Minolta XG-1 light leak

My 'golden oldie' minolta XG-1 has problems with a light leak. When

used during fine sunny weather, the film and photo show a vertical

band located at approximately 1/3 of the left side of each shot.

I once fixed it using double-sided tape on the cover next to the

hinge. When a camera repair shop fixed a troubled shutter, they put

new black tape on it. It leaked again, and I put double-sides tape on

it again, but now this problem remains.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks,

Anamaria

replace the body,maybe?<br>

[are you in the netherlands(your name suggests that)? if yes, check <a href="http://www.marktplaats.nl">this</a>second-hand "market".]

<p>

Sorry, can't say anything better. All the XG's are quite old, and if a problem persists, i wouldn't trust any "fixing" anymore.

<p>

Good luck.

I've heard that these old Minoltas require replacement of the foam in the back. I think you can either buy a kit or have a repair shop do it. I can verify that mine (XGA) needs new foam soon, but I don't think I've had any leakage yet.

 

Adam

The key to success will be to replace the foam around the film door rather than patching things up on the outside. Luckily this is an easy do-it-yourself fix, and definetely worth doing even for a low cost camera such as a XG-1. Instructions how to do it are available at the following site, or for your convenience included below in full:</p>

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ManualMinoltaFree/files/</p>

 

<i>From: James A. Jones <br>

Date: Sun Oct 15, 2000 1:22am<br>

Subject: New source for light seal foam? </p>

 

 

Last night I replaced the foam light seals on my XG-7 body because

they had, of course, turned to sticky goo. Using a toothpick, I pried

up the ends of the seals, grabbed the sticky backing and peeled them

off. I have a piece of self-adhesive foam from Fargo that I've used

on my Minolta 16's, but it wasn't long enough for the replacement

strips I needed.</p>

 

 

Turns out my daughter had a box of arts and crafts stuff in her room,

including several 9 X 12 inch sheets of thin foam in various

colors. I asked her if I could have the sheet of black foam and she

said fine. This stuff is LDPE (low density polyethelene) and is about

1.5mm thick. I cut several strips 1.5mm wide using an X-acto knife

and a metal straightedge. So I ended up with strips 1.5mm square,

which wedged perfectly into the upper and lower slots where the film

door seats. The bottom seal is about 145mm long, and the upper seal

consists of 2 strips, 120mm and 20mm in length, separated by the

exposure counter reset lever. There doesn't seem to be any need for

the strips to be adhesive, they wedge into the slots and even with

the door open they aren't going anywhere. I did have to use a 45mm X

5mm piece of the self-adhesive stuff to replace the seal on the

inside of the door near the hinge. I'm pretty sure this stuff could

be made self-adhesive by applying double sided tape to it.</p>

 

Now where to get the foam? Wal-Mart, in the crafts department, the

brand name is "Foamies". The price? 59 cents! </p>

 

 

UPDATE: July 1, 2001</p>

 

 

Wal-Mart now has "Sticky Back" Foamies sheets. These sheets have a self stick adhesive

backing but are otherwise identical to the original Foamies. The stock number for the

black sheets are #1019-92 with a price of 67 cents (list price: 99 cents). </i></p>

 

I have tried this method with various cameras and it works well. In Australia the foam material is available from the Lincraft store chain, in Germany from Obi under the name "Moosgummimatten". I am sure arts and crafts shops in other countries would stock it as well.

Thanks for this question that elicited the "self-fix" solution! You probably just saved me a bunch of money because I've had a problem with both my XG-1 and XG-2 having light leaks similar to what you discribed and was looking at eBay to replace them! I'd probably just get more of the same. I'm heading out to Wal-Mart tonight and get some of that self-adhesive foam and see how it works. I have also had some problems with the manual advance on one or both of my cameras (can't remember, since I haven't used them in a couple of years) but found that using the power winder seems to solve that problem and I won't need to replace the cameras, now that I can fix the light leaks! The power winder is great to use anyway, because I take pictures of whales and dolphins on whale-watch trims and with the power winder I don't have to time the perfect shot - a very difficult thing to do with cetaceans! I just found this web site and think I will be getting a lot of use out of it!

 

Connie

Saved Me! prior to the Internet in the eighties I parked my SRT201 because I thought I had a bad shutter. After some reading on Photo.net about Minoltas I went and got it out of storage and examining it closely, now realize that it's the light seal foam, which is completely missing on the L/H side. Tomorrow, off to Walgreens...After sitting idle(but carefully stored and kept clean) I am looking forward to using the camera.

Allow me a follow up here! I STILL have NOT fixed the foam in the SRT 201, but..for some reason the light leak I had many years ago has not "reappeared"! So I have started using the camera again and the shots are coming out fine!