[Leica] M7 light leaking?

[smcj35 at yahoo.com (Colin J)]

On an assignment last week I found a problem I have not had before; light 
leaking onto the film.  The images are all my client's copyright so I cannot 
post them, but the effects seem to be random, never twice in the same place 
on the film.  Except that I was shooting always in strong sunlight.  

The worst light leakage is from once when I changed lenses, and it is very 
bad.  The film was Kodak Elite Color (negative) ISO 200.

Is the problem that the shutter blinds leak light?  I knew this was a 
problem with early Leicas.  My IIIf leaks light.  But surely this should not 
be a problem with the two year old M7?  Has this not been sorted by now?

For my client I have managed to clone out the problem in Photoshop and he is 
very happy, which is good for my repeat business with him.  But next time 
the problem may not be so easy to solve, and the location is in another 
country - it is in southern Spain, and I live in the UK.  I don't ever want 
to have to re-shoot.

So what did I do wrong?  Do I just need to take more care in strong light, 
especially when changing lenses?

Colin



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