Spent 4 hours chasing a light leak on a Pentax K1000 that was just a missing foam strip

I had this K1000 that was giving me a weird light leak only on the right side of the frame. I checked the mirror bumper, the back seal, even replaced the shutter curtain fabric. After 4 hours of testing with a flashlight in a dark closet, I realized the foam strip around the film cassette window was completely gone. Has anyone else had a simple fix like that eat up half their afternoon?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wren25d agoMost Upvoted

It took me way too long once to figure out my Olympus OM-1 was leaking light through a cheap third party lens mount. Ended up just shimming it with some electrical tape and that fixed everything.

scott.drew9d ago

Did you try shaking the camera after you taped it? My buddy had the same issue with his Minolta and he swore a little jiggle helped seat the tape better before he locked it down. @the_wren's fix is solid though, saved my friend a trip to the repair shop.

keithbutler25d ago

A buddy of mine @the_wren had the same tape trick work on his old Pentax.