Sometimes you see a doctor. Sometimes you NEED a specialist.

I shouldn’t ignore this. I shouldn’t try to work around the problem. I shouldn’t just ignore it and hope it heals itself.

You know that “I hope it heals itself” never works. It never heals itself. It just gets worse.

I thought I could see my regular person to fix the issue. And he looked at the issue, and he told me it was fixed.

And for a while, it was fixed. And it was fine.

Then it got worse. Worse than before. To the point where I couldn’t resolve it on my own.

So I needed a specialist.

The specialist’s address was in New York.

I called the specialist.

The specialist said appointments were available … however … the specialist now lived in Florida.

Well … it had to be done.

Off to Florida.

Two weeks later, I heard from the specialist. The problem was fixed. The surgery was a success.

And by “surgery,” I mean a full cleaning, lubrication and alignment for my new-to-me Pentacon Six TL camera.

Although it’s a fine medium format camera, the Pentacon Six TL has a nasty hanging shutter problem, especially at 1:125 speed. And I want to use the whole 6×6 frame on these shots, not 6×5 or 6×4 or 6xtakeaguess. I need to count on all my cameras and all that they can achieve.

That black shadow on the lower third of that picture is the result of “sticky shutter syndrome,” which affects most Pentacon Six TL cameras if they don’t get at least some reasonable cleaning and maintenance. And this camera’s shutter likes to stick at 1:125 shutter speed … the speed I most often use.

So the Pentacon Six TL, along with the 80mm Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar kit lens, rode a Priority Mail box to Florida, where it underwent a full restoration and update. And if all goes well, this camera should last for ages. Or at least for the 20+ years I still plan to live and breathe upon this Earth.

The camera arrived in my hands last Monday. I immediately slapped a roll of film in the chassis and went for a test photo shoot. I snapped off a few photos at the Altamont Fair on Tuesday, then brought the roll to McGreevy Pro Lab (my pro lab of choice) on Wednesday morning. Yesterday, I received the developed negatives, and decided to scan a few images.

And … as you can see …

That lower line isn’t a sticky shutter. That’s an actual shadow on the grass. And I scanned the negative so that you can see the film counter markers, complete with “KODAK PORTRA” on the top and “>1” on the bottom.

Oh, but you’re still questioning that shadow?

I got cha covered. Here’s another shot.

No shadows on the bottom. That’s green grass all the way to the edge of the frame.

Camera cleaned, lubricated and adjusted. This Pentacon Six TL is now stronger than ever.

And you know I want an award-winning shot out of this bad boy.

And with it fine-tuned for the 21st century …

I’ve got a better chance than ever before to achieve that.