Gerald Cermak wrote:
> I had a new ZX-5n that did this from the very first roll, and I
> eventually found a little imperfection in the surface between the shutter
> area and the take up spool.
Once at Sterling we had an MZ-10 that scratched consistently.
Eventually the culprit was discovered to be a teeny tiny little burr of
plastic on the pressure plate, almost impossible to see. Pentax swapped
out the plate (at no charge) and all was well.
Now, like Gerald's, this was a chronic problem from the get-go. If your
camera hasn't done it before (and if it doesn't do it on the next roll)
it's either a piece of dirt in the camera or on the felt light-trap of
the film, or a problem in processing. Find out how your lab processes
slide film; if they're using dip and dunk or rotary, it's nearly
impossible to scratch the film during processing since nothing but
chemistry touches the film surface. If they're using a roller-transport
machine, then it is possible that a piece of dirt got onto one of their
rollers (damaging the film in the same way a piece of dirt in the camera
would). It could also have come from their slide mounter if the roll
was mounted.
Have a close look at it: if the scratch has sharp edges, it's probably
from processing or handling after processing. If it has soft,
healed-over edges, it's from the camera or film cassette.
-Aaron
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