What's going on here?

[simon_bruxelles]

<p>Leaving aside the idull subject of this photograph, I get a couple of these failures every roll. Note the narrow strips at the top and bottom of the picture, and the thin underexposed look of the main body of the frame. All the other pictures I took were correctly exposed as, it appears were the narrow margins at the top and bottom. The following roll had two similar frames. The camera is a 1932 Leica II with a 5cm Summar. The camera was serviced a couple of years ago and has been little used since, but this was the third or fourth film I'd put through it in the space of a couple of weeks, so it wasn't caused by lack of use. Any indication of the cause of would be useful as it would help in getting it fixed. Thanks, Simon</p>

<p><a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v721/debrux/?action=view&current=gravex.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v721/debrux/gravex.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a></p>

[john_shriver]

<p>Looks like changing the lens in too bright light. Especially if that fogging continues into the gutter between the frames.</p>

 

[ishi_p]

<p>Or leaving lens open to bright light for a long time, without a cap. This looks like the light has warped around the curtain and got to the film. With a rangefinder there is less things to baffle the light. Maybe during service the curtains where not cut as high.</p>

<p>The thing to do is shoot a roll, keeping the lens well covered between shots. Then take the lens off towards the end of the roll and leave it in daylight for a while, If the exposure that was in the frame at the time is like this, you know the cause.</p>

[steve_levine]

<p>I'm guessing it is a shutter malfunction of some kind.</p>

[graham_line]

<p>Can't be shutter. Leicas run horizontally. I'd lean toward the light leak idea. I assume you're not reloading old cassettes from bulk film rolls?</p>

[Gus Lazzari]

<p>Simon, the baffle <strong>"felt bars"</strong> may be missing, matted or worn. The un-fogged edges on your sample photo are the resulting shadows cast by the material thickness of the Leica body film gate.</p>

<p>Otherwise if they're in good shape, as John S. stated, direct & bright light was allowed to strike as you changed the lens.</p>

<p>The image I supplied of a Leica IIIf baffle is similar, but with the difference being that it has a one piece baffle instead of 2 like a Leica II. <strong>(Felt bars none the less)</strong></p><div></div>

[john_shriver]

<p>My Leica IIIa shows now sign of such baffles. (I've torn it down completely.) That may well be a new feature on IIIc or IIIf, and not present on the II.</p>

 

[simon_bruxelles]

<p>Thanks for everyone's help. I will experiment and report back. S</p>

[simon_bruxelles]

<p>I have found the answer to my wquestion thanks to the helpful hints above. I first of all wound on a frame removed the lens cap from my Summar 5cm and waved the camera in the general direction of the sun for around 30 secs. I then replaced the lens cap and fired the shutter. For the following frame I removed the lens altogether and allowed sunlight to fall on the shutter curtains. I then processed the film. The result is pretty conclusive. The first frame is completely clear with no sign of fogging. The second is fogged in exactly the same way with the same narrow strips as my original photograph. In future I shall be careful only to change lenses in subdued light. The only remaining puzzle is that i can't actually recall having another lens with me when I took that original photo so it may be that more prolonged exposure with the lens cap off is also a problem. Thanks again for your help, Simon</p>

[soeren_engelbrecht1]

<p>Yup - I saw exactly the same on my IIIa on a recent trip where I used it in very bright conditions and not remembering to shade it while changing lenses. On the roll of film that I shot, there is a very clear correlation between changing lenses outdoors in bright light and seeing this. I guess this was not a major problem when everyone was using ISO 12 films back in the thirties...<br /><br />Soeren</p>

 

[david j.lee]

<p>the same happened to me with my M3. funny thing is that the manual states that you should shade the camera from the sun when changing lenses....</p>

[ishi_p]

<p>Just to add some info, I am currently working on two of these from the same period (a IIIa and a Standard) Nether of them have this felt and it looks like they never did have. But I notice one has narrower curtains.... As said, I guess it was not so critical back then if people where using such slow film. That's news to me. </p>

<p>Can I get me some (:</p>

<p>Anyway, I am glad the problems solved, I had a similar thing with a kiev 60, it's nice once you know the cause so you can get a good full roll. </p>