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I ran a factory roll of Neopan 400 through my new-to-me Leica M5, and developed in Rodinal Special. For the last 18 exposures, I used a Summaron 35mm f/3.5 LTM lens. When looking at scans of the Summaron negatives, I see that on some -- not all -- of just the vertical photos there is a strange light leak pattern visible in the lower right corner -- see the attached.
I've unscrewed the lens, leaving the adapter M/LTM mount on the camera so the meter cell will move when I advance the film, and have watched the shutter curtains when I shoot -- the meter is fully retracted, so this isn't light doing a weird reflection off the meter somehow, and I don't see any shutter bounce, which in any case would show up evenly across the bottom or top of the image. I see that the light pattern seems to have a very defined, straight line at the bottom, which I cannot explain.
I don't think it's the camera body, as other vertical shots with different lenses don't have a pattern -- and even other vertical shots with the Summaron don't have the light pattern. I'm wondering if maybe there was an odd light reflection off the front chrome of the lens that was then imprinted on the film, but most of the images this appears in were not shot in direct sunlight -- just the opposite.
Of course I'll put the lens on a different body and see what happens, see if the light leak follows the lens. And I'll shoot the M5 with just my Summicron to see what that does in vertical shots. What I find most puzzling is why just verticals, and why is it intermittent.
Any thoughts?
I've unscrewed the lens, leaving the adapter M/LTM mount on the camera so the meter cell will move when I advance the film, and have watched the shutter curtains when I shoot -- the meter is fully retracted, so this isn't light doing a weird reflection off the meter somehow, and I don't see any shutter bounce, which in any case would show up evenly across the bottom or top of the image. I see that the light pattern seems to have a very defined, straight line at the bottom, which I cannot explain.
I don't think it's the camera body, as other vertical shots with different lenses don't have a pattern -- and even other vertical shots with the Summaron don't have the light pattern. I'm wondering if maybe there was an odd light reflection off the front chrome of the lens that was then imprinted on the film, but most of the images this appears in were not shot in direct sunlight -- just the opposite.
Of course I'll put the lens on a different body and see what happens, see if the light leak follows the lens. And I'll shoot the M5 with just my Summicron to see what that does in vertical shots. What I find most puzzling is why just verticals, and why is it intermittent.
Any thoughts?