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Bvandrasik
Tinkerer
Username: Bvandrasik
Post Number: 5
Registered: 03-2009
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 25, 2009 - 08:27 pm: | 
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Hopefully this will help out someone else (or maybe it is obvious to you all!) I just started messing with old MF folders. I have two with light leaks I could not locate using any tips I found online. So I put together this contraption: Two AA batteries taped together and wired directly to a flashlight bulb. It fits nicely into the expanded bellows of a MF folder with room to close the back. Stick it into your camera and go into a VERY DARK room, let your eyes adjust to the darkness for a few minutes. It also helps to have a mirror opposite you (I was in a very small powder room). Slowly and carefully inspect the entire camera, looking for any light leaking out. Especially focus on the bellows (of course), and the back-to-body sealing edges. Inspect it from different distances. Look in the mirror while slowly moving and rotating the camera. Reposition the flashlight if you can't find anything.
I was finally able to find the source of the leaks in both of my cameras using this method (one is at the corners where the bellows seal to the body, the other is the back hinge area and latch).
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Rick_oleson
Tinkerer
Username: Rick_oleson
Post Number: 885
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 25, 2009 - 08:38 pm: |
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Looks like a good tool. I use a small strobe for checking bellows and shutter curtains and other light leak gremlins... you have to be looking in the right place when it goes off, but it will show up some very small pinholes. |
Markus
Tinkerer
Username: Markus
Post Number: 125
Registered: 08-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 25, 2009 - 09:16 pm: |
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I like this idea. I have used a small maglite with the front unscrewed. The bulb is really small and pointy. I run it along the creases on the inside of the bellows while looking at it from the outside in a dark closet.
I've encountered some light leaks that were 'directional' for loss of a better description. With a simple light source inside the bellows I probably would not have found them. The maglite bulb right up against the crease of the bellows exposed them, though. |
Ishmael
Tinkerer
Username: Ishmael
Post Number: 5
Registered: 03-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - 06:28 am: |
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Nice idea. I use an upturned enlarger with no lens. |
