Light Leaks? First time ever...

[johnmsanderson]

Hi Gang

Any thoughts on these? Shot on an 8x10 Arca. Never had these before and same camera for years. Bellows holes, perhaps?? No problems when I switch out to 4x5.

wtf.

[xkaes]

Nice shots. BUMMER. Could be a bellows leak or film holder. Looks like a BIG leak. Test for bellows leak FIRST by putting a BARE light bulb in the rear at max extension in a darkroom. Cover the back with a dark cloth. Easy test. THEN move on to the film holders if you need. Pinholes are easy to fix -- if you can find them.

[chassis]

I’m going to say darkslide light seal leak. All images have leaking on the darkslide end of the image along the short dimension. Some of the leaks seems pretty massive or acute. What does a visual inspection of the film holders tell you?

[LabRat]

+ 1 on holder lighttraps... Insert slides straight in, and use focusing cloth over them while pulling/inserting slides, and check light traps in the dark by pulling slides on empty holders, placing the front of the trap area against a table edge (to block light), and shining a very bright flashlight from the inside of the film area, look through the open outside slot and look for tell-tale traces of light coming through, particularly near the edges...

Good luck finding your (Halloween) gremlin!!!

Steve K

[xkaes]

Were they all taken with the same holder? Then it's the holder. If not, then consider a bellows leak first. I hope you mark your holder and take notes, like many of us do, to track down these types of problems.

[chassis]

Another possibility is that the film holder is systemically not being inserted fully. I had this problem for a while in my early days with large format. Be sure to know when the film holder is fully seated in the camera back. If it is not , light leaks are possible at one end or the other, mainly along the short dimension.

[Jerry Bodine]

Do you habitually pinch the gg frame and rear standard frame together when pulling AND inserting the darkslide (without bending it) to keep the holder in contact with both frames? It may be that the springs that serve this purpose are weaker on the 810 than on the 45. Another good habit is covering the bellows with the darkcloth so pinholes cannot bite you.

[Doremus Scudder]

Do you habitually pinch the gg frame and rear standard frame together when pulling AND inserting the darkslide (without bending it) to keep the holder in contact with both frames? It may be that the springs that serve this purpose are weaker on the 810 than on the 45. Another good habit is covering the bellows with the darkcloth so pinholes cannot bite you.

+1 for this or for a filmholder seating problem unless the problem is all from the same holder. Chances of three holders having defective light traps like this is slim.

Doremus

[johnmsanderson]

Well I had three more holders that I had processed and marked which was which, out of 6 of those sheets only 1 had a leak:



It's possible this holder was used for some of the others as well because they are all color negative. This one pretty much correlates with sun position -- even tho I did have the focusing cloth over the back of the camera.

I do have many pinholes in the bellows, but nothing seeming too great.

[xkaes]

Given the position, it looks like a big leak (crack/split?) in the film holder -- which would not be covered by a dark cloth on TOP of the camera -- or a leak where the lower right corner of the bellows is attached to the camera body. Both are pretty easy to test -- and small pinholes are easy to fix (I'll try to remember to check my own -- one of these days!)