Camera "gotchas"

[Cholentpot]

There should be a locknut under the lever so you can loosen that, put the lever where you want it, and re-tighten the nut. You will need a very thin open end SAE wrench. Oh yes, the threads are reversed!

No wrench just a needle nose. Better than it was, could use a few more degrees but I have to dig up a wrench. Thanks!

 

[Kino]

Kino would know...there are hundreds of things that can go wrong here...
I think the most common error is the focusing lens (upper) is not the one that takes the movie. The taking lens is the middle one.
Then the aperture has to be set based on a shutter speed 2.5 times the filming speed.
The viewfinder needs to be set for the same focal length as the taking lens.
The parallax knob on the viewfinder needs to be set the same as the lens distance indicator.
Oh, did the subject move...start over...

The ways to screw up a roll of film on any Bolex are damn near infinite and new variants are even to this day being discovered...

 

[Kino]

Yes that too!

However, that picture is the 'storage' position as I only have one cap. Those three Kern Switars in D mount are somewhat rare, most dual 8 Bolex were sold with the the 3-element Kern Yvar lenses, which take a smaller cap (see below).
The Switar lenses on my camera are 6 and ten element. Yes that f0.9 12mm Switar with the cap is ten element!
I have been looking for years for a cap for the 36mm Switar. Even considering buying another lens just for the cap and selling the lens.
Also, all the C mount lenses for the 16mm cameras use a bigger cap that won't fit.

Went down and dug through my Bolex junk box and didn't find a lens cap for you, sorry! Most of my stuff is 16mm caps, zoom levers, lens shades for Zooms, etc...

There's more stuff somewhere in one of these boxes and I'll remember the next time I run across it to check for one of these beasties.

The Rex 8 camera I sold actually had caps on the two lenses; rare...

 

[Dwight Anderson]

Reading the focusing scales incorrectly on your Retina IIIc auxiliary lenses. Argh!

 

[Chuck1]

The Nikon FM(2)'s shutter lock mechanism being integrated into the advance lever... is that ever annoying. It gives me a trite excuse to use a Nikkormat or FG-20 instead and so adds some utility to those bodies.

The burden of being left eyed is getting poked in the right

 

[Mr Flibble]

There should be a locknut under the lever so you can loosen that, put the lever where you want it, and re-tighten the nut. You will need a very thin open end SAE wrench. Oh yes, the threads are reversed!

Did this adaption to all my Argus C2 / C3 cameras, got sick of them hitting my fingers and ruining the shot.
I seem to vaguely recall some models don't have the locknut underneath, but they have a hex set screw in the lever itself.

 

[Kino]

How about inserting your dark slide in between the film holder and the body of the camera, rather than in the darkslide slot?

That fun stuff happened to me today when the camera was higher than my head and in portrait orientation with the slot to the top and under the dark cloth.

Much confusion reigned when the film holder was pulled out and the darkslide fell to land near my feet.

 

[AnselMortensen]

Large format has endless ways things can go awry.
Welcome to Number 4,372.
I haven't done that one....yet.

 

[abruzzi]

Reading the focusing scales incorrectly on your Retina IIIc auxiliary lenses. Argh!

Before that rotating ring on the lens, it was simple and easier to do (IMHO). It took a little longer, but with the older retina IIIc lenses it was like using a camer with anon-integrated rangefinder. You basically did:

- focus with the RF
- read the distance value off the top of the lens
- turn the camera over and adjust the focus so the 80mm scale or the 35mm scale shows the correct distance
- turn the camera right-side-up and take the picture.

To me thats much easier than rotating scale on the later lenses.

 

[Dwight Anderson]

The original method certainly avoided mistakes. If I used them more often the rotating scale seems easier, but the way the scales are labeled, it's easy to get them backwards if you're in a hurry. Almost would have been better if the inner scale was labeled 50mm.

 

[BrianShaw]

The original method certainly avoided mistakes. If I used them more often the rotating scale seems easier, but the way the scales are labeled, it's easy to get them backwards if you're in a hurry. Almost would have been better if the inner scale was labeled 50mm.

The color coding of the scales was, in theory, intended to reduce that confusion… in theory.

 

[Tim Stapp]

The color coding of the scales was, in theory, intended to reduce that confusion… in theory.

Unless you're color blind. That's why I shoot B&W!

 

[Bill Burk]

Pentax and Olympus lenses focus the opposite way so I can never really make focusing a muscle memory

 

[Kino]

Forgetting to tighten the tripod head and having your finger between the plate and the bottom landing zone of the head.

Extra points if it is a large format camera; you might even get to pick your finger up off the ground...

 

[Don_ih]

Forgetting to tighten the tripod head and having your finger between the plate and the bottom landing zone of the head

I've done that. I've also done the darkslide-between-the-holder-and-the-camera.

Using 8x10, I missed getting one side of the film under the flange (I assume) and, after shooting the film, brought it to the darkroom to get it out and develop it. No film in the holder. It was in the camera.

 

[Tim Stapp]

I've done that. I've also done the darkslide-between-the-holder-and-the-camera.

Using 8x10, I missed getting one side of the film under the flange (I assume) and, after shooting the film, brought it to the darkroom to get it out and develop it. No film in the holder. It was in the camera.

I've done that very thing! Thankfully, only 4X5! I'm also guilty of forgetting to pull the darkslide and forgetting to close the shutter after focusing. As has been stated: there are myriad ways to screw up LF.

 

[Luckless]

I'm really good at looking at the cocking lever on my Zeiss Ikon folder and thinking "Lever has 'moved down', it must be cocked", because most of my other cameras that have a similar cocking lever mount such that the cocking lever is rotated about a quarter turn or so clockwise.

It cocks and travels exactly the same as all the other lenses I use with a similar functioning shutters, but my mind keeps wanting to map that as "Push shutter lever down", not "advanced shutter level clockwise". So if it has been awhile since I've used the Zeiss I'll pop it open, look at it, assume I've previously cocked the shutter but then lost what I was looking to frame up. Which in turn tends to lead to me trying to quickly frame something up, and then pressing the shutter release to nothing happening.


Also had been really good at double checking camera, film, lenses, tripod, and such while planning to go out somewhere and setup for more careful and deliberate shots. Eyeball initial framing, set up the tripod, grab camera and...

Tripod plate... For one reason or another wasn't on the head or camera that I thought it was.


I'm overdue for either forgetting filter factor, or flipping filter factor. As someone who is often a fan of a deep red filter, flipping it is a painfully dumb mistake.


Another momentary panic source is the little shutter lock button on my C330. It sometimes gets bumped, but I rely on the lens lock dial since it flips the internal dark cover and has the big obvious red line in the viewfinder, so I rarely think of it and never remember which way it is supposed to be when the camera eventually 'jams' on me as I go to take a photo.

 

[benderscameracorner]

The Nikon FM(2)'s shutter lock mechanism being integrated into the advance lever... is that ever annoying. It gives me a trite excuse to use a Nikkormat or FG-20 instead and so adds some utility to those bodies.

The burden of being left eyed is getting poked in the right

LOL, I have the opposite issue. My first FM (my first proper camera, on which I taught myself photography circa late 1990s) was the later version where the shutter lock around the shutter button was deleted and integrated into the film winder. Being right-eyed, this never bothered me; the arrangement is fast and logical, though I'm sure Nikon did it for cost savings as much as usability.

Several years ago when I got back into film photography I naturally picked up another FM, this time an earlier example with the shutter-button-collar lock. Years of muscle memory are still yet to be fully defeated, and I'm still trying to fire away with the lock on - especially when in a hurry.

Also: RB67 Pro S interlocks... enough said!

 

[Don_ih]

RB67 Pro S

Oh, that reminds me of the time I took a series of portraits of my kids, all on the first frame of my RB67. Advancing the film had simply slipped my mind.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Oh, that reminds me of the time I took a series of portraits of my kids, all on the first frame of my RB67. Advancing the film had simply slipped my mind.

With ProS and later for both body and film back this would happen only if the Double Exposure were set on the film back. That however, is easy to do, and easy to miss. And Pro generation backs don't support this interlock...

 

[icandide]

Hello,

Donald Qualls: RB67 Pro S - been there, done that - palm slaps forehead. Before going out I check the RB, and forget to reset the double exposure release. How absent minded I am...HuH?

Icandide

 

[Donald Qualls]

been there, done that

I've never gotten caught by the RB double exposure system, mostly because my main film backs don't have it -- I have to release a little tab for every advance, and remember to advance just as I would with a 1930s vintage folding camera. I *have* shot about half a roll on the dark slide, the first time I used a Graflex 22 on my RB67 ProS -- didn't even notice that it didn't have the dark slide interlock...

 

[AnselMortensen]

I've taken my fair share of photos of the INSIDE of lens caps when using rangefinder cameras.

 

[Maris]

The "mirror up" mode on the Mamiya RB67 has caught me, once. Forgetting to cancel it means for the next roll the camera feels the same, sounds the same, the film winds normally, all the safety interlocks work, but the lens shutter never opens ... blank film, arrgh!

 

[Luckless]

I've taken my fair share of photos of the INSIDE of lens caps when using rangefinder cameras.

Part of why I like my folding range finder. I've yet to try to take a photo with it while the lens was closed.

But I have seen a few people who use red film to make little tabs on their lens caps that will stick out across the view finder, and that always seemed like a neat idea.

The "mirror up" mode on the Mamiya RB67 has caught me, once. Forgetting to cancel it means for the next roll the camera feels the same, sounds the same, the film winds normally, all the safety interlocks work, but the lens shutter never opens ... blank film, arrgh!

I've not done that one yet, but I also have a backlog of film fed through my RB67 that is still waiting for me to process, and I'm now feeling paranoid that I've not checked on that setting... It isn't something I actually use, and so isn't something I have ever actually thought about.