what went wrong -- LIGHT LEAK !

[earlnash]

I'm trying to figure out what went wrong here - did some light leak in between the holder and the camera? Any guesses would be appreciated!

[Kevin Crisp]

Could be not fully seated in the light trap slot, or pulled it up a little bit when withdrawing or inserting the dark slide? Happened just on this one negative?

[mikey1two]

Looks like it leaked on the top of your film holder where the dark slides in the holder. Could be because it wasn’t seated correctly on the camera back or you could have a bad seal on the top of your film holder. I’d mark that film holder and test it with a fresh sheet of film. Makes good practice to keep track of film holders and shots to narrow down light leaks like this.

-Mikey

[koraks]

Looking at the rebate on the left side which is much wider than it should be, it might be a problem of loading the film wrong, perhaps sliding it into the slot of the dark slide instead of flush with the back of the holder. Might also be a faulty film holder with leaky felt light trap as mikey1two suggests.

[earlnash]

Thanks to all! I do keep an index of holders and light leaks, so I'll monitor this one. Probably a one-off mistake in technique, but that's why we keep doing this!!

[Kevin Crisp]

Some cameras grip the holder like a bear trap (Canhams, Graphics, etc.) and some hold it just adequately (Charmonix) and on those it is easy to accidentally lift the holder a bit, especially if your dark slides don't slide very easily. A bad felt light trap is really rare. But as others have said, keeping notes on holder numbers will quickly narrow down a holder problem.

[Doremus Scudder]

Classic pulling the spring back open while removing/inserting the darkslide. Don't ask how many times I've done this.

The solution is to (a) make sure the holder is seated before pulling the slide and (b) pinch the spring back to the camera body while removing and inserting the slide.

Best,

Doremus