Holga Pano/Wide Artifacts. Help!

Hi. New to pinhole photography and my Holga Wide/Pano camera. I've noticed 2 types of artifact on multiple rolls I just developed, but not every roll seems to have the lines seen in the 2 negatives I uploaded.

On the left there seems to be a sharp vertical line and on the right is a wider vertical dark line...almost like a light leak perhaps.

I tape the back on my camera pretty good and I also tape the 2 side brackets to make sure the back doesn't open by accident.

Please excuse the overall exposures, I'm experimenting with longer exposures and ND filter and don't have my process dialed in quite yet (and I plan on switching to Fuji Acros 100 to make it a bit easier on myself).

Does anyone know what causes these 2 types of artifact and how to prevent them?

Thanks in advance.

David

Leaks.

My Holga had various light leaks too and not just from the back or sides.

Personally I've never had light leaks with either of my two Holgas.

The only time when I DID expect them, was with my first roll of colour negative film, when the back fell off onto the ground, exposing the film to FULL SUMMER SUNSHINE!!!

I put the back back on again and when the prints came back from the lab, I didn't expect much. BUT, not a single one of the prints had any light streaks anywhere on them, so it does leave me wondering how anyone gets light leaks at all - but I know they do because of all the posts that I've read over the years...

Terry S

gaffers tape every seam

dasBlute said:

gaffers tape every seam

Click to expand...

Yep.

A lot of folk blame light leaks, and those may be part of your problem, but if you will look inside your camera you will see a bigger issue.

Take the back off and peek in there. See the plastic sides? The SHINY plastic sides?

That's the biggest problem with Holga cameras and many Russian cameras of the same kidney -- cheap construction that involves shiny plastic. The light hits the insides of the cameras and bounces everywhere. What you see is the result. My Stereo Sputnik was horrible. My Holga pinhole stereo was unusable.

The cure?

Put a piece of masking tape on the inside of the camera so it covers the lens/pinhole, then spray the inside of the camera with matt flat black paint -- primer paint works nicely, the flatter and blacker the better. You want the inside of that camera to reflect no light at all. Or, also, you an cut out pieces of flat black paper, or black felt, and paste them to the walls of the inside of the camera. If you want to get really fancy you can construct baffles, but I've never tried those.

When the paint dries, try it again. My prediction: Vast improvement.

I have one of those. You can see the photos from it in the gallery. Summicron1 I think has given you a solid answer. I have telescope flocking around the opening which is better than paint. Paint might not get it 100%. The flocking blocks 99.9% or something like that.

Other things to take care of off the top of my head-

Tape over the holes that are on the wall between the film and the shutter box.
Paint the two screws holding the pinhole in from the back with matt black paint. Believe it or not, they can reflect light. That drove me nuts too!
I painted the interior matt black as well, and by interior I mean the insert. Easy does it though on the paint.
I also flocked around the shutter box on the bottom and top flat sections (not the insert), and around the opening.

I've had the Holga apart so many times that I have had to rebuild the screw holes three times now! I'll have to do a short writeup one of these days. It finally works now, although I shouldn't say that since some gremlin will rear it's ugly head now. To hazard a guess probably at least half the photos I have taken with it were screwed up in some way.

You might want to replace the pinhole in it. I put in a new one and it improved it a little. I think I got it from AuPremierPlan, the French guy. Real fiddly to replace though.

I would recommend also that you don't use a filter with it. Any defects or dust on the filter will image on the film.

Anyway, if you have any questions about it, feel free to ask.

Thank to everyone for the suggestions and comments. I agree the right-sided dark vertical line is likely a reflection or leak....but what about the thin LEFT side line that seems to reflect an abrupt transition in density? Any thoughts on what is causing that? Again...it's on multiple rolls. Thanks again.

Just a different light leak.

dgphoto said:

Thank to everyone for the suggestions and comments. I agree the right-sided dark vertical line is likely a reflection or leak....but what about the thin LEFT side line that seems to reflect an abrupt transition in density? Any thoughts on what is causing that? Again...it's on multiple rolls. Thanks again.

Click to expand...

you should paint/flock the inside, tape up the light leak possibles that have been mentioned and then run a test roll. Rome was not built in a day, but I suspect you will find the initial fixes handle things.

Did you file anything or modify the front in any way?

Mine leaked light around the shutter after I modified it so it didn't vignette. I ended up putting a thin piece of aluminum in front of the shutter with a small hole for the light to pass and that solved the problem.

You definitely have a significant leak. By the looks of it, it is coming from the front shutter housing. My guess is that light is leaking from around the pinhole. Check to see if all the screws are tight, but don't over tighten them. You can easily strip them.

Thank you for all the helpful insight and suggestions.

My local shop added another useful tidbit...they noticed that the artifact doesn't extend beyond the edge of the negative into the frame masking suggesting that it is coming from the front of the camera.

It then occurred to me that I've been loosely taping a NM filter to the front of the camera...but only a small piece at the top and bottom of the filter. And since I've been using it mid-day, in relatively bright conditions, often for multi-minute exposures, I'm quickly starting to wonder if light isn't sneaking in from the sides.

I plan on testing some new taping techniques next week...both to the back seams and on all 4 sides of my filter.

I'll double check the shutter housing/screws and put some tape on the inside as others have suggested.

Again, I really appreciate everyone's input.

David