1959 M3- in bright sunlight light leaks across the film edge in a triangular pattern. not on every frame, only appears on the sunniest days. Usually seen amongst the sprocket holes. Occasionally ruins a frame. This runs along the bottom of the film so it's coming down thru the top half of the camera. I've checked all the obvious things, no screws missing, painted all the worn metal inside the back door/baseplate. everything else works fine. It's a minor point, I guess, I've been ignoring it since 1989. That's when it first appeared on the contact sheets. Now it seems more frequent. Anyone seen this before?

-- Mark Sampson (MSampson45@aol.com), March 25, 2002

Answers

Have you checked the curtain. Has this been replaced before. AS far as I know, a well used M camera especially more than 30 years old, the front and rear curtains need to be serviced. Again, that's just my first thought if I have the same light leak problem. By the same token, you should also look at the pressure plate, is it holding the film flat enough ?

Hope this helps..

-- Jeff Yiu (jeffyiu@quamnet.com), March 25, 2002.

You're not alone! I was experiencing a similar light leak in my 1961 M2, but looking more like a blurred streak extending horizontally from the lower right side of a frame & partially into the next frame. It would happen most often while shooting in bright light & @ 1/1000th sec. but started occurring even in overcast conditions w/slower shutter speeds. Since I was never able to diagnose the problem (like you, I couldn't see anything obviously amiss), the body's @ DAG right now for a fix & CLA.

-- Chris Chen (Wash., DC) (furcafe@NOSPAMcris.com), March 25, 2002.

I once went through something similar with an M3; turned out there's one or more little cover plates/baffles somewhere up in there (no, you shouldn't try to get at 'em) that block light from the top end of the camera.

Of course eliminate shutter pinholes etc first.

-- John Hicks (jhicks31@bellsouth.net), March 25, 2002.

Mark, you can try an easy test to see if it's the shutter or top or bottom-plates: take a pic, don't wind on; take the lens off, hold to light source for 30 secs; wind on, take lens off and expose to light source, now wind on a few frames. The purpose of this is to test first and second curtains. If there is a streak in your pictures, this is due to a light leak in your shutter curtain. Otherwise it's something else. Good luck....

-- David Killick (dalex@inet.net.nz), March 26, 2002.

I have a similar problem on my M3.

There are vertical white streaks on the length of the upper left corner of the NEGATIVE. In the prints, they appear as BLACK streaks.

It appears ONLY on SUNNY DAYS where the sky is involved. Indoors r fine.

I suspect it is a curtain leak, but then the streaks should be WHITE and not BLACK on prints, if thats the case. Im confused. The curtains looks fine when i look thru it against a light source. No leaks.

I have no idead what it is now. I have black taped the back of the camera but it still did not help. I have black marked the chrome linings of the lens exteding into the film space to avoid reflection of light, but it didn't help..

My last resort is to change the shutter curtain.

Its fustrating to not find out the cause of this. My fauth in the older leicas and their reliability is dwindling.

I avoid sunny day scenes now...life goes on.

-- Travis koh (teckyy@hotmail.com), March 26, 2002.

"It appears ONLY on SUNNY DAYS where the sky is involved. Indoors r fine."

Travis - since ANY light leak would appear as white in a positive image, I don't see how this could be a light leak.

Since it appears only in bright-light situations - are you using 1/500 or 1/1000 when it occurs? Maybe it's a shutter that's slightly wonky at high speeds. Top right in the actual picture would be bottom left in the film gate - maybe it's shutter bounce causing uneven exposure streaks as the curtains rebound back into the frame?

Mark: There are two primary ways for the shutter to leak light - most M shutters will leak light around the edges if left facing the sun for even a few seconds with the lens off. These marks usually appear a mm or so INSIDE the image area - since the light has to travel down into the shutter curtain channel and then bounce back up at a very flat angle, the film gate's shadow 'protects' the very edge of the image area. It's also USUALLY in the top of the picture/bottom of the film gate since the sun only hits that part of the shutter (unless you carry the camera upside down.)

The other kind of leak is from a hole in the blinds themselves, which can appear anywhere in the frame.

Your leak sounds more like a body leak to me - My first ever M4-2 back in the early 80s had an intermittent leak. With some logic and experimenting and reviewing pictures, I determined that the fogging occurred on the LAST frame I had shot before setting the camera aside for a while (minutes to days). Therefore fogging was affecting the film when it was sitting between the film gate and the take-up spool (since I always wind right after shooting).

I finally discovered that light was shining in around the rewind switch on the front, and - like a cathedral window - casting a tiny beam down through the body to the film. (I could actually see it once I plotted out where to look) The rewind lever was sitting too far out from the body and not covering the hole it runs through adequately. (A friend machined a fraction of a mm off the back of the lever's shaft tube and then it sat flush to the body and the leak vanished)

I've always assumed that this was only a possible problem with post-M4 cameras, because in older cameras the self-timer mechanism inside would have blocked the light anyway. But maybe I'm wrong - the self timer may not be as big as I imagine - so check that rewind lever. And consider light-leak locations that may not seem obvious, because light CAN travel right through any part of the film chamber - from the front or side, not just places near the film itself.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), March 26, 2002.

Andy- thanks for your input. The 'rewind" theory seems most appropriate to my problem. I am sure that it's not a curtain problem. It's a great list you have here- I've only been visiting for a week or so and I find useful help on the most obscure Leica question. But now I suppose I'll have to get it fixed... Mark

-- Mark Sampson (MSampson45@aol.com), March 26, 2002.