What might be causing this light-leak / flare?

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I've been testing a Lipka Rollop II that I was given a couple of years ago. I've cleaned it up and it looks in pretty good condition. It seems mechanically sound, there're no noticeable defects in the glass, and the shutter speeds all work ok (and seem relatively accurate). Not bad for a sixty-year-old camera. I did notice, however, that the light seals had decayed, but decided to run a roll of film through it anyway.

From the first roll around half of them had some degree of light leakage, but a number of other images were perfectly fine, with not a sign of light leaks. The light leaks on many of the frames involve an arc of brightness across the middle of the frame, as below - the second frame shows some more "traditional" light leaks around the edge of the frame too, which I put down to the worn seals:

Testing a Lipka Rollop II - resized.jpg
Testing a Lipka Rollop II-resized 2.jpg

Based on this, I fitted some new foam and gave it another test with a second roll of film. This time every shot was fine except a single frame exhibiting the same arc of light as shown above. It seems a very specific shape and only appears intermittently (moreso on the initial roll before new foam was fitted). It doesn't seem to be an artefact of the camera being pointed at a bright light source as I have examples of the camera being pointed in the same direction where it only appears in some of the shots.

Any clues as to what might be the cause?

It'll be a shame if it can't be resolved as it's quite a nice camera and the lens is pretty sharp.
 
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Ha! Literally minutes after posting this I think I've found the cause. The front lens board has a small gap at the top which if I shine a torch at the front of the camera, reveals a thin arc of light around the lens when viewed through the back of the camera. If some pressure is added to the front, the gap closes and the leak is reduced / removed.

Now to see if there is some way of fixing it...

20200914_190119.jpg20200914_190146.jpg
 
If you have no reason to have the camera repaired/ dismantled at some point in the future then I'd go with some sort of epoxy to bond it in place securely.

One which I've used for some time and very recently to reconstruct my broken paterson tank is JBWeld...Opaque, sets in 6 mins, cures in four hours

Alternatively use something perhaps not so permanent like ......Hmm I dunno, but others will;)
 
If you have no reason to have the camera repaired/ dismantled at some point in the future then I'd go with some sort of epoxy to bond it in place securely.

One which I've used for some time and very recently to reconstruct my broken paterson tank is JBWeld...Opaque, sets in 6 mins, cures in four hours

Alternatively use something perhaps not so permanent like ......Hmm I dunno, but others will;)

I'm thinking that some black electrical tape might be the simplest solution. :)
 
Doesn't the panel with the silver edging move in and out as focus is adjusted?
 
Doesn't the panel with the silver edging move in and out as focus is adjusted?
Hmmm actually that's a darned good point as yes I recall the Rolleicord that i had focused in that manner, the 124G too iirc

OK back to the drawing board.......
 
It appears I’m talking rubbish - the silver sided lens board does move independently of the black part, so back to the drawing board (or just use my Yashica Mat instead...). I’m assuming the intermittent nature of the leak is thus tied to focusing - closer focus means the lens board is extended further, with greater chance of light getting in.

Out of interest, what is that part of a TLR camera called? I’ve referred to it as the “lens standard” and the “lens board”, but I’m not sure if either is correct?
 
I've ben using Blu-tack to temp/test-plug the leaks in my Goodman Zone.
 
I’ve tried applying some firm but careful finger pressure on the affected part of the camera and it now doesn’t seem to look as bad. Not sure if this is a longer term fix (or is even effective!)though - getting jostled in a camera bag might be enough to mess it up again. I’ll maybe run another roll of Fomapan through it to see if it’s effective though. Lucky I got that bad batch of Fomapan that I don’t mind sacrificing, eh? :)

EDIT: Scratch that, it's just transferred the gap to the bottom of the assembly. :LOL:
 
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I'd imagine some form of felt type light seal gasket fitted around the frame of the moving front board would probably be the answer, so it seals gently enough round the black metal frame on the front of the camera body, but doesn't add enough friction to hamper or prevent the focusing movement. Perhaps a discussion to be had with Miles Whitehead with some photos to illustrate?
 
I'd imagine some form of felt type light seal gasket fitted around the frame of the moving front board would probably be the answer, so it seals gently enough round the black metal frame on the front of the camera body, but doesn't add enough friction to hamper or prevent the focusing movement. Perhaps a discussion to be had with Miles Whitehead with some photos to illustrate?

I'm not sure if there would be a felt material thin enough for the job - the gap between the assembly and the camera where it moves is a fraction of a millimetre - it's just when it fully extends that a gap begins to be apparent. I did wonder about fitting a "sleeve" of felt around the silver frame that would expand / contract against the camera body with the focusing.

As the camera was a freebie, I'm not too worried about it and don't want to spend much on repairing it - especially given I have my recently serviced Yashica Mat at my disposal - but it would be nice to keep it working all the same.
 
Sounds to me that the rack holding the lens frame is either slightly bent or has developed wear/play. As a result the entire lens board is slightly out of square. At infinity there is greater overlap but at close distances the shell of the lens board exposes the top of the frame by a small amount.
This out of squareness can also happen on a Rolleiflex and Yashicamat as they both have rack focussing. ( it could be repaired.)

This can never happen on a Minolta Autocord ( and one or two others,) as it has helicoid focusing. However that camera can suffer from solidified grease in the threads, that then need replacing with fresh grease, or the focus lever is likely to break.

Interestingly your camera is showing wear/rub marks at the top corner of the black paint where the silver trim should overlap. which would indicate that it is a long term problem. I have seen other references to this problem with Rollops on the web.
 
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Sounds to me that the rack holding the lens frame is either slightly bent or has developed wear/play. As a result the entire lens board is slightly out of square. At infinity there is greater overlap but at close distances the shell of the lens board exposes the top of the frame by a small amount.
This out of squareness can also happen on a Rolleiflex and Yashicamat as they both have rack focussing. ( it could be repaired.)

...

Interestingly your camera is showing wear/rub marks at the top corner of the black paint where the silver trim should overlap. which would indicate that it is a long term problem. I have seen other references to this problem with Rollops on the web.

Based on my findings, that sounds an accurate description of the fault, Terry.
 
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