Newbie replys and I got my first rolls back

[mad reilly]

WOW Thanks for all the excellent info. Well I got my first rolls back. Some

shots came back ok some not too good. I guess that's to be expected. One thing

I noticed in all the photos is I have light streaks running vertixal in all

the shots. I took some indoor and some outdoor. Should i be using some sort

of "cup" on the lens? Any ideas or pointers? I'm going to try some more shots

today.<div></div>

[ben_hutcherson]

Congratulation on getting your first roll back!

 

I couldn't see the light streaks that you were talking about in the photo you posted, although it sounds like you have a light leak. This often happens with older cameras, and is the result of the old foam rubber breaking down and getting gooey. It's really a minor fix, but, considering that you bought the camera from B&H, I'd take it back and let them fix or replace it.

 

Your photo that you posted looks kind of grainy. What speed film did you use?

[james_lai]

I agree with Ben, those are light leaks. It is an easy fix, but if you bought the camera at B&H, let them take care of it.

 

Ben, the vertical light bands can be seen running across the bottom of the photo. Kinda hard to see with the street there.

 

Eddie, the "cup" you refer to is called a lens hood. Hoods add some bulk, but they will protect the front element of your lens and reduce or prevent flare. I recommend getting one even though your problem here is not flare.

[dave_s]

<p>

They're hard to see on my monitor, but your streaking appears to be lined up with the sprocket holes on the film.

<p>

If I'm right, this means a problem in development (developer surging), not light leaks in the camera. You might want to try another lab.

<p>

Have a look at <A HREF="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00HFX5">this</A> thread for a more extreme example.

[mad reilly]

Thanks everyone for the great advice. This website rocks! Ok I used 200 speed Kodak Gold. As for the developing I went to CVS (Labor Day weekend and they got me photos in a half a day - the photo shop / lab around the corner was closed, sorry lads). I had them also make me a photo CD which comes with a self installed program from Kodak. It kind of made all my photos "graney". I was trying to get around scaning each photo. Looking at the photo in the thread Dave posted I dont think it's the film holes. You can see the streaks better in this photo I'm posting. Yeh I think the camera is going back to B & H. I'm sure it won't be a problem. I have another roll tomorrow so I'll keep you posted. Again thank you everyone<div></div>

[dave_s]

Eddie, you're right. I missed the point that you have about 15 light streaks across the top and bottom. There are only 8 sprocket holes across a 35mm frame.

 

Here's what bugs me: (i) the streaks are pretty close to regularly spaced, and (ii) you say it affects all your frames. Both of these features would be unusual for light leaks. I still suspect processing, but I think I'm going to learn something here.

 

I'm going to post a link to this thread in the BW Film Processing forum, and see if anyone there has seen this before. Hope this is OK with you and with the moderators.

[mad reilly]

Yeh Dave, that's great. Now I'm really interested. I measured the streaks and now I'm leaning tword your theory. The streaks are spaced at regular intervals. I also tried shining my mag light at the rear of the camera. I did this in the broom closet so it was pitch black. I then looked in the VF then straight into the lens. I did it both with the shutter opened and closed. Wiggled the light and everything and I did not see anything. If the foam was bad 1) The streaks wouldn't be equally spaced apart unless sombody purposly indented the foam in that pattern. 2) In my little darkroom test, I didn't see any light from either end. Hummmmmmmmm. So .... I have another roll being developed, see what happens there. I'm also going to try film from another camera. I''m also going to try the fix all of fix all, electrical tape, on the door seams. Being an engineer, little problems like this drive me mad. As you can see I'm defo loosing sleep (actually it's feeding time but I'm thinking about it). Again thanks for all the great feedback.

[gnashings]

Forget looking at prints and especially scans - look at your negs. You will know right away if what you are dealing with are light leaks as you will be able to see them in relation to sprocket holes, etc.

Another thing I can tell you is that while "surging" IS a real issue, and it does happen, and yes, it does streak your film - there ARE light leaks which are directly aligned with the sprocket holes of your film. I had some on my AE1, and I too was advised it was surging, and nearly drove myself mad trying to fix the problem - between minilabs and countless methods of agitating when I was developing my own (which was most of the time)... and in the end, I got some really dsitinct light leaks. I got some foam from cameraseals.com (although I think there are better options), re did my camera and my light leaks were gone.. as was the "surging"...

One word of warning about light leaks:

Some are blatant, and obvious, and happen ALL the time, with some regularity. Some happen only under certain circuimstances and are thus harder to catch.

To give you an example, using the camera indoors gave me no trouble (even when using flash). Using the camera outdoors was ok too, unless it was in really bright sun, without the half-case in place. You are very uliekly to locate a light leak with a flash light or any other method, and frankly, as little trouble as it is to re-do the foam, I would not waste my time trying.

Like someone already pointed out - if you bought the camera from a dealer, get them to deal with it. It is implied they sold you a functioning camera, and even though the meter works, the shutter fires, etc., a camera with light leaks is NOT a functioning camera. Get them to fix it or get your money back.

[jack_fisher1]

This may be a far out idea: But I saw this once when my left-handed daughter shot a few rolls, and rewound them into the cartridge BACKWARDS - by turning the rewind crank "counterclockwise" in the reverse of the little arrow on the rewind crank handle. When discussing this with the processing lab, which had an experienced technician, he said he had seen it before, and called it film stress, and asked if it had been rewound backwards. When I asked my daughter to show me how she rewound, sure enough she was winding backwards. Then I showed her the arrow, and how to rewind correctly. When she did that the trouble disappeared!

 

Being left-handed can be interesting - I know personally!! We have three generations of them in our family. :-)

 

I hope you solve the problem. Just one thing to be sure of...

 

Jack

[evan_goulet]

The post two above mine suggests that you look at the negatives... That is the first place I would look as well. The fact that these lines seem to go all the way through the most recent photo, make it look to me like it might be a scanning defect (rather than light leak) due to a poorly maintained scanner at CVS. When my scanner was failing, I got lines similar to that on scanned images.

[james_lai]

Eddie, having now seen the second photo you posted, I take back what I said earlier. I don't think your problem is from light leaks. Light leaks do not show up as even lines from the top to bottom.

[mad reilly]

Hi everyone. I just want to thank everyone for your help on this one. I got the secone roll back and NO STREAKS! So, I think, a) it's quite possible I wound the film the wrong way. Also I might of over tightened the film when I loaded which could of caused some stress on the film. b) CVS isn't exactly the place I'd expect to recieve award winning photos from. c) I'm going to B&H tomorrow and have them give it the once over. Not for nothing, the camera is as close to brandie new as you can get. I woul'd bring it back but I'm kind of attachd to it now (I'm serious I even played the serial number in the lottery). d) great excuse to go to B&H I think I'm going to check out Aromat on 18th st as well. (I they sponsor this site). Anyway it was a great learning experience for my first roll. Again thank you all.

[gnashings]

I am happy to hear that it looks like I was wrong about the light leak - but I also think you did the right thing by having the camera looked at. Like I said, I have had some very temperamental light leaks - they only came out in very specific light situations. But I also have to admit, scanning was not something I took into account as scanning is not something I know much about or do very much of - so scanning issues don't really pop into my head when I try to get into my "trouble shooting mode":)

[mad reilly]

Sorry guys I ment to say I'm going to chdeck out Adorama on 18th St. I hope I got that right. Oh and one last note I got the third roll back and No Streaks. Here's a sample. I'm finding it a (good) challange to take photos of my big guy. He moves pretty fast<div></div>