afternoon
At long last I decide to tackle this problem. So many other things (paying jobs, getting sick, hanging shows...) have gotten in the way, demanded my time.
I begin by loading film that I know is good in my camera (this all with my new-old Polaroid 180.)
First two shots in shade fine, then shots in sun not fine (not putting all in this book.)I guess it could be light leaks, cracks in the bellows, so I try taping some of the bigger looking cracks to see if it makes any difference.
It does! Back in to tape up all edges with the black electricians tape - and shoot more film to test.
In all, I run over a dozen more peices of film through the camera, turning it, using different f-stops, shutter speeds and focal lengths to test all I can - all with clean results.
I had first guessed these marks were light leaks, but couldn't quite believe it.
They weren't totally consistent, they hadn't been there from the start, but the more I think about it, the more sense it makes.
I hadn't seen any cracks in the bellows when I first got the camera, but as I used it more, it began to crack, small leaks became bigger.
Changing my focus changed where the light leaks were, as focus expands or contracts the bellows. The other thing that tricked me is that at least one of my student cameras began to show the same light marks, at the same time as I had gotten & was using a batch of film slightly beaten up in transit.
Now I realize that I need to go through all my student cameras and patch some bellows! At least I can relax and get back to making art.
