I finally caught the culprit behind my light leaks after 18 months

I kept getting these weird streaks on my shots from a Canon AE-1 I bought at a flea market. For a year and a half I blamed it on bad film loading or maybe a rough shutter. Then last week I taped up the hinge area with some black electrical tape as a test. Every single roll since has come out clean with no streaks at all. Turns out the foam light seal around the film door had completely crumbled away and I never noticed. Has anyone else chased a phantom problem for that long only to find it was something boring like old foam?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_kim8h agoMost Upvoted

Funny how our brains jump to the most complicated explanation first... That's just how life works though, isn't it. We always want the problem to be something exciting or technical instead of just old foam or a loose screw. Reminds me of how I spent a month thinking my car had transmission trouble when it was just a low fluid level.

kaimiller7h ago

Gotta push back a little on that one, @the_kim. Low fluid level IS a technical problem, just a simple one. Our brains don't jump to the complicated thing first, they jump to the thing we've been conditioned to fear most. Transmission trouble sounds scary and expensive, so your brain latches onto that worst case scenario because it's trying to protect you from getting stranded. It's actually a survival instinct thing. The real trick is learning to pause and check the simple stuff before panicking. Have you found any good mental tricks for forcing yourself to look at the cheap fixes first?