Damn it!

M

merciful

Guest
I just developed a roll of TX (at 3200, my favourite speed), and the frame I most wanted to see (and the beginning of the following) has a big blob of overexposure on it. It was the last exposure of my holiday last week, and I finished the roll today at home; on holiday, I took only my Summarit, but today I switched to a 135mm to shoot some candid cat portraits (yeah, well, I hate wasting film.) In the switching lenses and adpaters, might enough light have crept in somewhere to cause this effect? No other frames (including ones of the same scene) were affected.

Crap.
 
I've never had swapping lenses do this to any of my RF's. Can you see through the curtains with the back door flipped up and the lens off? Does the blob extend into the space between negatives or on the sprockets?
 
Me neither. I'll check the curtains when I get home from the studio, thanks.
 
Brian Sweeney said:
I've never had swapping lenses do this to any of my RF's. Can you see through the curtains with the back door flipped up and the lens off? Does the blob extend into the space between negatives or on the sprockets?
Click to expand...

Black as death when I look through the back, at a sunny sky.

The blob is on one neg, and then on the next; but not between. On the critical frame, it was large, roughly triangular, and extended to the top of the frame; on the next, much smaller, and roughly triangular.
 
If it was a light leak it should have exposed more than just the image area. I know Francisco has major problems with his M6 with light leaks through the top (I think) of the camera. I do not think that is happening to oyu. Could it be an internal reflection? I have had those before.

Maybe if you can scan the negative using a flatbed scanner some of the guys could recognize it.
 
If the overexposed area is in two consecutive frames, then I don't see how it colud be from a lens/adapter change. Only the frame in the film plane would be affected. I also csn't see how changing adapter/lens would cause overexposure in a portion of the frame unless the shutter curtain has a hole in it. But that would not affect the next frame.
 
Thanks a lot. I have a feeling it is a reflection: there's stuff on the other negs from the scene that just shouldn't be there. Is that sort of thing common with old uncoated lenses?
 
Yes, these reflections and flare are common in older, uncoated lenses. I have had stuff like that before with the Elmar 9cm F4 and Sonnar 5cm F2. Use a shade whenever possible, and keep them out of direct sun and heavy sunglint.
 
Wow. I had no idea at all that it could get that crazy: I'm glad I just bought the Canon 50/1.8 as a modern-style 50. In the case at hand, I was in a brew-pub, with most of the light from a window behind me.

I hope there's not too much damage on my other holiday rolls. Pretty subdued bar light in general.
 
Even my almighty Summicron 50 gave me once a bad case of internal reflection when I photographed my father-in-law in front of a candle. Weird... never happened again.

Brian, you have some memory!

That Leica was finally fixed. I ended up sending it to Leica NJ for a refurbishing... and it came back with a less pronounced leak. Of course, I sent it back and then took it with to Costa Rica. There I did everything under the sun (literally): shot strongly lit scenes, switched lenses (well, I always covered the camera with my body) and used it exactly like I use my non-leaky Leica and, upon getting all my slides, I examined them carefully in search of leaks and found none.

So <crossing fingers>, now I can assume my dear Leica is out of the ugly territory of sickdom! :)
 
SolaresLarrave said:
Before I forget... Merciful, can you post the offending shot? In cases like this we can't blame the lab, can we? :D
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I'm not sure: I think I chucked it before I left the studio. If I get back before there's a load of noxious stuff on top of it, yeah.
 
It's hard to say what your problem is without seeing an example. I would suggest taking the camera and lens out and testing it under sunlight and under as close to the same conditions a s you can find. Sacrifice a roll of TX and find out for shure. Even change your lens in direct sun with the shotter cockes and not cockes. Sometimes the shutter curtain won't cap properly if there's dirt in the shutter mechanism. I've seen fog from shutter leaks where the shutter doesn't cap properly at the end of it's trave. I have a 90 elmar that's uncoated and it has flare but requires fairly strong light to fall on the front element or be directly in the frame to cause much flare. If a light source like a candle or light bulb is in the frame it will cause a ball of fuzz around the light and possibly some radiating streaks if it's stopped down some. The diaphragm is fairly circular in the elmar so there's no real pattern to flare like in lenses that have a triangular dparature like some zeiss lenses. The flare takes on the shape of the aperature in most cases.

Take some test shots to find out for shure before ruining important shots.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=5045
 
Did it look anything like this? Big blob at lower left and a string of smaller blobs over to the right.... These are reflections of the diaphragm shape reflected off internal elements of the lens.
 
Here's an unretouched version of the frame before the disaster: note the artifact above left of the gentleman; it recurs on all frames of the scene.

I'll try to retrieve the nightmare neg today.
 
The bright spot on the "a" in the sign looks like an internal reflection, and "could be" a reflection of the Book. The book is washed-out, and the spot looks like a mirror image of it, ie oppposite on the x and y axes.
 
Thanks, Brian.

Fascinating stuff, and an education in the foibles of old optics. Here is was, just thinking about "soft" and "low contrast" all this time.

I'll look forward to your comments on the ruined frame.
 
Merciful, if it's not the little spot above the reader's head... it looks mighty fine to me. In fact, it's a very nice shot.

Probably internal reflection of the lens. I recall having seen some little devils in the pic I described above, but they were not leaks.
 
Looking at that spot of light closely, I think it's a reflection on the shiny sign of a light elsewhere in the room. See how it's interrupted by the less reflective stroke of that letter (a?) on the sign.
 
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