I keep exposing myself doubly so...

guitstik · Jul 4, 2010

Arrrggggg. I have been trying to run a test roll through my Voigtlander Bessa a la 1937 and I keep forgetting that it is not an automatic or an instamat or anything of the sort and as you can probably tell from this rant I keep double/triple exposing. I think I have even gone as far as a, dare I say, quadruple Can anyone save me from myself?

Q.G. · Jul 4, 2010

I think you don't need our help but put yourself well on your way to salvation by being so annoyed at what you did.

A 'therapy' i could suggest however, if you think you need one, is getting a unmotorized 500 Series Hasselblad. It forces you to wind immediately after each frame you expose, because if you don't there is nothing you can do with the camera.
After using the thingy for a short while, you wind on immediately without even thinking about it, as a perfect automatism.

(Steve will warn you that handling a Hasselblad is bad for your financial well being. But don't worry about that. Health care isn't cheap, but very good for you! )

Sirius Glass · Jul 4, 2010

guitstik said:
Arrrggggg. I have been trying to run a test roll through my Voigtlander Bessa a la 1937 and I keep forgetting that it is not an automatic or an instamat or anything of the sort and as you can probably tell from this rant I keep double/triple exposing. I think I have even gone as far as a, dare I say, quadruple Can anyone save me from myself?

OR get into the habit of advancing the film as soon as a photograph is taken.

Steve

guitstik · Jul 4, 2010

I have never handled a Hassy but I hear it is about the same as my RB67 Pro S. I have identified the root cause of the problem I just need to vent and my wife hates to hear about camera "stuff". The winder for the Bessa is on the bottom of the camera holding it in landscape and on the right if holding in portrait but it is out of the way and unobtrusive enough that I don't even think about it so before I can say "Jack Sprat" I now have a double exposure.

guitstik · Jul 4, 2010

Sirius Glass said:
OR get into the habit of advancing the film as soon as a photograph is taken.

Steve

That has usually been my practice with my 35mm but that was because the lever is right there and it just became rote behavior. Basically I am just going to have to keep it in my hands and get comfortable with it that it also becomes a natural habit.

ic-racer · Jul 4, 2010

Click then immediately advance the film. Go around with the camera and no film and practice "Click-advance" so that it is second nature. So you automatically advance after every shot without thinking about it. Even if you had a more expensive camera like a Horseman VHR, you would need to follow the same sequence.

Rick A · Jul 4, 2010

You must get in the habit of advancing the film immediatly after making an exposure. I've been using non-auto anything cameras for most of my life, and sometimes I still forget to advance the film or cock the shutter.

erikg · Jul 4, 2010

Practice, Practice, Practice. There is no substitute. Everybody has made the same mistake though, maybe you'll get one or two happy accidents out of it.

NJS · Jul 4, 2010

I always forget to turn off Multi-Ex feature when I change back on SQ-A. :L

PhotoJim · Jul 4, 2010

Agreed. Fire the shutter, wind the film. No exceptions.

5stringdeath · Jul 4, 2010

I dunno, sometimes there are beautiful mistakes in the double exposures. Maybe the universe is trying to tell you something

Vaughn · Jul 4, 2010

I can never decide if I want to cock the shutter of my Diana camera before or after each shot -- so I end up with a few blank negs and some double exposures -- and have one particularly nice image that was an accidental double exposure, so I can't complain! What is the old saying...Expose for the light, develop for the surprises...something like that! LOL!

Larry Bullis · Jul 4, 2010

My practice has been to wind Before rather than after, because I don't like to leave springs tensioned. I'm not sure how much danger there is of them acquiring memory, but I expect there is some, especially if I leave the camera unused for some time.

Vaughn · Jul 4, 2010

That is why I can't decide to do it before or after. Also, when using folders, I also worry about changing shutter speeds while the shutter is already cocked -- especially with shutters that use two different springs for short and longer exposure times.

Sirius Glass · Jul 4, 2010

Before. After. Before. After.

Hasselblad recommends that the cameras and lenses always be left cocked all the time. They designed the equipment for that.

Graflex and Speed Graphics should have the tension released on the focal plan shutters.

Except for the Graflex and Graphic I wind as soon as I take a photograph.

Steve

Larry Bullis · Jul 4, 2010

Sirius Glass said:
Before. After. Before. After.

...

Except for the Graflex and Graphic I wind as soon as I take a photograph.

Steve

A recipe for confusion, for sure. Better to select the lesser of two evils and standardize accordingly, at least for this guy, who is:

1. ADD (therefore, quite prone to distraction)
2. getting old (loosing reliability of memory)

If you don't yet have a problem with the second mentioned, you will, sooner than you think! Habits become more important.

Vaughn · Jul 4, 2010

Thanks Steve -- I just checked my Speed Graphic -- and yep, there was tension on the focal plane shutter. Now released (after years of being under tension). It is a little relunctant to go from 1.5 to T and T to 0. Should one set the spring tension at any particular setting during non-use (mine has 6 spring tension settings)?

Vaughn

MattKing · Jul 4, 2010

This highlights the only advantage I've discovered so far of also having a shutter that requires manual cocking.

When I'm using my cameras that don't have double exposure prevention, I always wind the film immediately after taking a shot. I wait, however, until I'm ready to take the next shot before cocking the shutter.

Q.G. · Jul 4, 2010

You can leave tension on springs and nothing will happen to them.
Perhaps some creep. But before you notice any effect of that, you'll children's children will be telling stories about the good old days when they were young to their children's children.

So whatever you decide, before or after, don't decide to go with 'before' because of fears about what keeping a spring tensioned might do. For it does nothing.

Spring tension does nothing to the metal they are made of, unless you put so much tension on them that they break. So it doesn't matter either at what setting you keep them.

Sirius Glass · Jul 4, 2010

Vaughn said:
Thanks Steve -- I just checked my Speed Graphic -- and yep, there was tension on the focal plane shutter. Now released (after years of being under tension). It is a little relunctant to go from 1.5 to T and T to 0. Should one set the spring tension at any particular setting during non-use (mine has 6 spring tension settings)?

Vaughn

Probably T. I am not sure as I am only getting involved with Speed and Graflex shutters. Check www.graflex.org.

Steve

Trask · Jul 4, 2010

Hey, NJS, I did exactly SQ-A, shots about 8 shots, then noticed the film counter was still on 1. At first I thought I'd not loaded the camera properly, then when I got home I noticed I'd left the multi-exposure lever engaged. DOH! Live and learn.

Sirius Glass · Jul 4, 2010

Trask said:
Hey, NJS, I did exactly SQ-A, shots about 8 shots, then noticed the film counter was still on 1. At first I thought I'd not loaded the camera properly, then when I got home I noticed I'd left the multi-exposure lever engaged. DOH! Live and learn.

You can see each exposure if you will just multiplex.

Is this like shooting photographs with the lens cap on?:confused:

ntenny · Jul 4, 2010

In the case of folders, a lot of people think it's better to wind before the shot than after, because opening the camera from the folded position can create a vacuum effect and pull the film away from the pressure plate. Winding on should take up any slack and give you flatter film. I don't know how significant this effect is in the real world, especially since folders aren't that great at film flatness anyway.

The main thing is just to have a consistent routine. Even so, with any camera that doesn't have an interlock between winding and cocking, it just seems to be a law of nature that double exposures happen occasionally.

-NT

guitstik · Jul 4, 2010

bowzart said:
A recipe for confusion, for sure. Better to select the lesser of two evils and standardize accordingly, at least for this guy, who is:

1. ADD (therefore, quite prone to distraction)
2. getting old (loosing reliability of memory)

If you don't yet have a problem with the second mentioned, you will, sooner than you think! Habits become more important.

OMG, how do you know me? Are you looking over my shoulder? Are YOU my evil twin? Or am I the evil twin? I know, our wives met at WalMart and started comparing notes.

The shutter is a basic simple type that re cocks after every shot. You can activate the shutter time and time again just by hitting the shutter release so that is one reason I forget to advance the film. When I got off of work this morning I stopped by an old cemetery near where I live and took two landscape shots and one portrait shot of a tall monument all on the same frame. Who knows, it may come out in processing as a good shot but the two landscape shots were just bracketing the same shot with different settings. It's just going to take time getting used to this camera.It's good to know that this is not just me, thanks for the input y'all.

erikg · Jul 5, 2010

Vaughn said:
Thanks Steve -- I just checked my Speed Graphic -- and yep, there was tension on the focal plane shutter. Now released (after years of being under tension). It is a little relunctant to go from 1.5 to T and T to 0. Should one set the spring tension at any particular setting during non-use (mine has 6 spring tension settings)?

Vaughn

I've always left mine on "1", maybe it is an old wives tale, but that is the advice from the old timers, like on Graflex.org. It is easy to adjust if they do go off, though.

I keep exposing myself doubly so...

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