Your indulgence for a moment, please.

I believe what I have encountered is my rank incompetance yet again rearing it's ugly head, and yet I worry that perhaps it may be something more problematic.

I shoot 8 X 10 almost exclusively. My holders, all used, are mostly wooden and of post-war vintage, but in excellent condition. I have used them for at least t wo years now, with no complaints, until...

I have two negatives, exposed within days of each other, with the same camera, b ut in different locations, with different lenses and different holders. Both a re horizontal exposures. One was made in bright sunlight, late afternoon, the o ther indoors in subdued, shadowy lighting. They are both fogged in almost exact ly, if not exactly the same way, on the same portion of the negative. Other neg atives, loaded from the same box, on or about the same time have so far prooven unfogged.

The fog is about 1 - 1.5 inches in from the corner diagonally opposed to the not ch code, on the long side. So, standing at the camera back, looking forward, th is would be on the upper right long edge of the negative, as the exposure was ma de. The fog extends down, or into the picture area, thinning out and becoming l ess dense the further away from the film edge it gets. The fogging on the negat ive exposed indoors is less severe than the negative exposed outdoors. In both cases, the fog starts beyond the normal unexposed area of the film, where the ho lder would block the light from striking it, creating the usual black border.

I always load horizontals into the camera from the right as you stand behind it. Occassionally I will load by taking the back off the camera, inserting the hol der, and then replacing the back. This is easier to do than just sliding the ho lder in, without disturbing the cameras position, as I am rather short and the b ack has fairly strong springs.

I suspect that what has occured is that in replacing the back I did not exercise adequate caution in ensuring that the dark cloth did not get caught between the camera and the back when it was replaced, forcing a slight gap between the two, which fogged the film when the slide was pulled.

However, the fact that the fog is in the same exact position and extends beyond the border has me concerned that either I have a wierd and very consistent probl em in my darkroom, or that I have somehow managed to ruin two (and maybe more?) holders in exactly the same way.

Waddaya Think? Have I correctly self-diagnosed, or am I totally wacked out and wasting your time? Or both? Sorry for being so verbose with what may be an obv ious problem. Thanks and enjoy your Memorial Day Holiday