Minolta XD-7 - the return of the light leak!

November 18, 2018

Minolta XD-7 - the return of the light leak!

Well, for those of you who follow my blog regularly (does anyone follow my blog regularly??), you may remember a post I put up in April this year about a light leak in my Minolta XD-7 .

At the time I had replaced the door seals but not the hinge seal because I didn't want any pressure put on the hinge that might break it. Anyway, it turns out that I did have to put a hinge seal on because I was getting a light leak from the hinge side of the door.

So, with the hinge seal installed I loaded up with a roll of Ilford XP2 Super 400 and crossed my fingers. Well, disappointingly, the seal did not work. I had used a soft foam material and, unfortunately, even when compressed by the closed door it was too porous to stop the light from coming in.

Of course, when I saw that I hadn't defeated the light leak, I was very disappointed. Not all exposures were affected by the light leak though; I think that depending upon how I held the camera, the angle to the Sun, and if I was shooting on a bright sunny day may have determined how much light got in through the door hinge.

So, I figured I would hunt around for something else to seal the camera with and, shopping around I found the (hopefully) perfect seal material in a craft shop. It is a soft rubbery foam that is about 2mm thick. It is not porous at all so hopefully not even the smallest amount of light will get through. I replaced the porous foam all around the door and hinge this time. The camera door is a little tight to close but I am hoping this is the sign of a good seal around the edges, especially the hinge.

The film that I used this time around was an Ilford XP2 Super 400. It is a black and white Chromogenic Film. That means to say that it is developed in C41 Colour Film Developer. Not many of them left in the market from what I believe. This film was gifted to me by a friend and was a little over 10 years past its expiry date. You can shoot film that is past its expiry date, there is just some small adjustments to be made to the camera settings. As per general rule of thumb, expired film should be shot at minus 1 stop of exposure for every 10 years expired. Or it can be pushed through the development stage. I always opt for the underexposure whilst shooting. To achieve the underexposure, I shot this film at ISO200, and not the box speed of 400.

This was a very low contrast film and so I made some small contrast adjustments in Lightroom. Mind you, that was the only adjustment required. The film is wonderfully sharp and for an ISO400 film, I was happy that it did not display a heavy grain that can be found in some films.