Jump to content

M6 scratches on negatives


Recommended Posts

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Hi,

My third roll shot with the M6 came out scratched. The horizontal long scratches are on the back side and not on the emulsion. The first two rolls are ok. I'm going to clean the pressure plate with a cloth and try again with another roll. The previous owner says he has never had any problems. Now, because I'm pessimistic, in case I got screwed, could anybody help me and point me to a lab I could contact in Italy/Europe?

Thanks

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Link to post
Share on other sites

Did you process the film yourself? The only time I've had problems with scratches was when I had a lab process my film. I am certain there processor rollers caused it. They tried to tell me that the camera must have rewound the film too fast until I pointed out that I'm using a Leica and rewind the film manually. They have since gone out of business. If there isn't any old film stuck in the camera, and you can't feel any burs on the pressure plate, then I don't think it was the camera.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Montezu , you develop yourself or give film to a lab ?

second question you think scratches come from camera ?

Can you post one image ?

If from camera , you must have a scratch on all the roll at the

same place ! it's the case ?

Henry

Edited by Doc Henry
Link to post
Share on other sites

I developed myself the three rolls. I don't use fingers or squeegees after the rinse. I just hang the film and wait. The scratches are quite visible both on the negatives and the scans. Here a portion of one of the frames. The scratches are not present in all of them and they're on 3 lines, 1 at the top and 2 at the bottom of the frame.

 

40704c1475920fd5e017b06bd6f55235.jpg

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Link to post
Share on other sites

These are rather deep scratches, at least looks like. Given the position of the scratches, follow the way of the film through the camera, I once had a problem with a tiny piece of the metal of the body touching the film before the film is wound up on the spool. Removed, done. Use some strong light and a Q-tip to move around places (make sure any remains of the Q-tip don't stay). If two films were fine and the third one is troubled, it to me rather points to the film (canister).  Leave a few frames unexposed with the next roll and see whether these are good - if the film is scratched but not the undeveloped part, you are again a bit closer. Also, some films are more sensitive to scratching than others. 

 

As said before - some more digging. Changing a back plate is a small thing, find a Leica dealer to advise. Sending it off for searching may lead to "could not find anything", so rather try to find out more. Good luck. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

The key is in where the scratches start and stop. The leader and the end of the film won't have gone across the pressure plate so if they stop at these points the scratches could be caused by the camera. If the scratches continue it could be the film batch, especially some of the new films from startup manufacturers can have faults. But if the camera is the culprit the pressure plate is one area to look at, although the inconsistency of your scratches makes me wary of blaming it.

 

The only other way you could get scratches on the back of the film is if it is touching another part of the camera body, and to do this the film would need to be very slack. So are you doing anything that would release the tension on the film as it travels through the camera, accidentally back winding the rewind knob perhaps in the way you carry it? But many curious things can happen. A friend of mine with a Leica M used bulk loaded film and each time he got to the end of the bulk roll the film started to get scratched and eventually he got frustrated enough to remove the last few yards of film from the bulk loader to see if there was a cause. Nothing was found inside the loader, but he noticed the more tightly wound film at the end of the bulk roll had considerably more 'spring' and curl than the rest of the roll, so it was pushing up against the chassis of his camera before it went across the pressure plate. The answer in that case was to stop using a budget brand of film.

Link to post
Share on other sites

4th roll is clear of scratches. Just water marks because I ran of out demineralized water that I use for the final rinse. I'm going to keep trying and hopefully it'll stay like that!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

  • Like 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...