Re: [Leica] Light leak not art

["Mike Durling" <durling@widomaker.com>]

I had a similar problem with my M4 when I first got it.  I too believe that
it was light leaking under the shutter.  It was many years ago, but I think
I may have tightened up the gap by slightly bending the sheet metal.  (I
really don't recomend doing this yourself!)  I am pretty careful to cap
and/or cover the lens when I am walking around in the sun.  For whatever
reason I don't have the problem anymore.

Mike D

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Kip Babington" <cbabing3@swbell.net>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2001 12:41 AM
Subject: Re: [Leica] Light leak not art


> Dave -
>
> This reminds me - just a bit - of a light leak problem I've diagnosed in
> my IIIf and, to a lesser degree, an M6.  In my cases, it occurs during a
> lens change in bright light.  As best I can tell, the tracks in which
> the shutter curtains travel are not especially close fitting, and light
> can sort of "wrap around" the top and/or bottom of the shutter curtain
> when the lens is off.  Fogging is worst near the edges of the film,
> fading out toward the middle, although there is a band of a millimeter
> or two right at the upper and lower edges of the image that is not
> fogged.
>
> I figured out what the problem was by dedicating a roll of film to
> testing specifically for this - take a shot or two, wind on, change (or
> just remove) the lens with the opening exposed to bright light or open
> sky, cap the lens and trip the shutter, wind on, take another shot,
> etc.  Sometimes I changed the lens without winding the film on.  The
> results were similar to what you've shown - a tapering fog on the frames
> that were in the film gate when the lens was off.  (Remember that the
> image is upside down, so the top of the picture was at the bottom of the
> film gate -  if your camera hangs mostly vertical when you change lenses
> I'd expect more light leakage at the bottom of the shutter.)
>
> I learned that I need to be especially careful to shade the lens opening
> when changing lenses on the IIIf and to do the change as quickly as
> possible (without getting fumble fingered.)  The M6 is better, and
> doesn't fog film as fast as the older model, but I still try to minimize
> the time that there isn't a lens (or body cap) on the camera if there's
> film in it.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Cheers,
> Kip
>
> Dave Hillman wrote, in part:
> >
> > This 'fetching' result shows a problem I'm trying to understand, a light
> > leak that I need to fix through repair or technique.
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