Bronica: Odd overexposure

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jrydberg

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I'm experiencing an odd phenomena; some rolls have a single frame (greatly) overexposed, light also leaks over to the next frame, totally burning out the space between the frames. This does not happen on all rolls; but I've seen it on at least four of my last ten rolls. On the last two rolls, shot back to back, the overexposed frame was on the same position on the roll; the fifth frame.

Anyone got any ideas?

I have a Bronica SQ-A; all rolls were shot with the standard lens (80/2.8), and with the same back. I did not change backs anytime while shooting the rolls.
The battery seems good.

See the attachment for a scan of the strip.
 

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max_ebb

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It looks like you have a light leak. It probably only happens when you leave the dark slide out for an extended amount of time in a brightly lit area. Is it possible to take the lens off of that camera with the mirror up and the dark slide out?
 
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I had this exact problem in 2003. After puzzling and getting a bit of input from Photo.net, I managed to work it out and brief a rather reluctant Bronica repair facility accordingly. Basically its a MLU problem, and here's my final posy on the issue which I hope will help.

"In case this happens to anyone else I should report back. Ken Heflinger was closest to the answer.

It’s important to understand how the camera works normally. Basically the camera sits with the shutter wide open so you can compose and meter TTL. The film is protected from fogging by the mirror which forms a light-tight seal with the body. So , if you lock up the mirror, the film would fog unless the act of locking up the mirror closes the shutter. So that’s exactly what happens. The shutter closes as the MLU takes effect to avoid exposing the film.

The fault mode here is exactly this. Once in a while, for reasons and triggers not known, the MLU on this body doesn’t work properly. Instead of going all the way up it stops part way. Importantly, when this happens the shutter doesn’t close. So the mirror’s part way up and light is streaming through an open shutter, past the half-up mirror, to fog the film. The light strikes mainly the bottom half of the piece of film you’re about to expose but the effect of fogging extends to the top half of that frame and the top half of the frame following -so equidistant up and down. As soon as you take (or think you take) the affected frame you wind on and the mirror comes back down. However the damage has been done before you take, and not only do you fail to make an image on frame 1 but you’ve also got a half-fogged frame 2 behind a now functional mirror.

So how do you get round it till you get a repair? Well your only chance, outside of ceasing to use MLU, is to hear the difference when you turn the switch to lock up the mirror. It’s pretty distinctive but you’ll miss it if preoccupied. When you hear the malfunction, expose two frames, and start the process again with the third. The necessary repair is to the MLU switch/activation. Don’t let them mess around with your lenses or the shutter control mechanisms in the camera. It’s the MLU, pure and simple.

So how do I know that it isn't exactly as Ken suggested- the mirror failing to return fully on winding on after an exposure. Well, only because that would leave me with a black viewfinder for when I'd be trying to compose my next shot- which would be a kind of giveaway that something was wrong! I had no such clues
 
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Sorry- meant to mention that it isn't a leak- unless you count light streaming in through the lens as a leak anyway. As I recall it wasn't a hugely expensive repair but if you don't want to get it done the alternative is to listen for a thinner, quieter, kind of metallic sound when you apply MLU rather than the usual thud. Thats because the mirror isn't thumping at the top of its usual travel . You'll still waste a couple of frames every time but at leat you shouldn't miss any pictures. I do imagine though that this is a problem that will increase in frequency if unrepaired.
 

Jon Shiu

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I have seen also the problems on 2 people's cameras, "smearing" of images over and between 2 frames, on a SQ-A and an ETR. I don't believe the MLU function was used in either case.

Jon
 

glbeas

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I believe in that case the winder was used before a long exposure was finished. I've done that a time or two myself.
 
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jrydberg

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I remember that I used MLU, but I'm not sure it was around those frames. Might also be like glbeas said, I did start to wind before the exposure was finished. I'll research further. Thanks.
 
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