Weird thin black line in viewfinder

[Francisco Rodrigues]

Don't know the best place to ask about this, so I'll just do it here. Have a shoot on the 3rd on Super 8. Just grabbed my camera to play with it and noticed this line in the viewfinder (sorry for the rubbish pic really hard to take a pic of). It's the thin line in the upright corner. Bascially, I want to know if I need to worry about it. Will it show on the film? Does this mean bad things, or should just not worry ? It doesn't look like dust either. Hence why I was worried when I noticed it (I thought it was like a bug's leg LOL ) . Could anyone help me with this ?

 

Didnt know how to add an image so put it in the first image into link converter i found on google:

 

 https://ibb.co/9rJxznh

[Martin Baumgarten]

These little black lines happen at times.....usually a hair or something that got into the viewfinder system. With fixed lens cameras, they often enter via the film gate.  It's only in the viewfinder and not in the film imaging path, so there's nothing to worry about. It's just an annoyance.  I do have to add though.....it DEPENDS on your camera.  Some simple models from the 60s and early 70s had a full beam splitter prism which the imaging rays passed thru to the film and the viewfinder.  IF yours is like that...then it could show up.  Use a small maglite or some similar bright hand torch lamp and shine a light thru the film gate, while the camera is on a tripod and close to a white wall [or tape some white paper to the wall].  Run the camera and you'll see an image outline of the film gate...and then adjust the focus and zoom to different degrees to see if you can see this line/hair on your screen.  You can't really adjust focus ahead of time since the hair is not on the film plane but somewhere either on the prism or the viewfinder.  If it's NOT showing up in this test, you're good to go.  I mention all this, since you did not let us know which camera make and model you are referring to.

 

Edited November 28, 2022 by Martin Baumgarten