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⬅️ Previous capture (2024-08-18)
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2024-08-18
I like to take photos with my film camera, though recently I have started to notice issues with the developed film and I want to get to the bottom of it.
So, what’s been happening is that on random photos I take, there are these vertical bars of over-exposure. I don’t know if it is because I develop my own film and there is a problem with my methods or if there are problems with my film or a problem with my camera.
đź–Ľ Examples of photos with over-exposure bars
One of my theories of why I was getting issues was from the development process. Maybe when I roll up the film, it gets jammed and buckles into different layers.
So in my latest roll of film, I made sure to do lots of practice and be very careful to get it right. It turns out however that that was not the cause of my problem. It’s also possible that my chemicals are too old, but it doesn’t make much sense that I would be getting such a consistent exposure issue.
My next theory is that my camera has a light-leak in it. Most of the seams on my camera has a light trapping barrier to prevent light from leaking into the film container. One of the seams does not have a light barrier, but instead two lines of foam that press together to block out light. Since my camera is so old, this foam has degraded. It’s very possible that this is the cause for my light leakage.
đź–Ľ Photo of my camera with the light seal highlighted
Here are a couple things that back up my theory.
The foam lining is on the film uptake side where all the exposed film is rolled up. There was a period of about 6 months between the first half of photos and the second half. The photos closer to the start of the break has more severe exposure issues.
The exposure issue also happens on about every other photo. Maybe the photos which don’t have exposure issues were on the opposite side of the wall for the 6 month hiatus and so didn’t get exposed to light leakage.
Since it is possible to see the underlying image in most of the photos, I think the light leakage would have to be very small. This could also explain why some rolls have had no issues. Rolls of film that were developed immediately after use and with little downtime wouldn’t see the leakage.
My plan is to replace the foam and use another roll of film. If the foam is the problem, then I shouldn’t see the issue anymore. This of course would mean letting the film sit for a while in the camera for a proper test.
