DOH!

Ever had one of those days when you should have left the camera at home and saved yourself the aggravation?

I was shooting with my SQ-A in a greenhouse this afternoon - lovely orchids, BTW - and decided to shoot a couple of Polaroids to check exposure and lighting. I metered with my Gossen Ultra-Pro and incident dome attachment and determined the exposure to be 1/60th @ f/16.5 (80mm lens with an 18mm extension tube) on Portra 160. No problem, I pop on the Polaroid back (loaded with Fuji FP100C), drop the shutter speed down to 1/30th and open up 1/3rd stop. So far so good. Lock the mirror up, trip the shutter, pull the 'roid. Wait the prescribed time, pull the print and NOTHING!

OK, check it again - yes the darkslide was pulled - fire, pull, wait, peel - NOTHING!

This happens 2 more times before I notice that my AE prism was set to "auto", not "manual", and the speed switch on the Polaroid back was set to 3000!

I hate when that happens...

The 5th 'roid was perfect.

<sigh>

bobfowler said:

Ever had one of those days when you should have left the camera at home and saved yourself the aggravation?

Click to expand...

Yeah. Today was one of those days. Got up early, drove down to San Jose before sunrise. Park the car in an underground garage (it's dark in here). Check something in my Micro-Trekker, rummage around in the car a little, find my keys, get out of the car, grab the camera back-pack and sling it over the shoulder....clunk, clang, KaaaCHUNK!

OH, <excrament>!!!! My new Nikkor 28/2.8 AIS ais on the concrete floor!!!!! <insert VERY long string of expletives here>.......forgot to zip the back pack shut.

why do they always land on the rim?

Shoulda just picked up my stuff and went home. The whole day - possibly whole week is ruined. Crap. Home now with my best old friend Jack...Daniels that is.

GaussianNoise said:

Yeah. Today was one of those days. Got up early, drove down to San Jose before sunrise. Park the car in an underground garage (it's dark in here). Check something in my Micro-Trekker, rummage around in the car a little, find my keys, get out of the car, grab the camera back-pack and sling it over the shoulder....clunk, clang, KaaaCHUNK!

OH, <excrament>!!!! My new Nikkor 28/2.8 AIS ais on the concrete floor!!!!! <insert VERY long string of expletives here>.......forgot to zip the back pack shut.

why do they always land on the rim?

Shoulda just picked up my stuff and went home. The whole day - possibly whole week is ruined. Crap. Home now with my best old friend Jack...Daniels that is.

Click to expand...

OUCH!!!

BTW - Rims are magnetically attracted to concrete - I found that out the hard way as well...

GaussianNoise said:

... grab the camera back-pack and sling it over the shoulder....clunk, clang, KaaaCHUNK!

OH, <excrament>!!!! ... why do they always land on the rim?

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I did this a while back at a parking lot at Yosemite! In my case, the body (Minolta SRT) took the impact and saved the lens. :rolleyes: It died instantly.

Bob:

At least you were shooting tests and not a product for a client!

Cheers

David

About 2 months ago I woke up at 5:30am on a Saturday and walked for a little over an hour to reach a prime location I wanted to shoot. Set up my tripod and camera and realized the film was no where to be seen. Walked an hour back home in a fit of rage and went to sleep.

David Brown said:

I did this a while back at a parking lot at Yosemite! In my case, the body (Minolta SRT) took the impact and saved the lens. :rolleyes: It died instantly.

Bob:

At least you were shooting tests and not a product for a client!

Cheers

David

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I hate when that happens... Lost a black Nikon F with a Photomic FTn finder off a boat into 85 feet of water once. The body didn't bother me as much as the loss of the 85mm f/1.8 lens. That pissed me off.

On the bright side, I souped the 3 rolls of 120 Portra this evening and my exposures were dead nuts on. It only cost me a half a pack of Fujiroid...

It was the turn of the millenium, and I was running across a field to get some shots of the fireworks. In my rush, somehow the camera fell. The lens survived, the camera did not. I still have a F60 with a broken shutter sitting around. Haven't got around to fixing it yet....

I posted a while back about how the first time I got my wife's brand new D70 anywhere near water, it fell out of the case and into a river...

It happens to the best of us. Here are some pictures from Apollo 12. I did a close up on the camera, see if you can read the note near the dark slide lock. It isn't really clear, but it is worth reading for yourself.

I wonder if Armstrong had a similar reminder or if because of him, they added the note.

Matt

I was doing a documentary assignment in Spain, high up in the mountains in the middle of no-where, we were staying in this small conference centre/mountainside hotel, whatever you may want to call it. Anyway over there all the stairs are hard tiled, with those red equipment proof stone tiles.

In between shots I decided to take a shot from a balcony, I found the stairs, proceeded to take them two at a time and tripped just as I got to the first landing. I had my camera [a Pentax] in my hand decked out with Metz flashgun, in a vain effort to save the equipment, unsuccesfully] I busted the flash gun and dinted the zoom ring on my lens, which after that became very difficult to operate and unusable apart from on full extension. The only part of the flash that got most of the damage was the secondary lens. I was able to complete the assigment but with limitations and the necessity a greater degrea of creative thinking. When in doubt, walk!!

Paul Berry

I've probably made every bone-headed mistake there is - at least that I can think of. There are probably more. One I vividly remember was at the end of a Fine Art session:

Me: "OK. Great work!! Get dressed and we'll go for coffee."

(Opens Hasselblad magazine to find - nothing! No film!!)

Me: "Uh ... Wait a minute. Uh, I just had an idea! One more roll.."

Model: "Yeah. Right. Forgot to load the magazine, didn't you, Slick.!"

Ouch. She called me "Slick".

Another, burned forever in my memory, is from my "Spot News" days (OK, OK - Paparazzi.)

I had some great work, and for once, no one else was around!!
I removed a 35mm casette from my Olympus OM-4. Closed the back, and realized in classic slow motion that the precious casette was suspended in mid air. It began its inevitable descent. Now, Kodak casettes are notoriously difficult to open. In the darkroom, I usually have to exert so much force on them that I distort them to where I cannot re-use them.
This one... Landed on a cement sidewalk, directly on the spool end. One would imagine that a three, three and a half, foot drop would not be much - but - NO! This time the end cap popped right off; the spool disassembled itself instantly, and I found myself watching the film unwind itself in noon-time Florida sunlight, like a clock spring.

Sometimes, strong drink is the only answer.

Ed Sukach said:

I've probably made every bone-headed mistake there is - at least that I can think of. There are probably more. One I vividly remember was at the end of a Fine Art session:

Me: "OK. Great work!! Get dressed and we'll go for coffee."

(Opens Hasselblad magazine to find - nothing! No film!!)

Me: "Uh ... Wait a minute. Uh, I just had an idea! One more roll.."

Model: "Yeah. Right. Forgot to load the magazine, didn't you, Slick.!"

Ouch. She called me "Slick".

Click to expand...

Don't feel too bad, on a wedding job last year, I shot a hell of a lot of frames of 6X6 at the brides house before I realized that "Gee, I should have hit 12 exposures by now" The multi-exposure lever was in the "multi" position. Thank God I caught it before we left for the church and I could re-shoot everything.

This was one of the very few times Liz wasn't with me at the brides house. She had gone ahead to the country club where the ceremony was to shoot pix of the groom and best man. SHE would have caught that at exposure 13!

Ed Sukach said:

Another, burned forever in my memory, is from my "Spot News" days (OK, OK - Paparazzi.)

I had some great work, and for once, no one else was around!!
I removed a 35mm casette from my Olympus OM-4. Closed the back, and realized in classic slow motion that the precious casette was suspended in mid air. It began its inevitable descent. Now, Kodak casettes are notoriously difficult to open. In the darkroom, I usually have to exert so much force on them that I distort them to where I cannot re-use them.
This one... Landed on a cement sidewalk, directly on the spool end. One would imagine that a three, three and a half, foot drop would not be much - but - NO! This time the end cap popped right off; the spool disassembled itself instantly, and I found myself watching the film unwind itself in noon-time Florida sunlight, like a clock spring.

Sometimes, strong drink is the only answer.

Click to expand...

A KODAK cassette did that? Dang, those things usually need a freakin' pry bar to open...

While shooting some portraits I put a back on with 3200 Ilford, to shoot the natural light indoors. I had to adjust the shutter to 125th. When I put the 100asa back on, I forgot to switch the shutter back to the sync speed of a 60th. I shot a total of 9 rolls that day, only one had complete pictures. The rest where half size. I had some explaining to do that day.

Hey Ed...here's another,

I was documenting a large Tattoo Convention which happens locally every year here, during this all day event [11.00am-midnight] I usually shoot a load of rolls. Anyway sometime late afternoon there was a guest entertainment section, some Rock Band from somewhere coming on stage in about 10 minutes time, I noticed that I'd got 10 shots to go in the roll....should I change the roll or shoot off 10 quick?

I started shooting off the ten, then got interupted by the event organiser [a simple question about something completely different] by this time the act was almost on stage. I forgot to change the roll!

I normally shoot almost everything in sight on stage so I would go through another roll on that one act alone, anyway a short time after things had calmed down I looked at the top of the camera and was shocked to find that the digital display read 75 shots. In horror I ran for the closest dark storeroom turned the light out, opened the camera a smidge and found that the entire roll was still lying across the blades but had not caught on the sprogs at the wind on end. So I had not only fired an extra 39 duff shots, but I'd also not fired the original 36 either.

This was a time when I could have easily stayed in the dark store room...well hidden away!

It was good that I'd had several rolls in the bag that were good and shot anothef fare few or so during the rest of the day to make up for the loss! All was not dispare?

Paul Berry

P.S. This is fastly becoming my favourite thread!

I had bought my first roll of Kodak HIE. Loaded it in my camera while in the darkroom. Went out (15 min. drive) and started taking shots. I get up to 6 on the counter and the camera (auto winder) starts making funny noises. I take another shot and it the sprockets not catching the sprocket holes!
Decision time! Drive home and attempt to fix this mis-feed in the darkroom where I can't see a thing, or open the camera back right then and there, re-spool and lose who knows how many frames!
Needless to say, I lost about 10 frames out of 36 with an additional 3-4 with fogging along the edges. Good thing this was the practice roll.

Also done the "why does the counter read 32 on a 24 exp?" and exposed a roll of Delta3200 as if it was FP4. Have yet to develop that one, not sure if it's worth it.

Hehee... opps!

A KODAK cassette did that? Dang, those things usually need a freakin' pry bar to open...[/QUOTE]

What a relief to read that. I only use Kodak film and have never been able to open the cassettes. I figured it was just me doing it wrong as usual.

To add to the thread my most recent disaster was to open the back of the camera before I'd rewound the film. I was so stunned I think I even hesitated a second or two before I slammed it shut. I nearly threw the roll out. Fortunately I changed my mind and was very surprised to find that it wasn't completely ruined.

Ya all know, it's a good thing this stuff "never" happens with sheet film! Boy, would I look foolish!

Robert Hall said:

Ya all know, it's a good thing this stuff "never" happens with sheet film! Boy, would I look foolish!

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What are you talking about....c'mon Robert fess up!

I have removed the dark slide on the side facing the ground glass...with a 12x20 sheet no less! I have tried to focus with the holder on the camera, and wondered how come I could not see a thing.......I have removed the dark silde to see if I had film in the holder, in full daylight...
I have removed the lens without putting the dark slide back in the holder......LF just gives you more innovative ways to screw up, that is all...

Ouch, Jorge! I hope you had a nice drink after that one.

I have removed the darkslide without closing the shutter blades a few times on 4x5 and a few times on 8x10.

I had a grafmatic jam on me during a workshop a couple of years ago and I lost 6 sheets of IR film because it was really jammed. After the same workshop, I was shooting some 4x5 halfway up a mountain and heard a pop when I pulled the darkslide. The film had popped out of one side of the holder and nothing I did would save it. I just pulled it out. Someone else had loaded this particular holder (note to self, always do it yourself).

Robert Hall said:

Ya all know, it's a good thing this stuff "never" happens with sheet film! Boy, would I look foolish!

Click to expand...

You mean like when pulling holder from the case - grabbing it by the darkslide handles instead of the holder itself and having both slides come out and the holder hit the ground? In front of a LOT of people who were watching the guy with the "antique" camera? Or maybe you were talking about installing a bag bellows and forgetting to secure the clip at the bottom to the front standard? How about pulling the darkslide and hearing "THUNK" as the film fell out of the holder into the camera? Oh yes, lest we forget... How about shooting with an empty holder!?

Nah... Large format is absolutely FOOLPROOF!

hehehe

Jorge said:

What are you talking about....c'mon Robert fess up!

I have removed the dark slide on the side facing the ground glass...with a 12x20 sheet no less! I have tried to focus with the holder on the camera, and wondered how come I could not see a thing.......I have removed the dark silde to see if I had film in the holder, in full daylight...
I have removed the lens without putting the dark slide back in the holder......LF just gives you more innovative ways to screw up, that is all...

Click to expand...

And let's not forget: Forgotting to flip the dark slide after taking the image (ending up with multiple images), not closing the shutter after focusing then pulling the darkslide (d-oh!), not loading film and shooting with an empty holder. Oh, I have done some real DUMB things in LF...just a little less expensively than you (I only have a 4x5, thank goodness).

S

bobfowler said:

You mean like when pulling holder from the case - grabbing it by the darkslide handles instead of the holder itself and having both slides come out and the holder hit the ground? In front of a LOT of people who were watching the guy with the "antique" camera? Or maybe you were talking about installing a bag bellows and forgetting to secure the clip at the bottom to the front standard? How about pulling the darkslide and hearing "THUNK" as the film fell out of the holder into the camera? Oh yes, lest we forget... How about shooting with an empty holder!?

Nah... Large format is absolutely FOOLPROOF!

hehehe

Click to expand...

Holy Crap!!!...gigg9iling uncontrollably with tears in my eyes!!!!

I'm gonna print this one out and tack it to the wall of my cube.

I was laugh so hard, my co-worker think something went wrong with me.

Here is my story. It was a foggy day, and there were some swans in the bay, the pier was covered with fog, dreamy scene, I had thousands of pictures in my head, so, before the inspiration runs out, I just started shooting like crazy... When everything calmed down, I just realized I had only 10 shots left on the roll, how come I can keep shooting like the film never ends. My heart gone ice cold. got home, examed camera, I know the 10 frame were wasted when I noticed I had the camera on multi-shot!

...Hearing the "clink" sound of a glass plate falling out of the holder when you're trying to reinsert the dark slide?
I was lucky and had only 10 minutes walk to get back to my darkroom. Carried the camera very carefully, back down inside the darkcloth back to the darkroom, removed the lens, pushed the plate in with a finger through the lensboard opening, inserted the darkslide, and finally started breathing again.

I must be getting old - I can't remember any of my LF mistakes. Selective memory at play, no doubt, or maybe self preservation: why would I tell you guys all the stupid things I've done?

Incidentally, did you know that 4x5 film holders don't float and are not water proof?

Graeme Hird said:

Incidentally, did you know that 4x5 film holders don't float and are not water proof?

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Neither is a Nikon F... One of mine is on the bottom of the Raritan Bay...