Watch out for those old Pentax K1000 light seals

Had a roll come back completely fogged last month from a K1000 I picked up at a thrift shop in Denver. The foam was so degraded it looked fine but was basically letting light leak in through the mirror box. Check your seals even if they look clean, I lost 36 frames before I figured it out. Anyone else deal with foam that looks good but fails?

2 comments

2 Comments

kimr1021d ago

Used to be the type who'd just check the foam with a quick glance and figure if it wasn't crumbling it was fine. Had that same thing happen with a Spotmatic last year though, seals looked clean but light was sneaking in on one side of the hinge. Changed my whole approach after wasting a roll of Portra. Now I do a quick flashlight test in a dark room before I even load film, just shine it around the back and watch for pinholes. It's an easy check and it saves a lot of heartache.

terry_jones21d ago

Oh man that flashlight trick is smart, I do something similar but I tape the camera shut in a dark room for a few minutes then pop it open to see if any light got in around the film canister. Probably overkill but after losing a whole trip to Hawaii to a leaky Mamiya I'm paranoid about it now.