are more fragile, but that may be compensated for by the fact the cameras are not as old.)
For my light seal replacement, I used a variety of sources on the web. The primary source of my techniques was Matt Denton’s page about replacing light seals. It has great details about how to remove them, replace them, and what materials to use. Of course, it uses a Yashica Electro 35 as an example and does not cover the 124, but it is close enough for me. Also, on Matt’s Repair Tips page, he mentions materials for the light seals, including “Lily Sugar n’ Cream black cotton crochet yarn, product #CA00111″, and black Presto-felt (what I ended up using). Another good source is David Richert’s Yashica 124 Rebuild Page, which includes some details about replacing the light seals with new foam.
As I mentioned, for my light seal replacement I only used black “Prestofelt” from Walmart — under $1 per sheet! And to fix a single camera you only really need a fraction of a sheet. It has a very gooey adhesive on it which definitely keeps it in the camera, but can be a bit of a pain to work with because it sticks to just about anything and leaves residue. Just cut it, remove the backing, and stick it where you need it (I found it helpful to push it into place with a small screwdriver). Just be careful not to get it on anything important (like the film plate!) and if you do, carefully clean it all off!
Of course, the first step is cleaning out the old seals. For this, I used a toothpick. The old foam seals pretty much disintegrated into black dust, while the yarn came out easily and cleanly.
While I was removing the old seals, I wrapped the camera body in standard household plastic wrap to keep any little black bits out of the film chamber. I can only imagine how yucky that could get!
The adhesive that holds the foam in at the top and bottom of the door was very tricky to remove so I finally just gave up on it. I figured it wouldn’t cause a big problem since the felt goes on top. Once I had the old seals out, I just cut the felt to size and stuck it in:
Note that thin strips of felt can stretch if needed, making it easier to fit them into the grooves. Here is the finished portion near the top of the door:
Anyway, that is it for now. I’ll post the final page of this series in a few days, describing my solution for the now discontinued mercury batteries for the 124…
Update: Sadly, the new felt light seals really didn’t take. I still had light leaks on my second (and third) test rolls, but I have to wonder if my leaks are somewhere other than the door seals since I sealed all around the doors with electrical tape yet I still had the light leak. I’ll post examples in a bit. I’ve also got a light seal kit from Jon Goodman, a very well-regarded seal maker, (see interslice’s items) on order that may help. I’ll post and update once I have results (be they good or bad).