Hasselblad 500c Light leak at the edges

Question

I just got back my test roll of film from my recently purchased 500c. Wondering if this light leak is a result of wear and tear, resulting in the paint being removed where the film back attaches to the camera.

Answer 1

Basically yes.

You can see that the bulge, that is forming the light seal has not only its paint stripped from constant wear, it has lost a lot of material as well, the once rounded bulge is almost ground flat in some spots.

Also if you turn the image 180 degrees the leaks in your image corresponds to the wear pattern on the camera.

You could test adding matte black paint to see how much it helps, but there is a chance that the amount of material gone needs replacing.

In that case, you will need to find a way to reconstruct the outer bulge to fit into the film box grove and the inner bulge that seals the edge of the image frame.

Unfortunately, this is a fairly common usage pattern for the film back, here another image of a used one with similar wear pattern. And what makes matters worse, it is on camera and not on the film box side.

There is also a video on youtube from a person trying to fix a similar problem here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qzfX_NsMgo

He used a light trap seal repair kit from a company called Amanda from Ebay. Basically some black foam strips. Maybe that is a cheap workaround for you. However, as far as I understood the video, that was for the slit of the metal sheet that closes the film back. Maybe the company also has a solution for this problem.

Another thing to try and pinpoint the problem would be to temporarily seal the gap between film cartridge and camera by wrapping it with black tape after attaching the cartridge. If the leak is gone then, you at least know that this was the place the light entered the camera. That is not really elegant, but could be used as a solution also in long term, if you are ok with the extra step of taping after each film change.