photo taking problems

bovril

I've taken a fair few rolls of film on my manual Minolta SLR, I usually pick auto for the shutter speed and mainly take landscape pictures or pictures of buildings. On my last 2 rolls of films when they were developed over half the pictures have a line of darkness on the right hand side of the picture, it's approximately 2 inches wide and has ruined the pictures. Some others in the rolls are fine.

Does anyone have any ideas on what could be the cause?

thanks in advance.

Ricardfred

Often these lines are something as simple as the camera strap or long hair getting in front of lens! Are the lines on your negatives? If you have discounted everything that may have obstructed lens it could be shutter window problem and you should have it investigated at a retailer. Also try a search on Google groups and other forums.

bovril

I would be quite confident that it's not anything blocking the lense. I am not sure on selecting shutter speeds manually and leave it on the auto selection. I would also expect something similar if I was moving but i am sure I am not moving when taking these pictures. I'll have to take it out this weekend and try a few things and see what happens. If they turn out crap aswell, i'll leave it in somewhere. It doesn't happen all the time which would kinda point to me being the problem. It's only half the roll that gets ruined.

norma

Are the pictures with the dark bands taken with a flash? If so, you need to check that when the camera selects a shutter speed, the speed it chooses isn't any faster than the synch speed. Otherwise, the shutter is partly closed while the flash is going off, underexposing part of your picture.

Norma.

Valentia

You are probably not using flash for landscapes or buildings, unless the flash is plugged into a power station somewhere :cool:

I reckon that there is light seeping in or the transport mechanism is banjaxed.

bovril

thanks for the replies, I'm not using a flash when taking these pictures. If it was a problem with the camera surely all my pictures would have the problem with them?

Valentia

If it was a problem with the camera surely all my pictures would have the problem with them?

Not really. If it is a mechanical problem it would most likely be intermittent and if it's a light leak it would depend on if the leak is facing light or not.

My money is on the mechanical transport.

DotOrg

post a sample picture and it'd be easy to diagnose