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I wasted 3 hours trying to fix a light leak that turned out to be my changing bag
I shot a roll of Portra 400 with my Pentax K1000 last weekend at the Santa Monica pier and got these weird foggy streaks on the right side of every frame. I was sure it was a bad light seal, so I ordered a seal kit, watched 4 YouTube videos, and spent a whole Sunday replacing every piece of foam in that camera. After all that, the next roll had the exact same streaks. Turns out the culprit was my changing bag, which had a tiny pinhole from when I snagged it on a zipper 6 months ago. I loaded a test roll in a dark closet, and zero streaks. Before you tear apart your camera, swap your changing bag or just load in a totally dark room. Has anyone else chased a light leak that wasn't even the camera's fault?
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hunt.rowan28d ago
Did you check the bag seam or just the spot where you know it snagged? I read a thing on a film forum a while back where a guy swore his camera was haunted and it turned out his darkroom door had a crack near the hinge that only leaked when the hallway light was on. The tricky part with changing bags is that the fabric is double layered, so a tiny hole in the outer shell can sit right next to a tiny hole in the inner shell and you never see them line up. I started holding mine up against a bright lamp after every trip and running my fingers along the seams, and sure enough I found a spot that looked fine but let light through when I stretched it. Also worth checking the zipper pull area, because those teeth can chew the fabric over time and it stays hidden in the folds.
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