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Vertical artifacts appear on every photo on Minolta XD-7, bought as "refurbished". Can this be easily fixed?

enter image description here

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    \$\begingroup\$ When you say, every photo, is that on a single roll of film? Or you have used a second roll? Take a look at: photo.stackexchange.com/questions/90364/… \$\endgroup\$
    – Rafael
    Commented Mar 4 at 18:49
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Rafael single roll film, on every photo. Edited picture for clarity \$\endgroup\$
    – brabec
    Commented Mar 5 at 8:40
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    \$\begingroup\$ It is definitely a light leak, but I find it hard to guess where. If there is a light leak e.g. along the edges of the back cover (not unusual), you would expect the brighter stripes to be in the same location on each frame. \$\endgroup\$
    – jarnbjo
    Commented Mar 5 at 13:22

3 Answers 3

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Shop for a tiny LED Key Chain flashlight. It must be a design that stays illuminated once the on-switch is activated. Turn on this flashlight, place it inside the camera's film chamber, close the camera back and retire to a dark closet. Take a chair with you. Now sit in the dark with the camera on your lap. Examine the closed camera for a period of time while rotating the camera. If the camera’s seals or hinges are bad, the light inside the sealed camera will leak out. In other words, if light leaks in, it will also leak out.

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Given that the artifact is vertical, I suspect your camera is leaking at either the hinge or the door latch side of the film door. Perhaps when you hold the camera, twist it slightly or even touch the door, it leaks onto the exposure that has not yet entered the take up spool. Check to see if the negatives are exposed across the entire height, including the sprockets. The sprockets are a good indication of the origin of the leak.

You might check the seal at either end of the film door.

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This appears to be a light leak affecting the film roll and not the exposure path.

It appears to be worse for earlier images, which would indicate the light leak is affecting the area where the film is rolled after exposure. And that would also explain it not being located in a consistent location in each image. My guess is that it is the door hinge seal.

Seal kits are available, inexpensive, and not difficult to replace. one example

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