P3D Re: TDC Vivid Light Leak?

[Paul Talbot <ptww@xxxxxxxxx>]

George Themelis wrote:
 
> Bruce brought up the issue of an unusual flare problem in his
> TDC Vivid which apparently is common in these cameras.
> 
> Conclusion:  There is a location where light can leak into the
> camera.  This is by the camera back hinge in the side of the
> film canister.

If you set the camera to "B," open the camera back, lock the
shutter open, and look into the camera while pointing it in
various directions, you will also notice a peculiar reflection
problem that seems to be related to an odd shaped bit of the
camera's internals on the left hand image side.  The reflection
will be more or less obvious (or not even seen) depending on
the direction of the light source.  I had about, oh, negative
twenty minutes ;-) to try to look at this on Bruce's camera
(before his wife kindly drove me from their home to the Milwaukee
airport, after the convention in Green Bay.)  I think it is still
possible the strange flare is coming from reflections off this
protrusion.  Bruce had suspected this protrusion as a possible
cause of the problem when he first mentioned it many months
ago.  I admit I was skeptical until I saw the reflection using
this technique.

I'd be curious to hear whether the black tape on the hinge
actually improves the problem in Bruce's camera.

Many thanks to Tom Deering for describing this technique
for observing the Sputnik internal reflection problem!

Paul Talbot