Olympus mju II light leaks. Where do they come from?

<p>I know the mju II is not a manual camera, but it's a classic alright and I didn't know where to post this, so here it goes: I recently ran a roll of Fuji Superia 400 through a mju II that was given to me, only to find out that it produced terrible light leaks that look like this:<br /> Any idea on where the leaks may come from?</p>

<p>I'll try once more:</p><div></div>

<p>Here's one more:</p><div></div>

<p>However, one or two pics came out alright: </p><div></div>

<p>Check if the light leaks on the film extend past the 24x36mm area of the frame. If they don't, then the leak is somewhere in the shutter box and lens. Since the flares are white, that does suggest that they are on the emulsion side of the film.<br>

Light flares around the door would expose through the back of the film, extend past the frame, and typically are orange, because they are exposed through the back of the film, and thus get "red scaled."<br>

The rubber seals around the rim of the doors on all of these Olympus compact cameras eventually start to fail. I don't know if it's really the seal losing elasticity, or the door starting to warp away from the camera. I doubt parts are available, only solution might be taping the door shut with black gaffer's tape.</p>

<p>Thanks, that makes sense. I don't have the negatives at hand right now, I will check them first thing tomorrow. If it was a problem with the shutter box, wouldn't it be present in all photos?</p>

Was it very dry as well as cold? Those marks

along the bottom resemble static electricity

flashes. But the repeating pattern does suggest

a physical source. Light leaks are often more

random than that.

I bought mine NOS about 5 years

ago to use as a backpacking

camera, so it got beat up a bit.

Now it leaks light like crazy.

FWIW, taping the film window and the

edges made no difference, so I

think it's coming in the front.

<p>Could be the little foam bit that covers the film window, the one where you can read the film cassette. This sometimes perishes away and the light can get in at certain angles.</p>

I thought this problem sounded familiar. Here's

an older thread with a report about the same

flare artifacts. The demo photos even show nearly

identical wing like patterns.

http://www.photo.net/olympus-camera-forum/00QPF7

<p>@Lex Jenkins: This guy seems to have similar problems. The white color and the repetitive pattern at exactly the same place on each photo lead to some problem in the shutter box. I will try to check my camera for exposed shiny parts and I will try to cover them with black matte enamel paint, left over from my modelling days. The mju II has a good lens but I don't really like it, it handles like a wet bar of soap being so small, light and curvy. </p>

I have two that I haven't used in a while. I used some aluminum foil and electrical tape to make the DX code of the film cannister read as 3200. Then I ran some HP5 through it (pushed to 3200) and push-processed it. Grainy, but fun!

<p>So I checked the negatives and the leaks are definitely coming from the front, as they all stop at the sprocket holes and do not extend beyond them. So I checked the interior of the shutter box for shiny parts or reflective surfaces and compared it with the same areas on my other (not leaking) mju II and everything is identical, even when the lens is extended (I did the trick of taking out the batteries at the right moment to keep it extended, as described on the link given above by Lex Jenkins). The only difference I observed is on a ring just behind the shutter leaves, it being solid in the non-leaking camera (red arrow) while it appears to have some identations (or is something completely missing?) in the leaking camera (green arrow). Also there is something there (encircled in yellow) which is absent from the "good" camera. I hoped the culprit would be easily identifiable and maybe corrected with some matte paint, but there's nothing abnormal upon close inspection compared to the non-leaking camera, apart from this ring inbetween the lens elements which is obviously out of reach.</p><div></div>

<p>Please check the position of the pressure plate, it might be off, skewed, or even the metal strips have slipped through the plate holes and should be pushed back.</p>