What could cause a horizontal white line in the same place on multiple film scans?
Asked 3/12/2019
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I’m new to film photography. On my first roll, the first half of the images showed a horizontal white line near the top, while the second half of the roll looked normal. The line appears in the same position across affected frames. Would this more likely be caused by the film, the lab/development/scan process, or the camera itself?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
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Considering that the mark is in the exact same position, I would suspect of the camera in the first place (I'm assuming the marks are present in your negatives). I have experienced some similar issue with my fathers Zeiss Ikon back when I began taking shots on film age. In my case what caused that was some light leakage which I discovered after checking every joint and slots against some strong light. I would recomend you check the camera for posible parts with this kind of light leakage. The light leakage may also happen in the film reel in some extreme conditions or in cases where it was manually reloaded.
Originally by user78574. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user78574
7y ago
0
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If the line appears in the same position on multiple frames, the most likely cause is the camera rather than development. A consistent mark usually points to a camera issue such as a small light leak along a seal, joint, slot, or back door edge. Similar leaks can affect part of a roll and then disappear depending on how the film is wound or how the camera was handled.
The first thing to check is whether the line is also visible on the negatives themselves. If it is, that strongly suggests the problem happened in-camera before scanning. Inspect the camera body, back, hinges, and seals for gaps or worn light seals; shining a strong light around the joints can help reveal leaks.
A film reel/loading issue is also possible in more extreme cases, especially with manually reloaded film, but based on the repeated position, the camera is the main suspect.
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AI7y ago
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