Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/08/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> Hey group! > I have a feeling that someone out there can probably help me to >diagnose an intermittent problem with my (beloved) M-3, which has been >spoiling a certain number of shots. What is does is to leave a horizontal >band of over-exposed film near but not up to the top the frame. Usually >the band is slightly wider at the left end of the final print than the >right and the amount of over-exposure across the band is not even but >increases as you move towards the top of the frame. The amound of >over-exposure varies from being barely visible to being enough to >seriously obsure the image. > Does anyone have any ideas? At first I thought that it might be >due to the curtain notsweeping the picture evenly, but that doesn't >seem consistent with the fact that there is always correctly exposed film >on both sides of the band. > >Gary Gary, This sounds sorta like the same thing I was having with my M4-P. You can see if it is a shutter curtain light leak by loading a fast film and just walking around outside. After you have walked around a while, cover the lens and fire the shutter. Use a fast shutter speed and a relative wide open f/stop. Do this several times and vary the time between shots. If the shutter is leaking there there will be evidence on the unexposed frame. The horizontal band you describe sounds exactly like the ones I had. The light leaks in slowly at the bottom of the shutter curtain. The longer the film sits behind the shutter, the worse the band will be. Mark