Weird Canon P Image Leakiness

<p>In many of the shots I've taken on my Canon P, there's a horizontal bar that shows up along the right or left side of the picture--it varies, but it never occurs on both sides in the same picture, and it occurs with different lenses. It sounds like it would just be a light leak, except that you can often see details of the adjacent shot imprinted in the horizontal bar. <br>

An example:<br>

<img src="http://www.onneb.com/photos/pic1.jpg" alt="" /><br>

<img src="http://www.onneb.com/photos/pic2.jpg" alt="" /><br>

I've scoured the internet for similar cases, but to no avail: what is going on here? Is this simply a light leak? Something more insidious? Or the kind of issue where one can simply bend a part here or put a piece of tape there to make it go away?<br>

Thanks!</p>

<p>I can't see your photos, but It sounds like the shutter curtains are not capping correctly. I had this happen with a Leica M3 (and MP). Basically what is happening is that when the second shutter closes, there is still a small gap between the first and second shutter. So it gathers light while you are waiting for the next exposure, or while you are advancing the film. The solution is a clean, lube and adjust on the shutter so that the lubricants can be replaced, the timings adjusted and the whole thing brought back to spec. </p>

<p>Also, you don't want to leave the shutter half-cocked for any period of time. I rewound a roll of film on my Canon 7s with the shutter half-cocked, and got streaky fogging of the film. Even if the shutter caps correctly, it's still not that light-tight, and there's no mirror down to protect it. So when you flip from A to R (rewind), finish cocking the shutter before rewinding.</p>

 

<p>Yup, your Canon will need a CLA, Benno. </p>

<p>Here's what it looked like on my M3 :</p><div></div>

<p>My Canon P is doing exactly the same thing but so far only with faster shutter speeds like 1/1000s. Sometimes the capping disappears by itself like with my Zorki-1 which was capping pretty badly when I got it but not any more after some use. </p>