Light leak with Wista 8x10 and Toyo holders

[Bob Salomon]

Why not try a sheet and see if he was right. If he was wrong bring the camera and the test sheet back to him.

[Daniel Stone]

why not insert the film holder into the camera, make sure its properly seated in the t-lock groove. Then, take a powerful handheld flashlight and from the lens end of the bellows, shine the flashlight around the edges to see if you can find any leaks. Do this in a dark(er) room to ease viewing of small light leaks, this should take no more than ~5mins or so, and will let you know if the t-lock groove's depth is the problem, or if you have another problem. I'm guessing you have some sort of pinholes in the bellows as well, since the outline of the holder's film retaining edges are quite clear and sharp.

2ndly. I'd NEVER leave the darkslide out for more than 15sec or so. Especially in bright sun. Assuming that you load your holders from the right, thats subjecting the light trap to 10mins of direct sun exposure. But 10min of the darkslide being left out, any time of day, IMO, is just asking for problems, real problems. Even if you you have a fully opaque darkcloth wrapped around the back of the camera...

-Dan

[Michael Kadillak]

I would send the camera to Richard Ritter for a diagnosis and an estimate for resolving the problem.

[Bob Salomon]

So you are aware, Wista the only factory service center in the USA is Marflex.