Light leak - Bolex!

[Guest Kathleen Lawler]

Hello everyone

 

I have had this Bolex Rx5 for about 3 years now. I've used it quite a few times - there's never been a problem with light leaking into the camera.

 

So when I was shooting a short student stop motion pixellation movie on the streets at night, I didn't think it was necessary to tape up the camera.

 

I got the footage back - there was bad light leaking, streaking red and orange onto the first 2/3 of the footage. The last 1/3 of the footage was fine. But I am upset, because we spent so long shooting it (2 long cold rainy nights) and I don't think we can use the footage.

 

The telecine operator reckons there could have been light leaking from the top of the camera, and the street lights could have been angled just the right way to ruin my film. However, I did open up my camera at the end of the 2/3 shoot, to check it wasn't jamming (the footage counter wasn't advancing evenly). I did run it forward well, but am just wondering whether that was a bad idea, too.

 

Help!

[Mike Lary]

Did you have the eyepiece diopter closed? If not, light could have leaked in that way. What speed film were you using and how long did you have the camera open? Did you run film while the camera was open? Were you running from daylight spools or from a core?

[Guest Kathleen Lawler]

I kept my eye to the eyepiece when the shutter was open, to stop light leaking in. However I did run on some film while the camera was open - to check that it was advancing frame by frame (as the frame counter was unreliable). I had made sure to run on a fair amount of film before opening the camera, however - to stop the exposed film from fogging. But perhaps that wasn't good enough. :( I used daylight spools not any cores. I had the camera open for about 10 minutes, checking the mechanism. I used 200T film.

[Sean McHenry]

I would think if it was a light leak and you were shooting in the same conditions for the entire roll, it would have leaked onto the entire roll, not just the first 2/3. You see this streak in the frame edges, between frames, correct? That would mean the body was leaking someplace or around the lens mount. Do you have a filter holder on that one that might be leaking? Not a Rex5 owner but those can be trouble I hear.

 

S.

[Jean-Louis Seguin]

I had the camera open for about 10 minutes, checking the mechanism. I used 200T film.

 

 

 

If you had the camera door off for ten whole minutes with ISO 200 film, it is no surprise that everything previously exposed got fogged. In a matter of seconds, the first few layers would have been fogged.

 

If you feel you had to check if the film was running OK, you should have used a loading bag, even at night.

 

Cheers,

Jean-Louis