Some gear randomness here and a bit of a qualifier in taking at least a small set of camera associated tools with you on extended trips…
Today marks one month I have been in the Faroe Islands with month left to go. After a very productive but long and weather laden shoot day yesterday, I decided to sleep in and take the morning off to sit by the fire, read and plan the remaining four weeks.
So yesterday, I am not sure I have ever had so many gear gremlins host a party in my operations but they did. It was honestly comical it was so prolific, so here goes:
So when I took a much needed break after 7 hours of non-stop clicking that saw me up at 4:30 AM, I went to work on the fixes.
I then went back out to shoot from 2PM until 8PM and likely made some good images, the re-worked back worked perfectly and nothing else came apart. I imagine things have been getting loosened up from being used near daily for 5-10 hours a day, jostling in my back in the trunk of a car or while on a hiking trail for hours on end. The climate has to be taking a toll too as I am often working in coastal areas, easy to do when the furthest you are ever away from the sea on any Island in the Faroe’s is three miles.
The moral of the story here is bring backups, bring at least a couple of small tools you have tested out on the gear you are bringing and not only does gear need service from not being used, it needs it from being used a lot.
Back to work!
Today marks one month I have been in the Faroe Islands with month left to go. After a very productive but long and weather laden shoot day yesterday, I decided to sleep in and take the morning off to sit by the fire, read and plan the remaining four weeks.
So yesterday, I am not sure I have ever had so many gear gremlins host a party in my operations but they did. It was honestly comical it was so prolific, so here goes:
- Before sunrise I was using my Leica d**ital to get me in the ball park exposure wise on some amazing predawn low light exposures. At one point I noticed the shutter button would no longer depress and it turned out to be the circular shutter button collar had come loose and was backing out. I cranked it down and went back to work.
- Shortly after the Leica issue, I went to depress the button on my Nikon AR-3 cable release and it was gone, it had come loose and fallen off. I stowed it in my pack and got out the backup, I brought three total.
- After steadily becoming harder to wind on over the course of two weeks, one of my Hasselblad A12 backs was practically inoperable in this regard. I finished the roll and pulled my backup Tmax 400 A12 into service and finished the morning with that. I brought 4 film backs and one CFV II 50C back in total.
- When re-setting the tilt on my Hasselblad Flexbody, I noticed it was sticking and grinding the gears. It turned out that one of the frame screws had backed out and was interfering with the semi-circular gear ring. I have a 501CM with the waist level and PM45 as a second setup.
- Upon finishing the morning, I noticed the 1mm thick square light seal insert on the rear standard of the Flexbody had gone missing. I looked for it for about 20 minutes in the driving rain but like the button to the cable release, I never found it.
So when I took a much needed break after 7 hours of non-stop clicking that saw me up at 4:30 AM, I went to work on the fixes.
- I made sure the Leica’s shutter collar was as tight as I could get it, check other parts for looseness.
- I made a new cable release button out of gaffer’s tape, checked it’s operation and it is now serving in backup to the backup duty. I adorn my gear with gaffer’s tape for this reason, I have even used it as a bandaid for a cut finger in one instance.
- With one small wide flat head screwdriver and a pair of tweezers, I dissembled the A12 back, cleaned the gummed up parts and other areas with hand sanitizer and sparingly lubed the key areas with cooking oil, the only thing I could find in this 500 year old house in the tiny village of Tjornuvik. When I get back home in a month I will re-do the CLA with the correct lubricants.
- I tightened all screws on the heavily relied on Flexbody and checked for proper operation.
- I made a makeshift light seal insert out of carefully cut 1/16th inch strips of gaffer’s tape stacked 3 high on all four sides. But in hindsight, I wished I just would have not even brought it because upon re-reading the manual, it was not for long exposures like I had thought but the most significant uses of tilt and or shift potentially dulling the image. I just don’t use the camera in those extreme of cases, the lenses are not designed like that as ones are for LF cameras.
I then went back out to shoot from 2PM until 8PM and likely made some good images, the re-worked back worked perfectly and nothing else came apart. I imagine things have been getting loosened up from being used near daily for 5-10 hours a day, jostling in my back in the trunk of a car or while on a hiking trail for hours on end. The climate has to be taking a toll too as I am often working in coastal areas, easy to do when the furthest you are ever away from the sea on any Island in the Faroe’s is three miles.
The moral of the story here is bring backups, bring at least a couple of small tools you have tested out on the gear you are bringing and not only does gear need service from not being used, it needs it from being used a lot.
Back to work!
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