light leaks on my Zorki MIR ?

[laurentvenet]

Hello

There are some strange white stain on some of the pics taken with my zorki MIR. The unusual thing is that some of the pictures are affected and some others are great.

Is it when I hold the box with my clumsy hands ?

I enclose some pics but according to what I read on forum, it does look like some light leak.

I'm thinking of buying some foam from :

http://www.micro-tools.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?LTPLanguage=EN&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=LB-KIT&Category_Code=RES&Store_Code=MTE

If anyone know what kind of foam / cheap fix I could do ?

Thank's for your advice, Laurent

[laurentvenet]

Here s another pic which worked this time :

[vladhed]

Hi Laurent,

I had similar light leak problems when I first got my Zorki 4. It turns out the leak was through the opening in the front of the body for the self-timer lever. Solved it with a strip of black electrical tape on the inside, just in front of the take up spool

Check out my thread on it: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=827

[SolaresLarrave]

Laurent,
One first thing: take your film to another lab... just to find out. If the problem persists, then you know it's the camera. If it doesn't come back, it may be lousy film handling on the part of the first lab.

BTW, that was a very classy shot wrecked...

A bientôt! :)

[laurentvenet]

thank's for your advices, I'm gonna try again with some black tape and be more careful with exposition.

A bientot ! Laurent

[wierdcollector]

Hi Laurent,
For the proper light seal foam, try Jon Goodman who sells under the name "interslice" on Ebay. I hate to plug anyone for free, but his kits are reasonably priced and he also dispenses plenty of camera fix know how on several forums so he knows his stuff. If you want to try and fix the leak on a more economical slant, you can either buy several types of craft foam in sheets at stores like Walmart or craft stores (one brand that springs to mind is called "foamies") for cheap prices or if you have an old foam mouse pad, you can slice a thin (1/16 or 1/8 inch or approx 2-3 mm) strip off the side and after removing the cloth surface, try that. I've used both various times with no problems. Some folks glue the strips in place, I just friction fit them and they stay in place just fine. The Mir camera I own doesn't use light seals as the body overlaps the rear cover with no problems. I'd say your leak is on the left hand side of your rear door but I'd place a strip on both sides of the rear door/cover just to try it. Wish you luck and I hope you solve this problem. The Mir is a great old camera.

[laurentvenet]

Thank's a lot Curt for your great advices, I'm gonna have a look at ebay. My Mir is looking greay, I'm also waiting for Jupiter 8 from EBay.

[laurentvenet]

Ouaa Curt, you ebay seller has a very convenient choice of foams ! thank's for your good tip, it looks like Ebay is becoming an obvious new way of shopping !

[kully]

I thought I'd resurrect this thread instead of starting a new one.

I have a Zorki Mir, which is in perfect condition apart from an intermittent light leak like this:

http://superkully.com/images/photos/cameras/zorki_mir/mir_lightleak1.jpg

http://superkully.com/images/photos/cameras/zorki_mir/mir_lightleak2.jpg

It is always in the same place, the leak effects the pre-exposed bit at the sprocket holes too and seems to be coming from the top as the bottom is hardly ever effected.

I discovered it with my first roll and for the second I blu-tac'd over the screws for the top plate and top cover as well as the join between the two. I still got the intermittent light leak with the prodigious amount of blu-tac applied.

I've shone a torch all around the camera in the dark to try and see the leak, but I can't see anything.

Before I make myself even balder - has anyone got any ideas?

[DaveP]

A soft release might help. I had the same intermitent light leaks as described and discovered that my fingernail was brushing the shutter speed dial as it spun. I put on a soft release and havent seen the problem since.

[kully]

Thanks Dave, I've been extra, special careful to keep my finger well away from the shutter selector for the second roll.

[AndersG]

Before I make myself even balder - has anyone got any ideas?

Hi,

Have you checked that the shutter curtains stay light tight during the winding cycle? If the curtains overlapp too little at some point that would usually always damage the same part of the frame (and perhaps only when there is lots of light). One film where you always have the lens cap on when advancing the film could confirm or refute this theory.

/Anders
PS.
Yes, apparently this type of problem can damage the film all the way past the sprocket holes to the edge of the film. It did on my Zorki 6.
DS.

[kully]

That's an idea for my next film. I will give it a go (maybe with the torch at home later, actually), but on Friday I took two photos one after the other, both in the sun with the camera pointing slighly down and to the right as I wound on - one had the leak and the other did not...

At the moment, I'm thinking that it may be the self-timer lever (although how it would cause a light leak like that I can't tell).

[pvdhaar]

When checking for light leaks, be aware that the image on film is formed laterally reversed and upside down. So if the leak appears on the top left in a print, it's actually at the bottom right of the film gate!

The light vertical band could be due to a sticky shutter, or as said, could be caused by curtains that don't quite overlap during frame advance. You could try to cap the lens during advance to check that. Other causes for light leaks can be missing screws on the body. I've ran into that myself.. the internal sealings and chambers that you normally encounter in cameras appears non-existent in FSU bodies..

[Jon Goodman]

Another thing to keep in mind: If using color film and analyzing a developed picture, the light leak damage will be orange, yellow, reddish or any other mixture of colors if the light is striking the film from the back side (as in film passing between the taking area and the cassette or the windup spool). If light is striking color film from the front, the damage will show up as whitish to whitish-gray...as in severe over-exposure. Black & white pictures are understandably more difficult to diagnose. Does this model have a hinged back? If so, I would look to the seal at the hinge end for clues. This looks like the sort of leak I would expect from film sitting for a while between the taking area and the windup spool.
Jon

[kully]

Thanks Peter and Jon,

Peter: I can't figure out how the image would be reversed and upside down in a simple rangefinder - perhaps I am looking in the wrong place, could you explain? I understand that as I look at the back of the camera shutters the light leak is to the left as the streak is on the right of the photos, but upside down?

Jon: That is excellent advice, I was going to put in another roll of HP5+ once I got the light seals SCOTTHELAD was sending, I'll try a roll of Superia instead.

The Mir doesn't have a hinged back, rather a removeable back which slides on from the bottom. The light seal is formed from the tongue around the back piece fitting into the groove of the camera body, I can't see any imperfections that would only let light in in that one place though.

I'll slap that lightseal on and see what happens.

[pvdhaar]

Thanks Peter and Jon,

Peter: I can't figure out how the image would be reversed and upside down in a simple rangefinder - perhaps I am looking in the wrong place, could you explain? I understand that as I look at the back of the camera shutters the light leak is to the left as the streak is on the right of the photos, but upside down?


It's a basic property of a lens. Light from the lower left of the scene travels to the top right on the film plane. See the (simplistic) picture, I hope it shows what I mean..

[Jon Goodman]

It never fails to amaze me how little light it takes to ruin film. In the early 1970s, I was doing some work in a desert photographing a strange light source (NASA later took the project over, but it remains a mystery to this day). Even though we were taking pictures in complete darkness, mine kept coming out fogged. There was a small hole in the top of the bellows of my camera, and the starlight was enough to overexpose the images.

Two years ago, a person sent me a camera which had a light leak. They told me their camera repairman could not figure it out. The camera was worn from use, and the rewind shaft had become noticeably loose in its (plastic) bushing over time, making an ellipse out of what had been originally round. When the slot in the rewind knob aligned with the ellipse of the bushing and the camera was in full sun, the light would enter through that tiny opening. It was intermittent, and it seemed to occur randomly, but nobody had stopped to count the number of pictures between occurrences and then figure out what mechanically might be happening that could cause something like that. Point being, it sometimes is a puzzle, and it sometimes has nothing to do with light seal foam...
Jon

[kully]

Thanks, both of you, I did what you said g'man, and you're right. There was me thinking I was clever by going on the pre-exposed header being the right way up and facing the shutter.

This opened up some possibilites, prime is the tripod mount which it held in with three screws. Slapped on some light seals around there and an internal metal plate which covers the bottom of the shutter mechanism (it sits fine when not screwed in but slightly proud on one side when screwed in...)

Time to run another roll of film through, if this works I will buy you all a pint.

[Kim Coxon]

Hi Kully,
I was away all last week and am trying to catch up. I had the same problem on a mir. If the light leak covers the whole width of the film including the spocket holes, my best case is the join on the back by the take up spool. I am waiting on another set of test results but I think that is a favourite. I put some of Jon's foam seal in the bottom and that inproved things but not 100%. I have now tried some of his felt wrapped around the side. Makes the back a bit stiffer to put on but will let you know what happens.

Kim

[derevaun]

Seems like a leak that long would affect other parts of the roll too. As said above, if it's across the whole film, all the way to the edges, it's probably coming from inside the body. If it's just on the exposed frame, it's probably a shutter curtain problem.

I got a nearly ruined roll on my Mir when the strap lug post fell out, exposing the take-up spool. It affected most of the roll, but the anti-halation layer was enough to prevent much fogging on the inner frames; only the areas around the sprocket holes were lightstruck. If there's light getting into the body at the self-timer, there will probably be some fogging around the sprocket holes on many of the frames.

[kully]

The leak goes into the pre-exposed sprocket hole area at the 'top' as I look at the negatives once they been developed, however, as was explained to me earlier in the thread, this would have been the bottom inside the camera. Only occasionaly does the leak effect the pre-exposed bit on the other side as well.