One of my students is getting problem results that have me pretty confounded.
She's a new student. Got her first roll processed by the lab (a real one, not a
Wal-Mart). They use dip & dunk, and (I think) replenisher T-max. She did the
second one herself yesterday in HC-110 (E). Both are 35mm. One was FP4, the other
HP5.
Both rolls show these periodic black strips from edge to edge. The light leak
type. Most are just inside one edge of the image, and I think every one is on
the same side of the image. These have soft edges, not hard lines. Each is the
same width, about 1/4 inch. The first roll had a bunch of them - a roll of 24
shots with about 6-7 of these black bars. The second roll had only one, I
think. Given different films and processing, it doesn't sound like a processing
or loading problem. I'm inclined to think it must be the camera. She says she
did not open the back except to load and unload. She was thinking it might have
to do with changing lenses (she was using two interchangeably). That didn't
make sense to me, though - especially because she did deliberately change the
lenses a couple of times on the 2nd roll, trying to replicate the problem.
I've had my share of light leaks but I don't ever recall seeing anything like
this. Well, actually I did, on my ancient 8x10, which doesn't always press hard
enough to seal the loading side after I pull out the darkslide. The effect on
hers is similar, though more defined and contained, like a crack of light
instead of a seeping leak. I've googled for this, but all I get are the 85
blogsters lecturing me on the 5 things we learned to recognize in Photo 101
back in The Day. So I'm really perplexed. Anyone have experience of what I've
described?
Mike Healy
