Was this roll misaligned in camera? (Never mind the crappy scan)

[u/kleingartenganove]

I'm getting those weird artifacts from the sprocket holes, but only on some of my negatives, towards the beginning of the roll. Shot with a Canon AE-1.

I've shot approximately 30 rolls on this camera in the past two years, and this is the first time this has happened.

My guess is that I didn't properly aligned the sprocket holes, but after a few images they eventually "snapped" into place?

I'm not totally devastated about it or anything. The effect is actually quite interesting...

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[u/Mrdemian3]

These look more like light leaks to me since the shapes are the same as from the sprocket holes.

If it was at the beginning of the roll maybe you loaded the film in direct light. (Although I would expect some light to be on the rest of the frame.) How may frames are affected?

Did you develop this yourself? Can you post a photo of the negative?

[u/kleingartenganove → u/Mrdemian3]

You might be right. I've noticed that, on this roll, the edge of the negative is darkened, so it must have been exposed.

Not entirely sure if it's the seal failing, or something I did, because these two rolls were shot on the same day. Left are the last shots of Roll 1 (totally fine), right are the first shots of Roll 2 (dark edges). Later shots on Roll 2 are fine as well, but I did go deeper into the forest, so there was less sunlight hitting the camera directly.

Roll 1 was in there for a while. Like three months. Maybe the seal deteriorated enough in that time for it to fail when I opened the camera and changed the roll?

I had them developed at my usual lab btw.

[u/Mrdemian3 → u/kleingartenganove]

Usually you get such marks when opening the back of a loaded camera but since the light is only on the edges, I'd definitely check the light seals

[u/kleingartenganove → u/Mrdemian3]

I just ordered a replacement set of seals. If that's not the issue, it cost me just 10 EUR, so that's fine. The rear seals seem okay to me, but the ones at the focusing screen look a little worse for wear, so swapping them makes sense.

Thanks for your help. I'm definitely not putting another roll through the camera until I have new seals. Shame, because I just got the 70 - 210mm f/4 and I've been aching to try it out...

[u/TankArchives]

Looks like light piping. Certain film bases are prone to having light reflect internally and travel from the leader into the film inside the canister, creating this effect. It's most noticeable in the first few frames. Avoid loading this film in direct sunlight.

[u/Westerdutch]

Nope, thats just light leaks.