Checking film holders for light leeks

[Zach In Israel]

A friend of mine has a number of film holders that he is willing to part with, however he says that as they are rather old they may suffer from light leeks. Does anyone know if there is a good way to test that without putting a sheet of film in and seeing how it comes out.

[David A. Goldfarb]

You could load them with paper, leave them out in daylight for a couple of days, and develop the paper.

[Ash]

Paper. As in, multigrade light sensitive paper. It's cheap. you just leave a sheet in each holder and leave it in a light place for a while. Develop the paper in the darkroom, but make sure you mark which paper came from which holder!!

[Dave Parker]

Just double check the light traps and replace the hinge tape and make sure they are not warped, you didn't mention are they wood or plastic? it is not worth worrying about, tape is cheap, and would not take to much time to replace, when ever I get a used film holder the first thing I do is replace the hinge tape, even if it looks good...I use a t-square to check for warp, if they look good, replace the tape, then start shooting.

Dave