Topic: My Holga light leak

[Jeff Warden]

Check my math for me?

Here's what my Holga looked like before heading out on a hike with my boys today. I hadn't used it in a few years but I remembered a light leak so I taped everything:





I figured that would solve any leaking, but when I developed the film this leak was there. The leak is smallest on frame 1, growing to a big thing on frame 12. The location didn't change.







So, my question #1. The exposed roll was wound tightly in the camera but I had to wrestle it out of the camera in my kitchen. Since the leak gets worse toward exposure twelve, could this problem be from light leaking when I remove the film? If so I would have thought the leak would move on that top edge as the circumference of the roll increases, right? But the leak seems stationary.

Question #2. If the leak is from the camera, where is it? The upper right of the scanned image is getting the leak, so does that mean the leak is from the bottom left of the camera?

I want to like this camera. I really do!

[John Robison]

My first thought is that this looks kike a leak from a loose roll, so I'd go with that as a working idea. The cost to find out is the price of another roll, (and you would take out the test roll in total darkness) and the potential to waste that roll.
If you really like this camera, and push comes to shove, then buying a new one would, depending on location, cost $30~$50 and of course, since it is a Holga you could have problems with the new one also.


A PS; I notice that currently B&H has the standard Holga 120N for $33.01 with free shipping. Even if you sort the problem with your current camera, that is fairly cheap for a second camera.

[Francois]

The leak appears to be bottom left.
Thought I have an action sampler who has a single leak that's caused by a malformation of one of the lenses.
 Could also be a fat roll.... But since you say it wasn't the case, I doubt it would be that.

[Jeff Warden]

Thanks for the feedback guys. John I think your idea is a logical next step so I've loaded the camera and taped it up like Fort Knox and will unload the film in my changing bag. At least that will eliminate (or illuminate) user error. I'll report back.

[Jeff Warden]

Man is this camera a clunker. I just did my little experiment during my lunch hour. I unloaded the camera in the changing bag directly to the developing tank, and I got exactly the same light leak in the same position.

So at least I know unloading the camera is not an issue, and I'll go out on a limb and posit that loading the camera is also not the issue. And since the entire perimeter of the camera back is sealed with Gaff tape the leak can't be there. This light must be coming from the front, around or through the lens somehow.

Taping around the lens (which would prevent it from focusing but make the gap light tight) would narrow the cause of the problem down once more, but that would cost more film and time, and I'm done. Maybe I'll turn it into a pinhole cam one day.

[Francois]

I think you need to use the closet and flashlight method.
I have a piece of cardboard covered with glow in the dark paint. This might help in a sense as you let the phosphorescence die down, put it in the camera in the dark and use a flashlight to illuminate the borders of everything. When you inspect the card, where it glows is your problem...

Check the sliders on the lens, the shutter to see if it closes properly, that the shutter is screwed on correctly from the inside...

[Bryan]

Could it be a problem with the shutter?  Maybe it’s not completely closing properly after you take a shot.

[Francois]

Was thinking the same. But these are easy to fix, just unscrew it from inside the camera and check it visually. Might be in need of a few drops of sewing machine oil.

[EarlJam]

If it's any consolation, a buddy of mine spent the better part of a year chasing a light leak in his Leica M4, which ultimately came down to an incorrect light seal on one side.

It's been years since I last handled a Holga, but given the location of the leak, I wonder if the culprit might be the shutter mode switch beneath the lens. It's in about the right location for the leak that you're getting.

(Attached picture borrowed from the Web)

[Jeff Warden]

The area around the lens board has a raised edge (arrow) that would prevent most leaks, but I taped around it anyway.



The lens only has partial threads (arrows) and in theory light could get through the places where there are no threads but it's a convoluted path and unlikely to be my problem, as the light leak is in the same place on my negatives regardless of how I focus the lens.



The camera fails the flashlight test though, so I'm taking a look at the shutter. The shutter is a rotating disk that needs to be flat to seal the light. It isn't perfectly flat and I doubt it ever was.

[Jeff Warden]

It's been years since I last handled a Holga, but given the location of the leak, I wonder if the culprit might be the shutter mode switch beneath the lens. It's in about the right location for the leak that you're getting.

I suppose so, but in my case I taped over that entire area so it was sealed. I think my problem is a shutter disk that isn't flat.

[astrobeck]

I think it's the shutter. I can send you a different shutter to try if you like...

P.S. your camera was made 2011 in February. I have enough holgas that I figured out the code on the bottom inspection sticker

[Jeff Warden]

I think it's the shutter. I can send you a different shutter to try if you like...

P.S. your camera was made 2011 in February. I have enough holgas that I figured out the code on the bottom inspection sticker

Hi Becky!

Actually that inspection sticker image was from EJ's post - I think I bought my camera in '09.

And yes, please send a shutter! Thanks so much. I like the way this lens renders and appreciate the unpredictability of Holgas, but that big light leak was a little too predictable for my taste.

Let me know if you've misplaced my address. I'll find an interesting way to reciprocate.

You're the best.

:-)

[astrobeck]

Shutter is on the way to you...
after looking at your negs again..I'm wondering a couple of things...

1. perhaps the leak is through or around the red window in the back of the camera. I saw that you had it taped, but what if the tape was letting light peek through when you lift it to see the numbers on the paper backing as you wind on....seems it would smear light...but then we are talking Holga and anything can happen. I had a leak once that was around the red window and not through it, so I taped all the edges where the window is.

2. there are two holes inside the camera in the center below where the flash shoe is. In the photo I have attached the pencil is pointing to the one on the left side. I tape over those.  Your leaks don't look like light trespass from those, but again...we are talking high quality Holga here...

[Francois]

Holga, definitely not the finest German engineering...

[Jeff Warden]

Shutter is on the way to you...
after looking at your negs again..I'm wondering a couple of things...

1. perhaps the leak is through or around the red window in the back of the camera. I saw that you had it taped, but what if the tape was letting light peek through when you lift it to see the numbers on the paper backing as you wind on....seems it would smear light...but then we are talking Holga and anything can happen. I had a leak once that was around the red window and not through it, so I taped all the edges where the window is.

2. there are two holes inside the camera in the center below where the flash shoe is. In the photo I have attached the pencil is pointing to the one on the left side. I tape over those.  Your leaks don't look like light trespass from those, but again...we are talking high quality Holga here...

Those two little holes are a surprise, and I just taped over them, just to be safe. I also re-taped the inside of the red window for luck.

With your help this Holga will be pacified.  #pacifytheholga

 

[Jeff Warden]

Shutter is on the way to you...

Becky was absolutely correct; no amount of taping this body would have helped because the problem was a leaky shutter. Now that my Philly Holga has a New Mexico shutter I can point it directly at the sun with no problems whatsoever.

Thank you Becky!

Now that this poor camera finally works properly I will use it. And I think it needs a name that reflects its multi-state Filmwasting Frankenstein no-more-leak history. But I'm terrible at names. Any ideas?

[Francois]

Philis Alsa maybe? (say it while listening to yourself )
Or Penn Mex...
I know... these suck too... 

[Jeff Warden]

Philis Alsa maybe? (say it while listening to yourself )
Or Penn Mex...
I know... these suck too... 

Becky sent a suggestion of “Jeff Beck” which is hilarious and for the win. 😆

[Francois]

Definitely better than what I came up with