Bad news, at least on my part.

I finally had a chance to check out the lens flare problem on my TL-120
version number 3 (?). I say version 3 because of the black lens board,
larger hand grips, four leds, tight prism viewfinder, diopter adjustment
on the eye piece, rubber eye cup, and stout metal plate on the tripod
socket.

I first removed the lensboard from the camera and held it at various
angles to a strong overhead light. Sure enough there were plenty of
strong reflections off the lens ring.

I made a template for a piece of light-trap foam for the surface of the
back lens element ring. But before I put it in I decided to place the
lens board back on the camera and and see how the flare looked on ground
glass across the film gate.

Once the board was on and the back open and the shutter on bulb I saw
that I could not even see the bottom of the back lens ring. It was
covered by the square front opening. That means even if there was a
reflection from this surface it wouldn't show on film.

I then did the same point at the light test and sure enough the flare was
still there. The bad news is that it is coming from the surface of the
inner lens rings! That's right, the ones between the elements.

So my conclusion is that flocking the last outer ring will not help the
problem and is not worth the effort to even try. Hopefully version number
4 will have better flat paint for the inner lens rings.

I am now going to go looking for some good lens hoods and also some
filters. By the way just what is the filter size? It looks like it would
be 46mm, but I don't have any that size to test and I don't think my
local camera store carries that size either.

Thanks,

David W. Kesner

David W. Kesner wrote:

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> I am now going to go looking for some good lens hoods and also some
> filters. By the way just what is the filter size? It looks like it would
> be 46mm, but I don't have any that size to test and I don't think my
> local camera store carries that size either.
>

I got some 46mm collapsible lens rubber lens hoods from B&H Photo that
seem to work fine. They slightly smash in the center so I don't believe
rigid ones would work. Also I did not verify yet, but the slight
flattening in the center should not affect the picture as hoods are
usually designed for lenses as wide as to 28mm or 35mm. Also these
collapse nicely on the camera so they don't have to be removed for
transport.

Dale Yingst

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Also there are pictures of my rubber lens hoods on in the "TL-120
waistlevel viewfinder" folder in the photos section.

Dale Yingst