Testing holders for leaks?

[Scott --]

Hi, all -

I have a bunch of 5x7 holders, all of 'em old, most of 'em wood. I'm finding that a lot of them give me light leaks in different conditions - some in really bright sunlight, some in ambient room lighting. Some are fine in some conditions, not in others. For example, I've used this holder dozens of times before, but yesterday, got this:



The camera's not suspect, and the bellows are fine. Short of burning film and being (unpleasantly) surprised, is there any practical way of chasing down such leaks before they happen?

Scott

[Mark Woods]

Use paper instead of film. You should quickly see what and where the leaks are.

MW

[Jack Dahlgren]

I've removed the slides and shined a flashlight through the slot. It easily picked out the bad holder from a bunch of possible suspects and revealed some minor leaks in other holders. Turn out the light and use a small bright flashlight.

[Brian Ellis]

You could also drape the dark cloth over the holders as you pull the slide up and leave it over the holder until you've put the slide back in (which I always do as a matter of course even with holders that have never leaked light). It's not the ideal solution - best to catch the leaks ahead of time obviously - but better than losing images and wasting 5x7 film. Of course you also could buy better holders.