Light leaks on B&W but not color film

[Rick A]

Check to make sure the camera back is closing tightly, and stays tight(no movement at all), and make sure when you open a fresh roll of film that it is tight as possible to start with. It could be some of the rolls you have may be loose already, or you are allowing them to loosen when loading.

 

[MattKing]

You can tighten the film and backing paper on the spool and fold under the backing paper tongue before you remove the spool from the camera.

I spin the spool with my fingers and use my thumbs to provide tension.

 

[AgX]

"...and fold under the backing paper tongue before you remove the spool"


What do you mean by this?

 

[Plate Voltage]

For what it's worth, I've had similar problems with light leaks on Ilford FP4+ and HP5+ 120 film. Unless the films are changed out in very subdued lighting, the edges of the negatives darken up from light leakage exactly the way your pictures show. However, I've never had a problem with Fuji or Kodak E6 films experiencing light leakage like that when I've changed them out under the same lighting conditions.

I went through a lengthy troubleshooting process for exactly the same reason about two years ago to try and determine if the problem was because of the camera or a bad film back and ended up coming to the conclusion that the Ilford film's backing paper must not be as tight up against the edges of the reels as Fuji's or Kodak's. It must be allowing just enough light through to expose the edges when you're stuck with changing films out under fairly bright light. When I'm able to avoid doing that, the negatives are fine but it isn't always possible. The fact it was kind of an intermittent problem because I was sometimes able to change films in very subdued light and sometimes not certainly made figuring this one out more difficult...

 

[MattKing]

"...and fold under the backing paper tongue before you remove the spool"


What do you mean by this?

Boy, is this harder to explain then to show!

When I get to the end of the film, the backing paper tongue and the adhesive coated "Exposed" strip are both loose at the end. If you don't somehow make that tongue shorter, the "Exposed" strip won't seal in a way that will reliably hold the backing paper tight on the spool. So you need to either cut off the tongue or, preferably, fold it under so that the end of the backing paper is a straight line, and the "Exposed" strip can make a good stick-on seal.

 

[omaha]

Since getting into MF last year, I see this a lot. It does seem like Ilford is more prone to it than Kodak, but then again, I'm generally using Ilford in my folder, which means I'm loading and unloading outdoors quite a lot. My Kodak film use is generally in my RB67, and I usually load up a few backs indoors before heading out to a shoot. So there's enough variation in technique there to explain the difference.

Anyway, I've never had exposure from an edge leak like that go far enough to effect an image.