Hi again friends. I'm still having the double-image problem when making long ex posures, and have eliminated the possibility that it's a bellows or pinhole issue. Others have mentioned having the same problem, suggesting that the film may be "popping" during my long exposures, due to being exposed to the air after bei ng inside the film holder.

I have another theory that I thought I'd run by you to see if it has any merit ( any film manufacturing experts out there??). I've only had this problem when ma king long exposures, in dim light, with small apertures. So, what I'm wondering is, if there is some kind of internal reflection going on inside the film, that only becomes visible on the film when the light levels inside the camera are ext remely low? What I'm thinking is that the image might be reflecting off one of the emulsion layers, or the back of the film. The double image is always just s lightly offset from the "correct" image-- maybe 0.5 mm or so, and when using fro nt rise it becomes more pronounced toward the bottom of the film (i.e., the imag e area that's furthest from the center of the lens, and the most susceptible to such a reflection).

The reason I've come up with this is, my film is frequently exactly the same tem perature as the ambient air because I backpack with my camera, so the "popping" issue likely doesn't apply. One morning I found what would have been an all-tim e killer image in the rainforest, and just to make dang sure I got one good orig inal, I shot all of my film on the same image-- 16 sheets, and EVERY SINGLE ONE had the identical double image problem. My lens, bellows, lensboard, aperture, etc., are all pristine, and I always tap the film holder several times to lodge the film in place. I can't think of any other thing that it could be.

Thoughts, similar teeth-gnashing experiences?

~cj