What could have caused this? - Film SLR

[LIMDQ]

Hi,

So i found an old Pentax K1000 and decided to go shoot film. I used a roll of Kodak Ultra-max 400 film, and a Pentax 50mm SMC f/4 macro lens. Lens was tested on my K30 and worked perfectly.

Sent to fotohub for C41 processing.

Attached here are three consecutive photos, shot one after another.





I metered my camera at ISO800 for the whole roll of film. I do not think its a metering issue as half the photos turned out ok.

Any idea what could have caused the over-exposure? More samples of OK photos (metered at 800 ISO as well) are attached below.

 

[LIMDQ]

More bad pics here.





And good pics.

 

[alwaysjerricky]

Did you open the film back during shooting? May be due to light leaks.

 

[donut88]

Could be the film didnt roll itself properly after the shutter pressed.

 

[SilverPine]

For film shutter work differently from our current day DSLR, the shutter curtain move from left to right when you press the shutter button. The problem is the shutter curtain moving speed do not tally with the shutter speed, in your case the shutter curtain moved too slow as a result you can see partial shutter curtain. I think you might need to service your film camera.

 

[LIMDQ]

Thank you all for the quick replies.

Jerrick, i did not open the camera during shooting, nor did i change a lens. (actually changing a lens would not cause this effect). I also don't think its a light leak cos the first half of the roll was fine.
Donut88, i'm pretty sure the film rolled itself properly cos it only happened to the 2nd half of the roll.
SilverPine, I think that's most likely what happened. I noticed that this happened when I shot at faster shutter speeds. Think like 1/250 and above. When i shot under low light at 1/125 or lower, there was no such curtain "effect". I can either service it, or use a slow enough shutter speed (at the expense of aperture) so that the curtain doesn't show up. Its a pretty old camera (25+ yrs), but its a made in Japan Pentax K1000, so i might still send it for a service.

Once again thank you all for your replies. Greatly appreciated.

 

[titus1984]

Seems like sticky shutter.. at certain shutter speed the shutter is unable to fully open?

 

[LIMDQ]

Could be a reason as well. It seems like the defects show up only at high shutter speeds as i have previously mentioned. I have tried releasing the shutter with the back cover open just to see how the shutter opens and close. I dont see the shutter being stuck. Best way to solve this is perhaps to bring it down for a service.

 

[sammy888]

It does look like a shutter curtain that is not working properly at certain shutter speed. I recall something similar that happened to me years ago shooting film and this happen when i use my flash with the camera. As the syn speed went faster then the flash could fire I only get partial exposure similar to these. As I lower the shutter speed down to 1/60 everything was fine. I accidentally adjusted my shutter speed to the wrong speed and shot off all the flash shot on the wrong speed. And when i look at the shots that were shot without flash it was fine. That could be it.

 

[catchlights]

those half frame black out is shutter didn't open fully,
and those very grainy pix are very underexposed, when the lab try to print or scan will try to bring up the density, it causes the flat colours and grains.
first pix is looks like light leak, but look closely is acturally very underexposed and the shutter didn't open fully at the same time.

fyi,
for older 35mm film cameras, usually those fully mechanical body, their shutter curtains run horizontally, so their max flash sync is only 1/60 sec,
those newer generation electronic film cameras, most of them have their shutter curtains run vertically, so they can go up to 1/250 sec flash sync speed.

btw, don't trust the exposure meter of the old cameras, just learn the basic daylight exposure or download a light meter apps into your smart phone.