Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/08/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Ericplatt@aol.com write: >Just received the slides for the last two rolls I shot... On some of the shots I'm having what appears to be a light leak problem. The very top of the slide, say just down from the mount edge, appears to be at a lower exposure than the rest of the slide. On one slide, there is a serious amount of what I would call "glare" like a window reflection, although there was no glass (outside the camera) in the photo. Light angle appears not related to this, as in the shot where it is the worst is where the sun was directly behind me. This sounds like the problem I had earlier this summer when I reported: >My M6 is making one of its rare appearances away from the Leica repair department, so I took it to the Paris Air Show as my working camera. >Looking through the resulting photos, I'm puzzled to see that one just three of the 73, there is a blue haze and general washed-out look on the right-hand side of the frame. >On the negatives which show the blue-haze problem, I can see that that there is a darkening which stretches into the gap between the negatives, i.e. onto film which isn't exposed in the film gate! It's hard to see how light could "leak" around the edge of the film gate... >Even more mysterious is the presence of a band of slight under-exposure along the horizontal edge of some frames - sometimes along the top edge and sometimes along the bottom edge. This band has quite a sharp edge, and only appears in about 20 per cent of the frames - frames with the band can appear on either side of frames without it. On frames where it does appear, it runs at a constant density across the entire width of the image. One of the guys who replied said he'd had the "blue haze" problem and had noticed that it occurred each time he'd changed lenses. The consensus of several subsequent relies from other people was that one should take care to change lenses in the shade of one's body and not let the sunlight shine into the camera. No-one commented on the under-exposed bands. I recently ran a slide-film through my M6, partly to check a newly-purchased 20mm Russar and partly to re-check the "light-leak" problem before heading off on vacation. I took care always the shade the camera when changing lenses, and had no problems with the resulting pics -- no blue haze and no under-exposed bands. (Though I did have a wonderful "UFO" in the sky during one shot taken against the light - its outline matched that of the Russar diaphragm!) But I'd STILL love to know what caused the under-exposed bands... So there is a good chance that if you follow the same precautions that I did, all will be well. I notice you were using an M4-P, which like my M6, is a camera made after the Wild takover - I'd never been particularly careful when changing lenses on my Leica, IIIg, or M2, and had never experienced this light-leak problem with these pre-1974 Leicas. Regards, Doug Richardson