V
varjag
Guest
My pasttime for the last week was trying to catch an elusive light leak in my Kiev-4. There *was* a slight leak before, manifesting in exposed sprocket area, which I supposedly fixed while rehauling the camera.
To my amusement, when I ran a roll through it I got a defect covering up to half of the film's width. It became worse! In frustration, I examined the camera for hours with a flashlight in a dark room, and actually found some faint light passing between the main casting and film back casting under a very specific angle of bright light falling into the viewfinder. Patched that too, but after yet another roll it still was there!
Then I noticed an odd thing: despite being regularly spaced, the leaks on the negs didn't match any of the sprocket reels or other possible sources. Without much hope, I tried to develop a strip of unexposed film and.. the darn leak was there!
It appears that the film cassete became worn and was passing light. A roll from another cassete of the film from the same reel came out perfect. Am still sick from the thought that I could trash my lovely camera just because of a worn cassete.. not to mention the time spent tinkering and the shots I ruined.
To my amusement, when I ran a roll through it I got a defect covering up to half of the film's width. It became worse! In frustration, I examined the camera for hours with a flashlight in a dark room, and actually found some faint light passing between the main casting and film back casting under a very specific angle of bright light falling into the viewfinder. Patched that too, but after yet another roll it still was there!
Then I noticed an odd thing: despite being regularly spaced, the leaks on the negs didn't match any of the sprocket reels or other possible sources. Without much hope, I tried to develop a strip of unexposed film and.. the darn leak was there!
It appears that the film cassete became worn and was passing light. A roll from another cassete of the film from the same reel came out perfect. Am still sick from the thought that I could trash my lovely camera just because of a worn cassete.. not to mention the time spent tinkering and the shots I ruined.
