Black mark on film

[Fly Ricky the Wine T]

Before you take it apart, shine a flashlight into the lens from both directions to see if the reflection is visible. You might see a shiny spot.

I tried that and saw nothing.

Is it more prominent on outdoor shots? Ones with sky in particular.

Yes, exactly, and the more sunny it is, the more diffuse the mark is.

 

[B.J.Scharp]

Yes, exactly, and the more sunny it is, the more diffuse the mark is.

It's flare.

Try running a roll of colour film and shoot outdoors in sunlight. It'll be instantly recognizable on the prints/scans.

 

[farlymac]

Then I guess it boils down to being a refraction flare. And it looks quite similar to the example you cited. Must be endemic to the T2, and that's why they designed a hood for the T3. Don't think that opening up the camera/lens will do any good. Just be mindful what angle you are shooting to the sun, and maybe plan to crop out that part of the negative while you compose the shot.

PF

 

[Baybers]

It looks like a crack in the film emulsion to me. Could be in the film travel when in the camera or perhaps caused by a faulty developing spool creasing the film when loading.

 

[Fly Ricky the Wine T]

Ok, so it's definitely not a fiber or something like that.
So I need to open the camera, even if I'm afraid to break it.

 

[farlymac]

A refraction flare like that is not fixable in any way that you could open up the camera for. It's a design fault which would only be cured by using a hood. My Yashica T4 Super D with a Zeiss Tessar does the same thing if I point it in the wrong direction. It is after all a Point and Shoot, and the manufacturers were not all that hot on adding cost by making sure flare wouldn't happen.

PF

 

[mwoenv]

It looks like a crack in the film emulsion to me. Could be in the film travel when in the camera or perhaps caused by a faulty developing spool creasing the film when loading.

By any chance, was the film refrigerated and then put on the reel pretty soon afterward? This weekend I got a similar small, curved line on two rolls of film, on about 6 of 36 negatives on each roll, in the center of the negatives, black on the negative, white on the scan. Both films were shot on the same day in different cameras (one rangefinder, one SLR), refrigerated about 8 hours and then loaded after the film was at room temperature for only about 45 minutes. I always leave at least a couple of hours for warmup, but not this time. The films were developed the next morning in the same tank.

I had never seen this before. The cameras have no apparent problems, I always use lens hoods, and I've used these reels for a long time with no problem. The only thing I can think of is that the film emulsion cracked in the same location, but not on all frames, because the film was still cold enough to be brittle when wound on the reels.