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Subject: This Sputnik light leak is making me crazy. Please help!
Date: 2008-04-08 21:03:44
From: amuderick
My Sputnik has a light leak that is driving me bonkers. I cannot
figure it out. I need help. My camera has had every possible mod and
adjustment and is ready for action...except for this show stopper.

The ONLY thing which seems to make it go away is applying continuous
pressure to the left door (which also implies pressure compressing the
entire body).

Here is a photo:
http://x-wing.brouda.com/~aaron/lightleakexample2.jpg

The leak is on the left eye only. As you can see, the leak does not
extend past the edges of the exposure area. It extends from the top
to the bottom of the area which can be exposed by the lens. The
fuzziness on the bottom is the paper flocking which juts against the
film at the film plane. It does not leak into the edges of the film.

This hints to me that it is not coming from the doors. Also the fact
that taping the doors (top, middle, and bottom) has had no effect or
change. If the light was leaking from the doors (and there were some
of those leaks, now fixed), the fogging would be from the edge in, right?

Also, I have tested with the exposure window open, closed, taped,
flocked, etc. No change.

Help! I am going nuts. Thank you.
Subject: Re: This Sputnik light leak is making me crazy. Please help!
Date: 2008-04-08 21:17:05
From: Jeremy McGee
In a dark room you could take an l.e.d. flash-light key chain and, with it lit, drop it into the camera, close the door and look for any light coming out.

amuderick wrote:
My Sputnik has a light leak that is driving me bonkers. I cannot
figure it out. I need help. My camera has had every possible mod and
adjustment and is ready for action...except for this show stopper.

The ONLY thing which seems to make it go away is applying continuous
pressure to the left door (which also implies pressure compressing the
entire body).

Here is a photo:
http://x-wing. brouda.com/ ~aaron/lightleak example2. jpg

The leak is on the left eye only. As you can see, the leak does not
extend past the edges of the exposure area. It extends from the top
to the bottom of the area which can be exposed by the lens. The
fuzziness on the bottom is the paper flocking which juts against the
film at the film plane. It does not leak into the edges of the film.

This hints to me that it is not coming from the doors. Also the fact
that taping the doors (top, middle, and bottom) has had no effect or
change. If the light was leaking from the doors (and there were some
of those leaks, now fixed), the fogging would be from the edge in, right?

Also, I have tested with the exposure window open, closed, taped,
flocked, etc. No change.

Help! I am going nuts. Thank you.


Subject: Re: This Sputnik light leak is making me crazy. Please help!
Date: 2008-04-08 21:35:07
From: amuderick
--- In MF3D-group@yahoogroups.com, Jeremy McGee wrote:
>
> In a dark room you could take an l.e.d. flash-light key chain and,
with it lit, drop it into the camera, close the door and look for any
light coming out.
>
> amuderick wrote:
> My Sputnik has a light leak that is driving me bonkers. I
cannot
> figure it out. I need help. My camera has had every possible mod and
> adjustment and is ready for action...except for this show stopper.
>
> The ONLY thing which seems to make it go away is applying continuous
> pressure to the left door (which also implies pressure compressing the
> entire body).
>
> Here is a photo:
> http://x-wing.brouda.com/~aaron/lightleakexample2.jpg
>
> The leak is on the left eye only. As you can see, the leak does not
> extend past the edges of the exposure area. It extends from the top
> to the bottom of the area which can be exposed by the lens. The
> fuzziness on the bottom is the paper flocking which juts against the
> film at the film plane. It does not leak into the edges of the film.
>
> This hints to me that it is not coming from the doors. Also the fact
> that taping the doors (top, middle, and bottom) has had no effect or
> change. If the light was leaking from the doors (and there were some
> of those leaks, now fixed), the fogging would be from the edge in,
right?
>
> Also, I have tested with the exposure window open, closed, taped,
> flocked, etc. No change.
>
> Help! I am going nuts. Thank you.
>

Funny you mention that. I thought that was a good idea as well. I
tried it to no avail. I don't think it was quite bright enough to
notice on the outside.

However, minutes after posting this message (and after trying to
figure this out for weeks), I finally found the problem. It's funny
how summarizing your thoughts into a letter leads right to the solution.

I stuck my eye up to the left back and held a 500W spot up to the
lens. I covered my other eye (my daughter's pirate patch). When I
turned on the spotlight, I could just see a tiny gap about 30 degrees
long where the lens didn't meet the body. I hadn't flocked that close
to the edge of the lens. I covered it up and I'll test it tomorrow.
I'm 99% sure that will solve it.

Thanks for listening ;-)
Subject: Re: This Sputnik light leak is making me crazy. Please help!
Date: 2008-04-08 21:35:09
From: amuderick
--- In MF3D-group@yahoogroups.com, Jeremy McGee wrote:
>
> In a dark room you could take an l.e.d. flash-light key chain and,
with it lit, drop it into the camera, close the door and look for any
light coming out.
>
> amuderick wrote:
> My Sputnik has a light leak that is driving me bonkers. I
cannot
> figure it out. I need help. My camera has had every possible mod and
> adjustment and is ready for action...except for this show stopper.
>
> The ONLY thing which seems to make it go away is applying continuous
> pressure to the left door (which also implies pressure compressing the
> entire body).
>
> Here is a photo:
> http://x-wing.brouda.com/~aaron/lightleakexample2.jpg
>
> The leak is on the left eye only. As you can see, the leak does not
> extend past the edges of the exposure area. It extends from the top
> to the bottom of the area which can be exposed by the lens. The
> fuzziness on the bottom is the paper flocking which juts against the
> film at the film plane. It does not leak into the edges of the film.
>
> This hints to me that it is not coming from the doors. Also the fact
> that taping the doors (top, middle, and bottom) has had no effect or
> change. If the light was leaking from the doors (and there were some
> of those leaks, now fixed), the fogging would be from the edge in,
right?
>
> Also, I have tested with the exposure window open, closed, taped,
> flocked, etc. No change.
>
> Help! I am going nuts. Thank you.
>

Funny you mention that. I thought that was a good idea as well. I
tried it to no avail. I don't think it was quite bright enough to
notice on the outside.

However, minutes after posting this message (and after trying to
figure this out for weeks), I finally found the problem. It's funny
how summarizing your thoughts into a letter leads right to the solution.

I stuck my eye up to the left back and held a 500W spot up to the
lens. I covered my other eye (my daughter's pirate patch). When I
turned on the spotlight, I could just see a tiny gap about 30 degrees
long where the lens didn't meet the body. I hadn't flocked that close
to the edge of the lens. I covered it up and I'll test it tomorrow.
I'm 99% sure that will solve it.

Thanks for listening ;-)