Yashica-Mats are known for good image quality at a low price, but that does not mean that we can not improve on a good thing. One of the simplest improvements is to add flocking material inside the main chamber of the camera to reduce internal reflections. This post details my experience flocking my Yashica-Mat 124 based on information I found in Flickr Yashica TLR discussion groups, specifically Annoying glare in photos from my MAT-124, adding flocking: internal reflections, and Reflections Inside The Film Compartment.
Here is a shot of my film compartment:
The film compartment is painted with matte black paint, but the paint does not absorb all light. For instance, take a look at the back surface near the lens — see how it reflects the and has a much lighter color than the sides? Typically, black paint will tend to reflect light more at very large angles (perpendicular to the painted surface) and very shallow angles (glancing angles). Since any reflected light can bounce and hit the film at a location where it isn’t supposed to be, this can cause strange flares, or bright areas, on the image (see threads above for examples). Also, all that light bouncing around in the film compartment will decrease image contrast by increasing the general exposure of the film.
Newer cameras use baffles and ridges in the film compartment to reduce these reflections, but older cameras like the Yashica TLR series do not.
In my case, there’s even an area in my film compartment where the paint has worn away (see above). I’m not sure why that is, but I have to assume that it does not help my image quality!
Luckily, it turns out that there are felt-like materials called flocking that absorb light better than the stock paint. Flocking, by definition, is the application of many tiny black fibers that absorb light very well. While it is possible to flock by applying glue and shaking on the fibers, you can imagine that the glue and shake process would not be ideal for a precision instrument like a camera. Luckily for camera hobbyists like us, the home-brew telescope industry creates a market for self-adhesive flocking that is quite inexpensive.
The best source I know of for flocking is from a company called ProtoStar in Ohio. ProtoStar’s “Flocked Light Trap Material” costs only 50 cents per 30 square inches, includes a nice adhesive backing, and is very easy to use. If you are a resident of the United States, it is actually slightly less expensive to buy it in roll form instead of the die-cut sheet that they offer on their web-site (by a 30″ x 20″ roll). Either way, at about $17 including shipping, it is quite a deal, since one sheet will let you do a TON of cameras.
So, I went ahead and ordered a sheet of the material and set out to flock my Yashica-Mat 124. Here are the details of how I did it and the tricks I learned. My hope is that others can use these instructions to flock their own cameras. Honestly, it is an easy process that requires some household tools and a little patience, and it should only take about an hour to do it, maybe less.
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To start out, you’ll want to open up the back of your camera and look around. The goal is to cover, or flock, any exposed surface that might catch light, but you’ll want to keep the low against the walls of the chamber and out of the direct light path. Do not worry about cleaning the chamber before you flock because the flocking will cover everything up (unless there is oil or grease build-up that would mess up the adhesive, but if you have oil or grease in your film compartment your camera has more major issues than the flocking can fix!).
Then, gather your materials. The ones I used are above:
- Camera (every TLR has similar internal dimensions, so this process should work for any of them)
- Roll of flocking material (upper left in the image)
- Scissors
- Tweezers. Mine were pretty short and fat and didn’t work that well. Ideally, the longer and thinner the tweezers are, the better!
- Scotch tape (masking tape would work too)
- Blower (or other method to clean the camera lenses)
- Paper (for test-fitting before cutting the flocking to size)
The basic procedure for installing the flocking is pretty simple:
- Determine the correct size of the flocking. I started by cutting paper to size after pressing it into the area I wanted to fit, then using that as a template to cut the flocking, adding extra size if in doubt. Then, I test-fit the flocking and trimmed it to fit exactly where I wanted it.
- Remove the backing and lick or moisten the adhesive. Licking the adhesive will reduce the initial adhesion and allow you to adjust or restick it more easily.
- Place the flocking in the appropriate place with tweezers, tack it down, smooth it out using the tweezers tips.
- Check the location once it is in place, and if it isn’t right, pull it off and repeat steps 2 and 3 as necessary.
Lens Cylinder. The first location I applied the flocking was in the cylinder by the lens. This was honestly the hardest part of the whole procedure, since it is a tight fit, deep in the camera, and the adhesive likes to stick before you want it to. It may help to rack the focus until the cylinder protrudes into the chamber as far as possible. Also, make sure you leave a gap between the flocking and the edge of the cylinder, since tolerances are tight and if you get too close you’ll block light from reaching the film.
I recommend using two pieces of material since the material can expand/contract slightly with temperature changes and it would be bad to have it bubble up. It took me a lot of fiddling to get it right, especially since I was positioning a black material in a black area and my hands often got in the way of my light. What finally worked was to pre-curve the flocking, position it with tweezers, and tack it down with the second probe (a knitting needle in my case).
Front and back of chamber. The next portion I did was the front and back of the main chamber. I used two strips for both the front and back, but it would probably be possible to do them in a single strip if you were careful. I started out by rough-cutting a piece of paper and marking the sides by squeezing it into the corners with my fingernails. Then, I cut it down, test-fitting as I went, until I had a decent template for the flocking. I ended up trimming the flocking a few times too before I stuck it down.
Oh, and an important note — before applying the front and back flocking make sure you rack the focus so that the lens cylinder projects all the way into the body. The front/back walls have concave portions that allow the cylinder to move forward and backward during focus. If you have the focus out and place flocking too far down, you’ll cover up the areas that the cylinder needs to move by, and you could get binding as you focus. I was lucky and just happened to have the focus in the right place, but I figured I should warn you.
I ended up with a gap between the two strips, but this flocking really does not have to be done perfectly. Since the goal is to cut down on overall light and reflections, and since the flocking has height to it already, gaps won’t reflect much light at all. Notice that I left the gap on the portion that curves away from the lighting frustrum — so I doubt any light would even hit it!
During this portion, I pulled off one of the strips to get it positioned better and the flocking separated from it’s backing (the adhesive portion from the fuzzy portion). So, it is possible to destroy the flocking when you remove it, and you need to be somewhat careful once you stick it down. On the other hand, you can always just grab a new piece and it will cover over any residue! Here’s a shot of the separated piece:
The portion on the left is what I am talking about. The portion on the right is just a piece of paper I stuck the broken flocking to.
Chamber Sides. Once the front and back were done, I did the sides. At first, these look really nasty because there are all sorts of strange shapes in the sides. Ultimately, though, that geometry doesn’t need to be preserved and the whole side can be covered with a full piece. Did I mention that this flocking process does not need to be perfect? You can see in the image above how I used a single piece to cover the whole side, just covering over the uneven portions.
Also, note that I didn’t bring the flocking all the way up to the film plane on the sides because it would get in the way of the image on the film. Note how the chamber opens up next to the film. On the front/back, you can go all the way up because there is a recessed portion, but you can not go all the way up on the sides without reducing the image area.
Lens Wall. At this point in the process, I had flocked the chamber as shown above, and I thought I was done. But, looking at it, it seems like the lens wall (the wall that the lens is mounted in) is still pretty reflective if it does not have flocking on it. I decided to go ahead and put some flocking on each side of it just in case.
My main reasoning for this extra bit of work was that film itself can be reflective, and light that reflects off the film could reflect off this back wall (the back wall is clearly not as dark as the flocked area) and decrease contrast. I’m not positive it’d even be an issue, but I figured I’d be easy to add some flocking and I might as well be safe.
I ended up cutting some strange looking pieces to fit in there (even using two on one side) but, again, it does not need to be perfect to do a good job. Just be careful that you keep all flocking away from the lens cylinder because you do not want to get it stuck in the focusing mechanism (lens cylinder).
Cleaning. At the point, the full chamber was flocked, but the flocking material sheds fibers a reasonable amount and there were tons of them on my lens. So, I used a blower to clean it off, then some lens tissue. This image is a bit misleading because I actually blew it out upside down to make sure the fibers didn’t fall back into the camera.
Then, I used scotch tape as a lint remover to get all the little bits of white fuzz off the flocking that had accumulated during installation. It is also good to get off any loose fibers so they don’t fall into the camera. Just roll a little circle, stick it on your finger, and roll it around the flocking. Once it gets dirty roll another piece of tape and continue until everything is nice and lint-free.
Finally, above is the completed flocking. As you can see, the flocking material reflects significantly less light (in fact, I had to adjust the image in photoshop to get any texture to show up!). I haven’t yet had a chance to run a roll of film through the camera, but I hope to today.
Overall, the process took me about two hours, but I was also doing a lot of fiddling with my digital camera and flash to document things.
Also, I added up the size of the flocking I used, and it came out to be only 6 inches by 4 inches, or only 24 square inches! Considering the 30″x20″ piece of flocking I bought, I have a TON left over.
Hopefully this post has encouraged you to flock your Yashica-Mat 124 (or any other TLR — the same process should work on almost any camera that needs flocking). It really is an easy process.
Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or tips!