Is this light leakage or other camera damage?

<p>Worried about my F3. Every now and then one side of the frame seems to be way blacker than it should be. Have a look at these photos, all taken with 50mm lens, no filters, Fuji Neopan 1600.</p>

<p>Here's one which came out normal:</p>

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<p>This one is, surely, not right:</p>

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<p>This one is hard to call - the dark side could be just light difference:</p>

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<p>Should I be worried?</p>

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<p>Looks to me like a slow shutter but that is only if it is a vertical shutter and the F-3 has a horizontal shutter. So there I don't know as a light leak would be more pronounced and foggy.<br>

And on the first picture I can't see much but the last one does show what you are talking about.</p>

<p> Sorry I can't be of more help. Maybe it is time for a good CLA and seal replacement.</p>

<p>It always seems to happen on the right side of the frame. And, of the 4 films I have recently run through my F3, the two colour films all produced normal exposures, whereas teh two B&W films were the ones which occasionally showed this dark area on the right of teh frame.</p>

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<p>So that would make it the left side of the camera. look at the seals there and even try some tape there that will answer your light leak question.</p>

<p>Well I've had a look at the seals etc. I really don't know enough to judge, although I have to say, in general the foam is looking like it could do with replacing; it's not terrible, but probably should be seen to. In fact, now I examine it more closely, I would say that teh foam is a bit more sparse over towards the left hand side of the camera, which might fit with the comment above (ie. dark patches on teh right of frame caused by fault on left side of camera).</p>

<p>But why dark patches on just one side? And if it's leakage, wouldn;t they usually be white patches? On the negatives themselves, the dark areas appear completely white, meaning (surely) that no light has hit those parts, hence they show up dark when printed or, as in this case, scanned.</p>

<p>Damn! I', flying to New York then Chicago on Tuesday, and was looking forward to using my F3. Too late to stop now I guess. I wonder how quickly (and cheaply?) a repair could be done in New York?</p>

<p>That is why I was thinking shutter but they don't look right for a horizontal shutter. Were you using flash? no that would not do it. were all the shots with the same lens? if so you may have a loose shutter blade that is hanging in that area of the frame. but if any of those were wide open you can discount that.</p>

<p>No flash. Same lens. I think that shot of the dandelion was taken with pretty much maximum aperture, F1.8.</p>

<p>What scanner and adjustments are you using I re did this one and think it is more a scanning problem or just the lighting that you had when you shot.</p>

<p><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4006/4629257962_34ddaf8863_o.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="686" /></p>

<p><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3339/4628656403_c427587a0d_o.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="686" /></p>

<p>These were pro scanned by Peak Imaging in Sheffield, a well-regarded company I have used before. Can't be the scanning, I don't think: the faults are on the negatives as well.</p>

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<p>Well I then think I would look into getting my own scanner as I am pretty sure it is a scanning problem and your camera is just fine.</p>

<p>But on the negatives, the dark patches' appear as white areas - the right-hand side of the negative frame for that dandelion shot is all white on the negative.</p>

<p>OK I gave it my all. Let others chime in to this now. Can I though see a picture of the negative?</p>

<p>I do very much appreciate the time you've taken trying to help. I put the strip of negatives on a light box and took a quick photo, you can see the dandelion shot at right.</p>

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<p>If it was/is a light leak, your negative would have a very dark spot/area. To me, your negative is fine, just a bit under-exposed.</p>

<p>A light leak would overexpose the film, so I don't see how it would produce a dark area on the positive.<br>

It must be something that is blocking the light from reaching the film. A mulfunctioning shutter is the best bet.</p>

<p>Well, of course I certainly hold out the possibility that the fault is mine. In fact, I really hope it was! BUt I have several photos, all with a noticeably and unexpectedly dark area on one side, always teh right-hand side. Yet many other shots come out fine. Most strange of all is the fact that all my colour shots came out perfect, but this dark area problem occurs in B&W only.</p>

<p>Is not the F3 shutter a horizontal run, roller blind shutter? If so then a tapering exposure to one side of the frame should indicate that the second curtain is catching up with the first at the end of the frame (or retarding the first curtain at the beginning of the frame)and this would cause exposure to taper off at one end of the frame. Perhaps at high speeds something is retarding the first curtain as it nears the end of it's run across the film gate. Check for debris in the curtain channel. Open the back, place the shutter on 'B' and lock the shutter open. Under bright light, examine the channel the curtains run in, both top and bottom, but especially the bottom for any foreign material, most usually a small chip of film broken off between sprocket holes. If the channel looks good then perhaps it's time for a CLA. Worth a check I'll guess.</p>

<p>The colour film was Fuji Superia 200. As far as I can tell, the lens is clean, and running it through teh aperture range all the leaves look right.</p>

<p>What puzzles me is the intermittent nature of the problem. Why does it only occur now and then? And why only on B&W?!</p>

<p>One thought: on teh F3, you can advance the film, and cock teh shutter, by pulling the film advance lever all teh way, in a smooth movement. Or, you can pull it in two or more stages, something you would likely only do by mistake, you know if you somehow messed up the pulling of the lever. That dies happen to me on rare occasions, if I am dustracted. Could it be that these shots were taken under such circumstances? Clutching at straws, I know...</p>

 

<p>Since it's not a light leak that leaves only the shutter or the lens as suspects. Is it possible the horizontal shutter blades/curtains are dragging on one side? Or could there be an obstruction in the lens, eg a sticky diaphragm with blades on one side not opening fully? No idea whether those are technically possible as problems, just thinking out loud. I have the impression that the left margin of the third picture (sitting/sleeping people) is slightly underexposed as well, which would be even more puzzling. To pin down the source of the problem between lens and body, try a few rolls with different lenses and see if it recurs? </p>

<p>Dark areas are caused by not enough light reaching the film. This could be caused by shutter malfunction, lens diaphragm issues or lens alignment issues. I think shutter issues have already been ruled out, so check the diaphragm on the lens (operate the diaphragm manually with the lens off of the camera and see if one of the blades is hanging up) and inspect the mount for damage. If it was an alignment issue, the focus would be off too, so I think that this is less likely the culprit. If the shots previous to the ones at issue were taken with the lens stopped down and then these were taken with it wide open, oil or grease on one of the blades could cause it to not reopen as quickly on that side, causing the intermittent problems you describe. Also the lens could be failing to open completely when you mount the lens on the camera. You can check this by looking through the lens with it mounted and see if you can see the blades on one side.</p>

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<p>What puzzles me is the intermittent nature of the problem. Why does it only occur now and then? And why only on B&W?!</p>

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<p>I think color vs. black and white is less likely the problem than ISO 200 vs 1600. High speed film is much more sensitive to light meaning that exposure errors show up more quickly.</p>

 

<p>I was thinking more about the mounting issue possibility, so I slapped my 50/1.8 on my spare camera and tried to unseat the lens just slightly and see what happened with the diaphragm. Guess what, the left side of the diaphragm showed up first, and this is apparently the side where there is an issue. See attached picture. On the right side of the picture (left side of the camera) you can see where 2 blades meet, while the opposite side is still smooth.</p><div></div>

<p>The OP asked why only with B&W did this problem show up and I got to thinking that with 1600 ISO film you are going to be shooting at high shutter speeds and that is where even a small variation in slit width would show up the most. At 1/2000 on an F3 shutter I wouldn't be surprised if the moving slit was only 3 or 4 mm wide. If it tapered only 1 mm that could account for 2/3 to 1/2 stop exposure loss and the natural fall off of a normal lens would only exacerbate the problem. With slower color film and slower shutter speeds the shutter tapering could still be there but would only vary exposure by small fractions of a stop, say 1/6 to 1/12, not too noticeable even with slide film.</p>

<p>Great stuff, guys. John R, having read all the posts here I was thinking along the same lines: at high shutter sppeds you are more likely to notice a shutter lag, whereas in a long exposure it won't matter so much, or at all.</p>

<p>On the other hand, *most* of the shots I took with the 1600 film were taken with a fairly high shutter speed and only some show the problem. Ah well, I will take th ecamera into B&H in New York or somewhere like that, and let them look it over. </p>

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<p>John, do check the top and bottom channels the curtains run in. It's an easy check to do and you may find a film chip or two in them. I mention this because more than once I've cleaned chips out of the channels of my OM-1 cameras. I look over carefully the rolls I develop and if I see damaged and or missing pieces between the sprocket holes I always check the inside of the camera. Whatever you find out the F3 is a great, heavy duty picture taking machine well worth the cost of a CLA to keep it in good trim.</p>