Sheet Film Holder Light Leak Repair

This video provides a quick tutorial on the process of replacing the felt material in a sheet film holder to repair light leaks. First, we'll examine the hallmark indicators of bad sheet film holder felt. Then I'll show an example of a poor repair that should not be replicated. Then we'll look at how to repair both old and younger film holders -- ones meant to be repaired and ones meant never to be opened.
For this project, you will need (ALL links are affiliate links):
1- 1mm black ultrasuede (www.amazon.com...)
2- Pliobond (www.amazon.com...)
3- Some small screwdrivers for old film holders
4- Razors and fabric sheers
5- Patience
The ultrasuede should be cut to size using the old fabric, cut a bit oversize actually, and trimmed down to the exact size. Practice this on old film holders that can be disassembled and reassembled as you can correct mistakes. Plastic film holders are not meant to be disassembled and this repair is hard to undo on them.
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"Call Waiting" by Future Joust used under active license from Epidemic Sound at the time of this video's upload.

[@new.asteroid.tracker]

The one thing my high school photography teacher taught me when using a large format camera was never pull the dark slide out completely and to drape the dark focusing cloth over the camera such that it covers the back of the camera to help block stray light from getting into the film holder. To this day, I still drape the cloth over the camera and won't pull the dark slide completely out of the film holder.

[@DavidHancock]

That's a good solution and, in general, I do prefer to leave the dark slide in. I do worry about breaking an old dark slide with the dark cloth over it and, as a local consideration, we get strong wind here in Colorado and a flapping dark slide translates right into image quality. But yes, definitely there are many, may situations where that approach works very well.