As I suspected, my Ansco folder camera does have light leaks -- several in fact. That's the trouble with these old 'gems', some of them look good at first but with more usage you begin to stress things that held together on the shelf but not so much when you are pushing and pulling them. On any folder camera what gives out most of all is the bellows that, after years or decades of use or even storage, is suddenly being stretched and constricted every time you pop it open to take a photograph. I probably was an idiot for not really checking hard at first but since my first roll turned out okay I'm putting most of the blame on my enthusiasm.

How to find light leaks

This is easy enough. Pop open the back of the camera (after first getting that roll out of it), extend the bellows, and then hold it up to a light or flashlight. Seeing through the bellows you should be able to see any pin holes or cracks. I saw at least four pinholes in corners, which amazed me because I was able to take at least a couple rolls that seemed okay. However, one roll was pretty bad which I had marked down to not knowing my daylight exposure -- it could have been a combination of that and light leaks.

Fixing / replacing the bellows

I haven't begun this process yet but there is a lot of available information on this.

1) You can patch the holes with any number of sealants or even tape -- bleh, as long as said sealants are flexible and dark. The one that I will try first is using Elmer's Glue and then blackening it. Another method is getting some sort of auto-glue or silicone from an auto supplies shop.

Of course, this is just a patch job so you are just putting off a replacement job. It depends how much use you are going to get out of it.

2) A much larger and more expensive job is to replace the bellows yourself. You can buy new camera bellows from this place, named interestingly enough Camera Bellows. You can also make a bellows yourself. Daniel Mitchell has a wonderful section on this page about this black art.

And then you have the joy of learning how to take apart your antique. I'm not sure if I am up to that yet, so I'm going to be doing #1 for now.