Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/08/25

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Subject: Re: A question
From: newport_m@utpb.edu (Mark Newport)
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 97 07:23:08 -0700

>        Hey group!
>        I have a feeling that someone out there can probably help me to
>diagnose an intermittent problem with my (beloved) M-3, which has been
>spoiling a certain number of shots.  What is does is to leave a horizontal
>band of over-exposed film near but not up to the  top the frame.  Usually
>the band is slightly wider at the left end of the final print than the
>right and the amount of over-exposure across the band is not even but
>increases as you move towards the top of the frame.  The amound of
>over-exposure varies from being barely visible to being enough to
>seriously obsure the image.
>        Does anyone  have any ideas?  At first I thought that it might be
>due to the curtain notsweeping the picture evenly, but that doesn't
>seem consistent with the fact that there  is always correctly exposed film
>on both sides of the band.
>
>Gary

Gary,
This sounds sorta like the same thing I was having with my  M4-P.  You can
see if it is a shutter curtain light leak by loading a fast film and just
walking around outside.  After you have walked around a while, cover the
lens and fire the shutter. Use a fast shutter speed and a relative wide
open f/stop.  Do this several times and vary the time between shots. If the
shutter is leaking there there will be evidence on the unexposed frame.
The horizontal band you describe sounds exactly like the ones I had.  The
light leaks in slowly at the bottom of the shutter curtain.  The longer the
film sits behind the shutter, the worse the band will be.


Mark