Dark area on left side of frame

[Gary NJ]

I'm hoping someone can identify the problem I have on about 1 frame for each roll I shoot. Doesn't matter what brand of film, hand-rolled or not. The left side of frame has an area darker that the rest of the frame and is usually toward the beginning of the roll. The camera is a Nikon FE. It looks like that portion of the frame is underexposed. I appreciate any thoughts on this.

 

[Sirius Glass]

It is a light leak, load the film in a dimly lit area, not in the sun.

 

[BAC1967]

Could be shutter capping.

 

[jimjm]

Well, you can at least rule out a shutter issue. The FE has a vertically-traveling shutter.
Are you scanning these negs? Possibly a scanner issue?

 

[Gary NJ]

It's not a light leak or a scanner issue because this area of the negative is less exposed. The problem is with the negative. It's usually around the second or third frame of the roll. Puzzling.

 

[Sirius Glass]

It is at the beginning of the roll, so the problem is related to film handling.

 

[ic-racer]

A picture of the negative would be helpful.

 

[Gary NJ]

Here is a clearer example of it. This is a factory film roll of Delta 400. As I look back on this roll of film, the first 4 frames have this issue. It was most egregious here. Presently, it's usually just one frame per roll.

 

[Donald Qualls]

You have a light leak affecting the entire frame except the area to the left of the discontinuity. In the big sky image, you can see some vertical streaking in the sky in the right 4/5 of the frame, no such in the left. Now, this would be the left side of the camera. Odd that it happens only one frame per roll, though. Do you often load, carry the camera a while, then shoot through the roll? Or shoot the roll and then leave the camera for a while? Given either case, I'd call this a bad felt/foam seal at the door latch, leaking little enough light it only affects the film when it sits in one place for a while.

 

[Gary NJ]

I often carry the camera around and perhaps not shoot. When I complete the roll, I rewind and unload in the darkest area I can find if outside or under a coat, etc. Is there supposed to be a foam seal at the door latch of the Nikon FE? My example does not have that. Maybe that's the problem to some degree?

 

[Donald Qualls]

Hopefully, someone who's directly familiar with that camera can answer -- I'm used to seeing some kind of light seal provision at the latch on a 35mm SLR, but sometimes it's purely geometric, sometimes in geometric plus a foam or felt, sometimes it's "here's a big gaping hole, let's put a little black felt behind it." Though I wouldn't expect the last from Nikon, generally.

 

[Gary NJ]

The foam seals are generally in very good condition. It doesn't appear there would be a seal by the door latch. That would seem to inhibit the securing of the door latch. No residue or any trace of a door seal in that area. The foam seal kits available online do not appear to include a seal for that area either. All very frustrating.

 

[jimjm]

The FE/FM bodies have a foam seal at the door hinge, but not at the latch.
This is a weird one - just looks too linear to be a light leak or fogging. Does this effect extend into the sprocket areas of the film, or just within the frame? Can you take a quick phone pic of the film strip itself, held against a light?

 

[Gary NJ]

I did my best with using a phone. You can see the area affected is only within the exposed frame.

 

[Donald Qualls]

It might be from an internal reflection in the mirror box, partially shaded by the frame mask at the film gate. With the film in the gate, that shadow would be on the right side of the gate, and the amount of frame it covers (roundly 15%) suggests the reflection is close to the shutter (behind/under the mirror), on the same side. You only see it occasionally, if this is the case, when there's something bright just out of frame that gets projected onto the reflecting object.

If you hold the shutter open in B you might be able to spot something on the right side of the mirror box that's glossy where it should be matte or flocked.

 

[Gary NJ]

Nothing looks shiny or out of the ordinary. Thanks for the suggestion. This is probably one of those problems that's going to be elusive to a repair person.

 

[ic-racer]

Thanks for showing the whole negative. I was going to suggest some issue with the door or light trap on your bulk loader, but does not seem to be the case. This is very odd.

 

[reddesert]

It's puzzling; the overexposure being confined to the image area suggests it is coming in from the front while the film is in the gate. But it's also hard to understand how to get such a sharp edge from a light leak. The extra exposure seems strongest vertically about where the person is in the beach picture, with a sharp edge at the left and tapering off to the right. Also that's frame 17, so perhaps not a beginning of roll problem.

I'd suggest: with no film in the camera, hold the shutter open on B, inspect the mirror box (I know you did this) - there should be flocking on the back of the mirror and dark ridged panels firmly in place at bottom and sides. Look at the shutter while advancing to see if anything odd is happening with the blades.

You could try loading the camera, winding it up to exposure 1, take it out into sunlight and hold it at all angles to the sun, then take one exposure with the sun just out of frame. Then take it back into the darkroom and cut off and develop only that part of the film. That might help isolate the location of the problem.

The FE has no felt at the door latch side, it has a labyrinth seal there. It has a strip of felt on the door at the hinge side, and not on the body.

 

[Gary NJ]

I have a roll of film in the camera now, but I locked up the mirror in the self-timer mode and saw that on the bottom right of the mirror (as the camera faces away from me), there is a small patch of the flock missing. The patch is circular shaped. The paint under flocking is black. Could this be the cause?

 

[ic-racer]

Theoretically 'flashing' could cause that. By definition, the 'flashed' film edges will NOT show any development, whereas there will be a speed increase in the image forming areas.

 

[BobD]

Does this happen with different lenses?

 

[ic-racer]

I have this picture in my archives. I took the picture in Italy in 1979 (I was and still am an Italian car fanatic).

Years later I actually purchased a Lancia like the one in the picture. I went back and re-printed this negative from 1979. The mark is similar to what the OP shows. It only is in the image forming area of the negative.

Curiously, in tens of thousands of prior or subsequent exposures, I have never encountered this. I always considered it a film manufacturing defect.

 

[Ian Grant]

It's a shutter curtain issue. The camera needs a CLA and possibly new shutter curtains. I work with larger FP shutters and they overlap, slide over each other. once perishing they can get sticky, any issue is worse with 35mm cameras.

Ian

 

[jimjm]

It's a shutter curtain issue. The camera needs a CLA and possibly new shutter curtains. I work with larger FP shutters and they overlap, slide over each other. once perishing they can get sticky, any issue is worse with 35mm cameras.

Ian

Would've been my first guess too, but the FE has a vertical-travel shutter.

 

[ic-racer]

My photograph in post #22 was also taken with a vertical focal plane shutter.