Odd pattern of light on my photographs -- lens? camera?

[Trask]

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?

 

[Ian Grant]

It looks suspiciously like flare. It doesn't need to be a bright sunlit day, a dullish day with an are of white sky can sometimes cause this.

Ian

 

[ic-racer]

Light leak in camera. I think that is a common pattern for M5.

 

[AgX]

We definitely should install a new forum: Ghost Photography (a topic a bit out of fashion meanwhile)



What is intersting in this case is the similarity of that artefacts: trapezoidal with same orientation.

 

[gone]

Could be flare, but my guess is it's a light leak.

 

[Trask]

Light leak in camera. I think that is a common pattern for M5.

Interesting -- I'll google around on M5 light leak and see what pops up.

 

[jeffreyg]

I can't answer the question but just some thoughts --- do you have a filter on the lens, a lens shade, could it be a reflection off an aluminum tripod leg and have the verticals that don't show the pattern been taken with the camera flipped vertically with the pattern on the top left?

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

 

[250swb]

It would be easier to guess, possibly wildly, where the leak is coming from if you posted a horizontal format picture, because other than holding the camera upside down it would only come from one direction, whereas a vertical format photo can be taken with the camera either way up, oriented shutter release up (classic), or shutter down (comfortable, according to taste).


Steve

 

[jochen]

Hello,
I suppose that you have a light leak between the two curtains of the shutter. I had a similar problem and there was a tiny textile fibre sticking between the metal edges,

 

[Ian Grant]

Hello,
I suppose that you have a light leak between the two curtains of the shutter. I had a similar problem and there was a tiny textile fibre sticking between the metal edges,

That does sound like a distinct possibility and is easy to check.

Ian

 

[John Koehrer]

I doubt a light leak. Looking at the angle of the exposed section in one it's almost 90 degrees to the bottom edge. The other is at a more acute angle.