Diagnosing a light leak . . .

j.lukow · Expire: 2021-11-25

During the hustle and bustle we call life, I find myself having time to pop in with a technical question - (I hope I haven't offended anyone with my absenteeism from our community Embarassed

. . .if so I'm sorry.)

Lately with my Minolta X570 I am getting a bar of "light" on one side of my photos. Here's the oddness of it . . .
1 - the size of the bar and the colour are not consistant, white yellow,pink, often red and sometimes just a faded band.
2- Not all photos from the roll have it, there also seems to be a consistancy of which photos have it.

So my question are these the symptom of light seals or maybe a bad batch of film - Blacks Camera's store brand. Or could it be something during processing?

My own idea for testing this may take a while - I shoot 2 rolls of Fuji / Kodak film, I take one roll to where I went before (before film disappeared from store . . .) and the other to Blacks.
If film 1 is clear I've elimated the camera from the equation and of course the film and processing.
If film 2 is clear than I got a bad batch of film, if its got stripes there's a problem with processing.

If both films show bars - then I have to replace my light seals.

I'll appreciate any input from our experienced community members.

Thanks,
Jim

Scheimpflug · Expire: 2011-11-18

So the three variables are Film, Camera, and Processing...

If the bars are distributed well along the whole roll of film, then if you're clever about it, you could test all three cases with reasonable certainty with just one roll of film. Wink

Here's how:
* Take a roll of different film (ie: the Fuji or Kodak, but NOT the store-brand film)
* Expose half of the roll in your X570, but stop there and rewind the film back into the canister.
* Have the film developed at the same place that developed your last roll that had the trouble.

What this tells us:
* If the exposed half has the stripes but not the unexposed half, then the X570 definitely has a light leak.
* If the whole roll has the stripes, then the lab is at fault
* If no stripes can be found, then either your store-brand film was bad OR there was a fluke problem at the lab.

Cool

walter g · Joined: 20 Feb 2010 Posts: 2463 Location: NC, USA

Check to see if the hinge seal is still intact. The channel seals won't cause this. I don't think the film window seal will either, but make sure it's intact also.

j.lukow · Expire: 2021-11-25

@Scheimpflug - This sounds like a good method - I'll probably try this when the current roll is finished.

walter g · Joined: 20 Feb 2010 Posts: 2463 Location: NC, USA

A couple of quick pics. The first shot is the film window seal. The second shot is the hinge seal. As you can tell by the pic my channel seals are almost
completely gone.
So that's why I said it can't be them.
The pics are from my X30-N.
The door on an x series fits so tight it dosen't matter if it's handheld or tripod mounted.

j.lukow · Expire: 2021-11-25

Thanks for the hopefully "idiot proof" explanation . . .

(Hopefully it prevents me from being an idiot . . . Laughing

)

Thanks,
Jim

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Hi Jim, nice to hear from you again. Here you will find Jon Goodman's notes on the light seals in X-series Minoltas.
http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/seal/Minolta_X_types.pdf

It's a good idea to inspect the door seals but I have a sneaking idea this may not be the problem. When you say there is a light band at one side of some of the pictures it sounds to me possibly like a shutter curtain issue as the X-500/570 has horizontal silk shutter curtains, not vertical metal blades like many other Minoltas. If the light band is on the right side of your picture it could mean that the second curtain speed is sticking or a little slow sometimes, which gives increasing over-exposure as it travels across. This is often an intermittent fault, which would explain the inconsistency.

PS - if you do replace the seals, my advice is don't bother with the mirror buffer. It's a very fiddly job on this camera and the chances of messing up the focus screen are very high.

j.lukow · Expire: 2021-11-25

nice to here from you peter Smile

OK here goes . . .
I took the 1/2 exposed roll of film in for developing . . .
Its the camera, so . . .

First on the hinge side of my film door there is no foam just a heavy stripe of a tacky material (possibly the adhesive?) . . .

Now I did a some quick scans of some symptomatic pics (sorry but they're from the pics)

This red stripe is the most typical . . .

This white stripe also occurs . . .

Now as I said I though maybe the inconsistabcy of their aoccurance was a function of whether I was holding the camera (and therefore holding the back in tighter) or it was on the tripod.

If indeed we think it is a seal gone - where is a good source . . .

Thanks,
Jim

OM · Joined: 15 Jan 2010 Posts: 166 Location: Southern England

Jon Goodman · Joined: 24 Nov 2010 Posts: 13

Light leak damage on film which has been developed can be diagnosed by remembering that:
a) colored damage (red, orange, yellowish damage) which appears on the developed picture means light struck the back side of the film. C-41 process color film, I mean.
b) whitish or grayish damage which appears on the developed picture came from light striking the front side of the film (essentially the film was overexposed). Please do not ignore bad or slow aperture action on this kind of damage. Also...please do not overlook lens flare.

I always look first to the hinge end seal. That is where maybe 75-80% of light leaks will occur. The latch end seal and the slot seals are mostly dust seals, however please do not think no light leaks will occur in these areas. In some cameras, the long thin slots allow persistent leaks unless they are sealed.

If you have a camera which has a film canister window seal...please do not think that seal can't leak. In many cameras (Fujica AX series, Leica R4, R5, R6, some Nikons, Canons, Minoltas, etc), the film canister seals are the worst light leak provider in the camera. Please remember it takes only a tiny bit of light to ruin film.

Mirror dampers will not generally produce light leak damage, but bad dampers can create an overexposed, washed-out appearance in shots on tripod and self-timer.

Zenit E (and similar Zenit types) have a very serious light leak problem. The meter window on the top plate allows light to stream into the mirror chamber. Correct this, and the Zenit becomes a much nicer camera to use. If you want a 3 part image showing this, please let me know.

Hope this is helpful.
Jon

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

I've had this message to Jim stuck in my outbox for some weeks, so I'm posting it here. Evidently he hasn't visited us for some time. Hope you're OK Jim.

Incidentally, Jim was referring to his X-570 which does not have a film window.

agent_cooper · Joined: 06 Oct 2010 Posts: 139 Location: Germany

to be honest, I like the pictures with the stripe. I try to imagine, how he woud be without. Laughing

j.lukow · Expire: 2021-11-25