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  #1  
Old 26th August 2009, 03:12 PM
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Angry broken film holders or broken camera?

I'm now really confused. At first I thought my film holders were broken but now I'm getting really regular light leaks. I've checked the bellows and everything with a little torch in the dark, and the only light leaks I see are around the cover for the groundglass which shouldn't affect the darkslide facing the lens due to the springback being tight.
Also the light leaks go underneath where the rails on the holder are so I don't think it's really inside the camera?
The second set from another film holder is still drying and the marks are less severe and the only difference between them is time in holders (these were in the holder for longer than the set I just developed)
http://www.stargazy.org/lightleaks1.jpg
Absolutely peeved about this as I am tired of wasting film and it means I have to retake lots of photos which are slightly time-dependent since fruit and veg doesn't stay fresh forever. I need this fixed *now*

Anyone recognise this type of lightleak?

Camera is a top handle 4x5 speedgraphic with springback

And I've been using it for a little over a year and it's only been acting up in the last few months, since I took it in handluggage to the US. The darkslides also went along and I know one of the actual slides broke/cracked in transit so for a while I thought the light leaks were from the holders themselves but I'm less sure now, or at least with this light leak.
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Old 26th August 2009, 03:33 PM
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Better to use a flash gun for leak checks, I think, as it takes a pretty strong light to show if there are gaps in the shutter leaves. In your case though, it looks like your felt lighttraps are gone. If your DDS are wood you can often unscrew the panels at the end and lever up the springs a little.

Last edited by Sandeha Lynch; 26th August 2009 at 03:40 PM. Reason: For being a dummy.
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Old 26th August 2009, 03:42 PM
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These are plastic film holders, fairly modern Toyo and Fidelity Elite.
Crumbs. It seems weird they're all going at once and all similarly
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Old 26th August 2009, 04:01 PM
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Heather - A thread I started ( http://www.film-and-darkroom-user.or...ead.php?t=1251 ) looked at this. My leaks looked very similar to yours and I've had none at all since becoming extra careful at replacing the dark slide after exposure. Have a read.
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Old 26th August 2009, 04:11 PM
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Heather, indeed it could be, as Sandeha says, that the felt light traps on the camera are wearing out. Again a strong light shone from within the camera may pick this out.

Have you another camera in which you can use your darkslides, just to rule them out of the equation?
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Old 26th August 2009, 04:24 PM
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Looked more closely and used my changing bag to help shield the excess light from the torch, yes there's a leak in the corner of at least one of the darkslides in the corner. Maybe it is from wear and tear and I do slightly poke a corner into the darkslide but not enough to make it to the felt if that makes sense. It's a delicate operation.

I don't have another 4x5 camera unfortunately. Technically too poor to even have this one but it was an ebay listing booboo on a bank holiday monday morning last year... The darkslides were another ebay lot somewhere along the line.

I guess I'll be ordering new darkslides from MXV... I didn't think I was using these that much that I'd actually wear them out!
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Old 27th August 2009, 01:29 PM
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I'm almost starting to think it's the camera rather than the film holders. I think I've now gone through all the film holders and they all have suspiciously similar light leaks. Maybe the 1912 Speedgraphic is finally getting too old... Which is annoying because I ordered a new groundglass for it back in March and it has not arrived yet but now it looks like it's going to be a dud camera anyway.
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Old 27th August 2009, 02:30 PM
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I doubt the camera is too old, at least it's not nearly as old as my Whole Plate cam. Light leaks are the primary frustration of LF and always require some work. I recently discovered that my new 5x7 back leaked because I hadn't sufficiently sealed the join - I only discovered it when using studio flash, as it had been fine when out of doors. Try to get hold of one good DDS, to help exclude other problems. After all, leaking felts is one reason that old DDS end up on eBay.

The light trap of your DDS may be squashed down from long time use, (use a torch to see). The light trap is a long spring comb with a ribbon of felt on top - it presses down into a slot when the dark slide is inserted and springs up into a slot in the cover panel when the darkslide is removed. You can tentatively try to insert a steel rule up the other end (opposite slit to where the slide goes in) to lever up tines of the spring comb. Gently, and if the springs are not bent or broken you may be able to raise them up enough.
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Old 27th August 2009, 04:23 PM
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I think it is actually the back instead of the holder because I keep messing around with the back. And I just tried to take out a filmholder and one of the screws holding the spring of the springback came out - stripped hole.
I've been seriously considering filling all the stripped holes with black epoxy putty then re-drill and re-screw. I'm tired of it breaking like this. Its screws for holding the ground glass are in a similar state of barely holding and mostly spinning hopelessly.
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Old 27th August 2009, 04:33 PM
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Also the reason why I suspect the camera and not the holders is the light leak is always in the same corner in regards to the camera, not the holder.
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