Spent 3 hours chasing a light leak that was just a loose lens cap

I was shooting a roll of Portra 400 around the park near my place last month, and every single frame had this weird fog on the left side. After pulling my hair out cleaning the camera back, checking the seals, and googling for hours, turns out my lens cap wasn't fully clicked off and it was just flapping in the wind. Has anyone else done something this dumb with a simple fix?

3 comments

3 Comments

faith_perez27d ago

Oh man, that's rough. I've definitely done the thing where you think your camera is broken but it's just user error. But here's what gets me - you said every frame had that fog, right? Did you not notice the lens cap was flopping around when you were actually shooting, or were you just too focused on composition to check the gear basics?

holly_young3527d ago

Actually she mentioned in an earlier post it was more of a soft haze not full on fog. I think a loose lens cap gives you more of a dark vignette effect around the edges not a misty look across the whole frame. Sounds more like condensation buildup from going between cold and warm temps real quick. I had that happen shooting fall colors in Vermont one year, took me like 30 shots before I realized my breath was fogging the back of the lens when I held it up to my face.

tyler36827d ago

Yeah my buddy did the exact same thing with his breath once.