Leica M3 light leak- any ideas?

[Dan Daniel]

The beginning of rolls with my new-to-me M3 have leaks along the bottom edge. I've tried to show it in the following image-

You can see the dark stripes along the top of the negatives, meaning it is the edge at the bottom of the camera when loaded.

Usually it is only the first few frames. But then sometimes it shows up later in the roll, much thinner. You can see this on thel ower frames, which would be shots 7-12 on this roll, where there are faint leak marks along the edge.

Other than some bleeed into images following the edge pattern, there are no leaks showing up inside the frames.

Film- Ilford Delta 400. Camera is an 832XXX M3 with a quick load system (not an M4 upgrade). It had been changed to a single stroke at some point.

Any ideas? Where to start looking? Being new to M3s and the bottom loading system, I have no idea where to start thinking and looking. Maybe my loading technique or closing technique is flawed? Well, hoping the old timers see these and know the answer.

Thanks- Dan

 

[Ronald_H]

Those don't look like light leaks. Looks more like something that happened during development. I see it sometimes on my own bw rolls, I always assumed it is because developer cannot reach the film where it sits tightly against the reel. I see it with all my cameras, not just with the Leica. Don't worry about it I'd say.

 

[grdglass]

Looks more like a processing error to me rather than a camera problem. If it were a camera problem, it would show up on every frame. Who developed the film?

 

[Dan Daniel]

Interesting observations. Thanks.

I developed the film. Right before I got this camera I bought a new single roll developing tank. I'll track back through recent rolls to see if that is the constant, not the camera.

 

[Dan Daniel]

Bingo, guys! The new single roll tank has a plastic lid, and the interior light trap had come loose from two of the five pegs.

Film from the same camera developed in other tanks doesn't show the edge marks.

Thanks much!!