Piece of film blocking the lens

I just finished a roll of film in my Cannon GIII QL-17 today and when I took it out of the camera, I found a small piece of film that looked like the cut end of the leader sitting on the lens - cleanly cut at a 45 degree angle, not broken or torn. I processed the film tonight and many of the frames on this roll clearly show that the piece of film was blocking the lens. The puzzling part is that the film leader from the roll was completely intact, not broken or missing at all. Nor was the leader from the last roll I ran through this camera.

Is it possible that there was a loose piece of leader included in the cartridge during manufacture?

Has anyone run into anything like this before?


Thanks,

Or it was there from a previous roll.

If it was in the can I'd expect it to have scracthed the film in some place.

I think I figured it out. It probably broke off a few rolls ago. I think I remember a roll that I cranked about a half frame too far. The canon QL-17 has a complicated film feeder /threader mechanism that a piece of film could easily hide in. It probably was wedged in there until something popped it loose.

It's out now<g>.

The good news is that only about half of the frames were affected so I got a few usable images off the roll.



Thanks,