Used to hate fixing light leaks on old cameras, but one roll from a flea market Yashica changed my mind

Last month I found a beat up Yashica at a flea market in Portland for $10. I figured the light leaks would ruin everything, but after sealing the back with some black felt tape, every shot came out with this perfect golden haze along the edges. Now I actually look for cameras with light leaks on purpose, anyone else find beauty in those flaws?

2 comments

2 Comments

henry1011mo ago

Read somewhere that old camera companies knew the foam would rot but used it anyway because it was cheap. Kinda wild how those same flaws became a whole aesthetic later on. Those golden haze shots you got sound like pure luck mixed with a little bit of skill.

gavinperez1mo ago

Guess you could say @henry101 and i are just lucky foam whisperers or something. But honestly, if companies knew that stuff was gonna rot out in a few years, that's just lazy engineering to save a buck, right? Now we're all fighting over cameras with decaying foam like it's some rare patina or something. Makes you wonder what other shortcuts they took that we'll be romanticizing in another 20 years, probably circuits held together by dust and prayers. I'll take my golden haze shots and just call it "vintage character" and leave my bad luck out of it.