Re: [Leica] shutter light leaks

[jessen@gearbox.esd.sgi.com (Jesse Newcomb)]

Greetings again -

I've looked over this roll of film with light leaks, and further analysis shows
almost certainly that they are leaks encountered when changing lenses. On this
roll, I had alternated between 35, 21, and 50. The only leaks are on frames
which sat behind the shutter while no lens was mounted. There are only 3 such
frames on the roll and this is almost a total fluke:

This M6 and its shutter really are fine - everything is clean and working. The
above data corresponds with [something posted by another LUGr which I can't see
right now from this mail program] about changing lenses and having raw light
spill in. Where's the worst leak on the roll? It happened on the first frame of
a portrait of another photographer - taken just after I had the lens off and
was showing him the virtues of the M-body / how far in the non-retrofocus
lenses fit against the shutter. Another was at a flea market, where an
old-timer spotted the Leica and started telling me about his friend who burned
a hole in his shutter in the 50's because the lens was left pointing at the sun
(HAH! Another LUG topic!) - so off came the lens again as we talked about
Leicas. Boom - next frame has light leaks.

I don't think this would happen with more care. I do absolutely know that this
is a leak around the shutter edges, top and bottom. If you screw the head off a
MiniMag or other small flashlight, and hold the lit bulb near the lens side of
the shutter, you can see faint light spilling over to the film side through the
upper and lower shutter curtain channels. (I'd post an image from the roll on
my website, but my scanner's down right now for want of a SCSI card.)

Synopsis: Just be careful when the lens is off and the light is bright. I don't
think this would happen with a lens mounted.

- - Jesse

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                                    Silicon Graphics USA
  Jesse Newcomb                       Mountain View, CA
  jessen@sgi.com                     tel 650 933-2026
  http://reality.sgi.com/jessen_esd  fax 650 390-6159