[Leica] A question I'm hating to ask, but. . .

[Ericplatt@aol.com]

Just received the slides for the last two rolls I shot.  All were taken with 
my M4-P with my "new" 50/2 Coll and 35/3.5  On some of the shots I'm having 
what appears to be a light leak problem.  The very top of the slide, say just 
down from the mount edge, appears to be at a lower exposure than the rest of 
the slide.  On one slide, there is a serious amount of what I would call 
"glare" like a window reflection, although there was no glass (outside the 
camera) in the photo.  Light angle appears not related to this, as in the 
shot where it is the worst is where the sun was directly behind me.

Now, this is not on all shots.  Apparently it is on the "first" shot of a 
series (after the camera has sat around for a while).  My "guess" is there is 
a small amount of light leak where the bottom meets the back flap.  It does 
not appear to be lens dependent, as I found two slides that were shot with 
the 35/3.5 with the same problem, although much less.

So, my suspects are either (1) a "Leitz leak", with the back flap as a the 
culprit; (2) the 50/2 Coll (light may be getting in around the collapsable 
collar) or (3) a combination of the two.  There is also a possibility that 
the lab had a problem and caused this, but I kinda doubt it.

Any suggestions here?  I can return the 50/2 Coll. if it is the problem.  I 
almost hope not, as it takes beautiful photos.

While both rolls were shot in approximately two days, there were time periods 
when the camera was lying in the back seat of the car (with lens cap on) with 
daylight hitting the camera.

Sorry this post is rather lengthy.  I'm trying to give an adequate 
description here and then see if anyone can diagnose this "blind".  I'm not 
going to lose too much sleep over it, since I'm betting if I just shot print 
film, it would not even be noticable. 

Any suggestions you could give would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Eric Platt
St. Paul, MN