What's wrong with this picture?

[nekrataal]

I've got an Super Ikonta 531 that I absolutely love. I took it on a recent trip to Japan, and I noticed this strange halo-like effect on the right side of the frame on about 25% of my shots. I checked the bellows, and it doesn't seem to be flare since I can't see any light souces that would cause a flare like that.

I'm guessing that it may be light leaks when I open the rear windows to advance the film....though I would assume that would show some of the area between frames exposed as well (which is not the case), and I have a series of shots I took in bright sunlight (advancing the film all the while) without this halo artifact. I'm pretty stumped, anyone have any better ideas? Here's an example:

As you can see it's indoors with the lamp pointing down so it's not a likely source of flare. I'm pretty sure I wound the film on while I was still indoors, so I'm not sure what caused this

Above is an example outside, it was a bright but cloudy day. Yes, the negative has that weird line going down the side as well so it's not a bad scan

The above were shot back-to-back on a very cloudy day. There is no reason for the artifacts to be there, and it's interesting how they're exactly the same shape and location

Finally just to prove some shots did come out OK, here's one I took indoors:

Thanks in advance!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

That's almost certainly a bellows leak. A teeny hole you can't see in normal light might let tons of light in if you go out in bright light and even in dim light, film might see the light even if your eyes cannot.

 

[Doug]

I think Chris is right; certainly a light leak, probably the bellows. And I'll add that when you're taking pictures fairly quickly, the light has less time to affect the film for any one exposure, so in that situation you may not see the effects of the leak. The more time the camera is in the light with the film in one position, the stronger the effect you should see.

 

[Ernst Dinkla]

I think Chris is right; certainly a light leak, probably the bellows. And I'll add that when you're taking pictures fairly quickly, the light has less time to affect the film for any one exposure, so in that situation you may not see the effects of the leak. The more time the camera is in the light with the film in one position, the stronger the effect you should see.

Light leak OK, but my impression is that the leak is in the seals somewhere at the back or happened on the rolls not tightly wound. The pressure plate + red window may not be light tight enough for example. If it is the bellows then a leak near the body so more to the edge of the frame.

If you have some LEDs + a small battery, make a package of it, go to the cellar, put the LED package in the camera, close the back, switch off the light and slowly turn the camera around. What gets out should get in along the same path.

Ernst Dinkla