First light seal replacement is not quite successful

fish4570 · Expire: 2012-03-21

I used an Interslice kit for one of my two Fujica ST605s that needed new seals. Job took me about two hours, and looks neat enough. Instructions that came with the little kit are well done.

Ran a quick roll of cheap CVS film through the cm, and had it processed today. RATS!

Right edge of horizontal pics, bottom edge of vertical pics, every negative:

That means the leak is from the latch side, right? Man, I thought I had done everything right with my first attempt.

Advice? I must have misplaced the new latch edge seal ...

fstop · Joined: 11 Apr 2010 Posts: 29

The left edge of the negatives is being over exposed ... yes, on the latch side. But it does not appear to be a light leak. Looks more like shutter bounce to me. If that is the case, you need to clean and lubricate the shutter spindles, most probably from the bottom of the camera. Are any of the photos also dark on edges or do some have dark vertical bands in them?

Regarding the light seals, for future reference, you can do it from readily available material as well. For the horizontal grooves above and below the read film chamber, wook works best. For the hinge seals, either velor or velvet strips work nicely. To remove older seals, use light fluid (naphtha). The procedure is illustrated here:
http://photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00SVtt