Is this x-ray damage? Or something else?

I got this reddish spot in the middle of about half my shots. Any thoughts on what this might be? My guess is damage from an airport x-ray (it went thru a few times) but I'd love your thoughts. This is Portra 800 pushed 1 stop so I understand I was definitely pushing my luck with x-ray exposure. This was the 3rd roll I shot with this new (to me) Nikon 35Ti and had great results on the first two.

I guess the reason I'm not so sure about the x-ray issue is that the spot seemed strangely consistent to what I would expect to see from x-ray? Very similar spots/colors and shape on each shot. Is that what x-ray exposure would look like? Thanks for any advice!

Most likely a light leak of some kind.

Looks like being exposed trough the back of the film.
I guess of mine would be the window in the back door.

Pushing doesn't make a film more sensitive to x-ray damage. If there is any damage at all the push processing chain may make it a little more visible because you are amplifying the luminosity information that is in the negative. But I doubt that in practice you'd get x-ray damage that isn't visible in a normally processed film vs. the same film with the same x-ray dose but push processed.

I have no idea what kind of light leak could lead to the pattern shown in your images, but when I bought my first film camera from ebay (I used film before the digital age, but only as a normal consumer, not a hobbyist) it had light leaks through bad seals of the camera back. But they wouldn't always show up. It depended on the strength and direction of light shining onto the camera.

What I'm trying to say is that you may still have a light leak despite previous rolls looking ok.

Dear aschepsman,

It is a light leak. When I look for the source of light leaks, I load some black and white film and shoot several frames with a lens cap in place. Then I put the camera in bright sun for a bit (without the lens cap of course) and flip it around once in a while. Usually for a couple of hours as many light leaks are small. Once done, take an very under exposed photo so that you and line the film up with the camera once developed. Take a few more shots with the lens cap on so that you have examples on both sides. Remember that the image is upside down when lining up the film.

Good luck,

Neal Wydra

It looks like a light leak. Replace the camera seals. X-ray damage usually leaves streaks or wavy lines.

what kind of shutter in that camera?