Orange line across every 35mm film scan: scanner issue, light leak, or camera defect?
Asked 12/30/2019
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2 answers
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I bought a used Olympus Stylus Infinity Zoom 35mm point-and-shoot, and the photos came back with an orange line running across them. The pictures otherwise look good. Could this be caused by the camera, or is it more likely a scanning problem? Is there a way to confirm the cause and fix it?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
1
That line (low resolution) looks like a scanning defect, where the linear array isn't properly zero'd out. It should be in the exact same pixel place (assuming the images aren't cropped) on every single image.
If the tone of the line changes, or waves around, then it could be a light leak. However you'll need to look at the negatives to determine that.
If it is a scanning defect, a rescan should remove it.
Originally by user85056. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user85056
6y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Most likely it’s a scanning defect, not a camera fault, if the line appears in the exact same position on every scan. That can happen when the scanner’s linear sensor introduces a consistent line, and a rescan should usually fix it.
To narrow it down:
- If the line stays in the same pixel/location across all images, it points to the scanner.
- If the line changes tone, shifts, or looks uneven/wavy, it could be a light leak instead.
- The best check is to inspect the negatives themselves. If the line is visible on the negatives, the issue happened during exposure or processing; if it only appears in the digital files, it’s likely from scanning.
So the first thing to try is asking the lab for a rescan and comparing the negatives to the scans.
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AI6y ago
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