Does my M3 have a light leak?

[piblondin]

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Most shots on my first roll with this camera turned out fine, but a couple had this streak on it. See the attached images (which also happen to be very underexposed). Is this a light leak? What is its likely source, if yes?

 

Thanks!

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[Xmas]

It looks like a light leak on to the front of the film but to identify where it might be from you need to have scanned the film strip as a film strip, so we could see if the leak occured between the frames.

 

So please look at the film strips or scan the film strips.

 

The front of the film is exposed to leaks on the take up spool, because of the reverse wind, if there is a leak between the frames there is a leak into the take up spool area or during wind on or rewind.

 

Have you looked through the shutter blinds when partly wound on, and during winding on, flip off the back and remove the lens...

 

Noel

[piblondin]

Yes, there are instances of the leak occurring between frames. I tried to look through the shutter, but didn't see any light. However, I was also just holding it up to my desk lamp. I'll try a flashlight in the dark too. Fortunately, I got the camera with a warranty, but I'm wondering whether this is worth having repaired or if I should just get a refund.

[Xmas]

Hi

 

You need to look through the shutter as you wind on, as the capped shutter is wound on the blind separation reduces (i.e. overlap increases) Your leak signature could indicate that, the lead and trail blind need to be closer together to not leak light. their should be velvet seals to hold the blinds together.

 

Is there any indication that the leading and trailing edges are damaged?

 

If the camera is nice I'd haggle after e-mailing the leak,.if haggling is not satisfactory return. may need a shutter rebuild/refurb.

 

Noel

[BobYIL]

Did your camera pass through any airport or security x-ray devices after loading the film?

[Twotone]

I occasionally get this on the first two or three frames of a roll of film, seems to be the film cartridge that's causing in in my case, i.e the slot in the film cartridge is allowing light to hit the first few inches of film or I'm not loading or unloading the film properly.