Pentax 6x7 MLU Light leaks

[Sean Kelly]

Hey all, wondering if any one could shed any light on my situation (no pun intended). I recently bought a Pentax 67 and have been loving it, the first two rolls were some of the most immaculate negatives i've ever gotten back from the lab. However I picked up two more rolls yesterday and there were light leaks along the edges of everything! Weird ones too, you can see in the photos below that you can actually see numbers and symbols, almost as if the backing paper was somewhat printed onto the negative? I've never seen this before and am pretty confused because no harm was done to the camera in between rolls, it was also a matter of like two days between shooting the good and the bad. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

 

[markbau]

I think your roll hasn't wound up tightly and allowed some light to leak in although the last image is a bit of a mystery as the leak is not from the sides.

 

[Sean Kelly]

Interesting, so not tight enough before putting into camera or loosening on the way out you think?

 

[markbau]

When I first started using 120 film this happened a couple of times until I learned to grasp the roll tight as I removed it from the camera until the tape is firmly secured. I found it was very common on 220 film, probably because it had no backing paper.

 

[Sean Kelly]

Huh interesting, noted! I’ve been shooting medium for a while and never had this happen, it totally makes sense though. Thank you!

 

[shutterfinger]

The camera take up may not be winding the film up tightly on the take up. In addition to holding the film tight as you remove it from the camera pull on the end of the paper until its tight before attaching the retaining tape.

(turn the spool so the end of the backing paper is accessible, hold the edge of the spool, pull on the paper until tight.)

 

[Dan Daniel]

I've had some loose rolls from some 120 cameras and never from others. I remember Fuji GW690s doing this if I wasn't very careful in loading to keep the film taut before I closed the back. I do not know if this is a known problem with the Pentax. When it happened with the Fuji, there was usually an eccentric nature to the looseness, leading to on and off light leaks. One roll had close to a crimp in the film and backing paper as the eccentricity seemed to get compressed being wound. So I would check the tightness of the film on loading unexposed film as well as on removing exposed film. The on and off nature of your leaks makes me think of this.

 

[Sean Kelly]

This is all super helpful, thank you every one!

 

[Sirius Glass]

Do not roll the exposed film too tightly. Rubber bands around the film causes marks on the emulsion. I got black plastic cases to store the exposed film until processed and that took care of the exposed edges. Your camera is probably ok.

 

[M Carter]

Do not roll the exposed film too tightly. Rubber bands around the film causes marks on the emulsion. I got black plastic cases to store the exposed film until processed and that took care of the exposed edges. Your camera is probably ok.

If you print B&W, the black bag from 5x7 paper (or from Freestyle's cut litho film) is handy to keep in your camera bag for stashing shot rolls of 120.

 

[Sean Kelly]

That’s a great idea, thank you!