Light leak on M3

[maximilianm3]

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Hi,

 

I haven't found anything yet because I didn't look.

[friedeye]

I had a thought the other night.  My M2, which I had recently purchased and felt notchy and tight,  developed a similar light leak after a CLA was performed. The technician said one of the reasons the camera felt tight was that the curtains/shutter were way over tensioned, and he loosened them.  The camera is now beautiful and silky and feels like new -- except for the leak (which looks identical to the OP's frames).  My thought:  could the curtains be under-tensioned and not sealing again the light baffles?  

 

I checked when I finished a role - and, yup, my M2 curtains, if you looked closely, were kind of loose.

 

So… there's a YouTube video on how to tighten the curtains of an M3.  Looked pretty easy and I gave it a try.  Tiny screws - but it was doable.  I tightened my curtains a quarter turn and they look tighter against the baffles -- I didn't want to go further until I ran a roll of film through.  It might have done it, or I might need to go another quarter turn -- but my gut is telling me that this is the solution.

 

I'll report my findings here.

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[jerzy]

You changed tension of curtain springs, it impacts curtain travel time, impact the width of the slid, thus impacts exposure time. Result could be either under or overexposed frames, partially exposed (dark on left or right side) depending which curtain has been tensioned more. Before you load the film: remove the lens, open backdoor, set speed dial at 1/1000 and shoot looking through the backdoor. If you see through across the whole frame you may risk loading the film and check exposure on various speeds. If you however do not see anything or one side is darker than the other I would go immediately to service.

[friedeye]

Thanks, Jerzy.  I did do that and will, obviously, check all speeds as I test it.  If there's trouble, I'll just go back to the former tension. Especially if it doesn't solve the leak problem.

[friedeye]

Update:  Shutter speeds were all fine in my developed role and, better yet, my light leak was gone.  That role, however, was shot in a controlled, mostly interior environment.  The role in the camera now is being shot largely exterior, in bright sun, and not capping the lens or stopping down between shots  (yes, I will be careful not to burn a hole in my curtain).  If it passes this test, I will have found the solution to the leak. Yay.

[lm_user]

I had a thought the other night. My M2, which I had recently purchased and felt notchy and tight, developed a similar light leak after a CLA was performed. The technician said one of the reasons the camera felt tight was that the curtains/shutter were way over tensioned, and he loosened them. The camera is now beautiful and silky and feels like new -- except for the leak (which looks identical to the OP's frames). My thought: could the curtains be under-tensioned and not sealing again the light baffles?

 

I checked when I finished a role - and, yup, my M2 curtains, if you looked closely, were kind of loose.

 

So… there's a YouTube video on how to tighten the curtains of an M3. Looked pretty easy and I gave it a try. Tiny screws - but it was doable. I tightened my curtains a quarter turn and they look tighter against the baffles -- I didn't want to go further until I ran a roll of film through. It might have done it, or I might need to go another quarter turn -- but my gut is telling me that this is the solution.

 

I'll report my findings here.

Link to video would be appreciated. My search only found how to adjust shutter speeds

[AAK]

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just a thought...have you carefully examined the negatives from the affected shots to confirm that this is really a problem with the camera and not a problem with the film scanner at the lab? If the negatives don't show the band, then the problem is somewhere else in the process.

[friedeye]

just a thought...have you carefully examined the negatives from the affected shots to confirm that this is really a problem with the camera and not a problem with the film scanner at the lab? If the negatives don't show the band, then the problem is somewhere else in the process

 

Oh, yes. I examined the problem quite thoroughly.  The affected frames were frames that were left in the gate, in daylight, for any extended period of time. In the bright light of Hawaii, the frames would only have to be left in the gate for a minute for the leak to be pronounced. When street shooting, if I reeled off three or four shots, only the last shot would be affected (because it was left in the gate).  Once I figured out what was happening, I started using a lens cap and the problem went away.  This is not a scanning or developing problem. 

[friedeye]

Link to video would be appreciated. My search only found how to adjust shutter speeds

 

It's a YouTube clip. Just google  M3 Curtain Adjustment. 

[friedeye]

Final report --  tightening the curtains works.  As mentioned in my post above, I adjusted each curtain 1/4 turn.  I still have a very slight leak that only shows up when I leave a shot in the gate for more than a day with the aperture wide open -- I was intentionally trying to create the leak.  But using it on the street in bright sunlight, I have no leak whatsoever.  I'll use a lens cap when it's sitting on the shelf. 

 

So... I will venture a brave (on this forum), well-considered opinion that this is the problem in the OP's camera (my light leak was identical)  and that the mystery is solved.  The leak is due to a loose curtain that is not making contact with the baffle.

 

It's an easy fix, as mentioned above - and a quarter turn adjustment had no effect on my shutter speeds.  I'm a happy camper.

[Menju]

I guess I have the same problem with my M3. Reading this thread helped me a lot. Many thanks.

[emptyandthen]

Hey everyone. I think I might have a similar problem, plus another. Please have a look at these and let me know if you think this is along the same lines as the issues described above. I just got back 11 rolls of film and every roll had frames like these or a variation on them. There's a pattern too. One frame will be fine, then two like this then a good one, then two more like this. They were processed with other rolls shot by someone else who had no issues, so it's not happening in the processing. A leak and or a curtain issue seems likely, but I'd love to get your opinions before I send it off to get repaired. These were shot with an M6 Classic and a Voightlander 35/1.7 Ultron. Thanks!

 

 

[earleygallery]

That's the shutter capping issue - you need a service. 

[friedeye]

Back again to report that my M2 still has the problem. Tightening the curtains seems to have helped, but I'm not prepared to tighten them further. Will stop the aperture down or cap between shots and just live with it. And, if I shoot a frame that I really love, I'll advance and just burn the next frame. Dang.