Tank light leaks

darin3200 · Sep 25, 2006

I'm noticing streaks at the top of my recent negs inbetween the holes.

Examples

I was a little scared since I thought it was my leica, but I developed a roll from the praktica and those have the same little streaks.

These are only on the rolls I've developed with diafine. The difference is that my tank leaks a bit so I would put duct tape around the seal so that no chems came out during development with D-76, but with the diafine I don't need to do as much aggitation so I don't tape it shut.

Could this be the problem?

PlasticSpanner · Sep 27, 2006

Develop your negs shot with the same camera exactly the same way as you do in each chemical and see if there's any difference.

Are you sure there isn't some new light leak in the room when you're loading the spiral? Although I would have thought this would fog the film in general.

Jeff Canes · Sep 27, 2006

The streaks are only in one section of the film and not the full-length is that right?

Check the tank for clacks mostly round the plastic rivets in the lid.

Also are you rolling your own? Film not smokes.

darin3200 · Sep 27, 2006

Jeff Canes said:
The streaks are only in one section of the film and not the full-length is that right?

Check the tank for clacks mostly round the plastic rivets in the lid.

Also are you rolling your own? Film not smokes.

They are only in certain areas. I'll check the tank again, and tape it up just to be safe.

No, I have some one else roll for me, film not smokes

Torus34 · Sep 28, 2006

The spacing of the streaks are an important clue.

Jeff Canes · Sep 28, 2006

Could this be an agitation problem on along development time? The spacing does almost looks like apron marks. Darin Please tell me you’re not using a 25 year old tank and apron

darin3200 · Oct 15, 2006

Jeff Canes said:
Could this be an agitation problem on along development time? The spacing does almost looks like apron marks. Darin Please tell me youre not using a 25 year old tank and apron

haha, no. I'm using a new plastic tank I got from freestyle about a year ago. Although I did notice this problem when I started developing with diafine which is low agitation, but I'm thinking that's coincidental.

Looking at all the negs I've done recently I'm pretty sure it's a light leak in the leica. The streaks only tend to appear just before, during and after bright conditions such as outdoor shots.

I'll have the seals fixed when I send it in to get a CLA, so until then I'm whipping out the electrical tape

Jeff Canes · Oct 16, 2006

You have a M4 right? It has a back door and is not the drop in load is that correct? I hope this questions makes since to you. Do you see a pattern based around starts and stops in shooting sequences? When you are holding the camera your hand block light or presses door tighter stopping the leak. That sounds like a likely possibly. A leather case would like stop the leak too.

darin3200 · Oct 16, 2006

Jeff Canes said:
You have a M4 right? It has a back door and is not the drop in load is that correct? I hope this questions makes since to you. Do you see a pattern based around starts and stops in shooting sequences? When you are holding the camera your hand block light or presses door tighter stopping the leak. That sounds like a likely possibly. A leather case would like stop the leak too.

Actually an older M6, but it still has that backdoor. Thinking about that, it seems to be the most likely. All the streaks are at the top of the prints which means the bottom of the camera when I shoot. And when I hold the leica my palm is pressed pretty tightly against the bottom right of the backdoor. I see if taping up the cam and using a better grip helps.

Thanks for the help