[J.Scott]

Mike nailed the problem - a light leak.

If you are going to keep the K1000 I would suggest that you replace all of the light seals on the camera. It is not a daunting task at all; in fact, it can be pleasurable and definitely rewarding. It brings you a little closer to the camera and, in my case, I gained a new found respect for the care and attention that went into the original design. When I acquire an older film camera I always replace the light seals. A great resource for this task is Jon Goodman. Most SLR's are pretty straightforward in design and placement of light seals but a quick email to Jon asking about specifics could be beneficial.

I purchased one of his large 'kits' a couple years back when I was determined to bring a Canon GIII QL back to life. A trip to a local hobby store got me an X-acto knife and blades, a fine-point set of tweasers, and a decent metal straight edge; necessary tools to do a proper job. The little Canon was probably not an easy first camera to replace the light seals on as the removal of the back door and pressure plate proved to be challenging. The K1000 should be a snap to work on, though.

My point is, if you are going to replace the felt on the hinge side why not take the extra few minutes and do all the seals including the mirror damper. My ME Super, which is newer than your K1000, had a severely messed up mirror damper; a little care has brought it back to new condition.

These old cameras are great, and meant to last many years, but only with proper care and maintenance.

Good luck!

[jgredline]

J,
Thanks allot. I did spend some time on that site and while I feel I can replace the seals easy enough, I have decided to to send my K1000 to Eric to have it completely gone through and tuned up. Since I plan to have it until I die, may as well have a really nice one. Besides it is also one of the early ones. I should be getting my Spotmatic back from him this week and will ship the other out right away.
Thanks again,

[eccentricphotography]

Grain Police bring it on!

[titrisol]

A Interslice kit will last you for a while and is good to replace the seals in all the cameras.

now... grain is supposed to be there... looks good

[BetterSense]

I had identical red flaring on my camera... I bought a light seal from some guy on ebay for like 8 bucks; i haven't tried the camera yet to see if it worked. But now my Program Plus just got a frame back from processing that had a green stripe through it, so i should probably re-seal that one too.

[Jonson PL]

Mike nailed the problem - a light leak.

If you are going to keep the K1000 I would suggest that you replace all of the light seals on the camera. It is not a daunting task at all; in fact, it can be pleasurable and definitely rewarding. It brings you a little closer to the camera and, in my case, I gained a new found respect for the care and attention that went into the original design. When I acquire an older film camera I always replace the light seals. A great resource for this task is Jon Goodman. Most SLR's are pretty straightforward in design and placement of light seals but a quick email to Jon asking about specifics could be beneficial.

I purchased one of his large 'kits' a couple years back when I was determined to bring a Canon GIII QL back to life. A trip to a local hobby store got me an X-acto knife and blades, a fine-point set of tweasers, and a decent metal straight edge; necessary tools to do a proper job. The little Canon was probably not an easy first camera to replace the light seals on as the removal of the back door and pressure plate proved to be challenging. The K1000 should be a snap to work on, though.

My point is, if you are going to replace the felt on the hinge side why not take the extra few minutes and do all the seals including the mirror damper. My ME Super, which is newer than your K1000, had a severely messed up mirror damper; a little care has brought it back to new condition.

These old cameras are great, and meant to last many years, but only with proper care and maintenance.

Thanks for the info