Oh Damn!

[Markok765]

I dropped my pentax on vacation. 1m onto a store floor. light meter works fine, compared it to the digi meter. when i press the film back part, it makes a noise and moves a 1\4 of a mm. on my negs their is, at the most 1\2 mm, is a black band at the top of the neg, not on the film area but above the sprockets.
the band is not continous,but comes and goes, and it has varying thickness, at the most 1\2mm.
i have checked my old negs and this problem has happened before i dropped it.
This in not affecting the images.
is my camera ok?

 

[Monophoto]

One of Fred Picker's more memorable marketing statements applied to his wooden tripods - he said that over time they would, like people, acquire "honorable scars".

Sounds to me like your Pentax has also picked up an honorable scar. If you are satisfied with the images you can make with it, it's OK.

Years ago, I was wandering around Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco with my trusty Olympus 35RC rangefinder. Had to respond to the call of nature, and found a reasonably clean facility, but inadvertantly dropped the camera on the tile floor. It landed on a corner, and the impact caused a serious dent in the top cover that jammed the film advance lever. I was able to use a quarter to wedge the lever free - and 25 years later that camera is still going strong.

Sure couldn't expect a digital to do that.

 

[Mick Fagan]

Marko, I would quickly run a test roll of slide film through.

Make note of the deviations from correct exposure, etc,.

This is possibly the best way to accurately assess if any damage has happened.

That said, I myself would run a short bulk loaded B&W film through, then assess what damage if any has happened. That way I would know inside ½ an hour if the unit is working.

I hope for your sake, your camera is alright.

Mick.

 

[Markok765]

Ive udes my digi slr and the histogram to see if my camera is good for slides. it is!
I cant use slides as i dont have any, and even if i did, the only lab i know has to send it to toronto.

 

[Markok765]

Oh, lets not make this into a "my 20 y\o film slr is tougher than your new digi slr" though it is. fully metal exterior...

 

[Mick Fagan]

Marko, could you, in a lucid manner, explain how a histogram can tell you that your camera is good for slides?

I'm really lost on that one.

Also you should try the forward slash, instead of back slash. It took me quite a bit of mental effort to understand (I think) to realise that, "1\2 mm", is nothing more than .5mm.

There is nothing wrong with using fractions but if you do go with the flow and use ½. This can easily be obtained by holding the alt key down and keying in 0189, try it, makes life quick and easy.

Mick.

 

[BrianShaw]

There is nothing wrong with using fractions but if you do go with the flow and use ½. This can easily be obtained by holding the alt key down and keying in 0189, try it, makes life quick and easy.

Wow, that's really intuitive.

 

[Markok765]

looking at the histogram(i know how to read it) the lcd and looking at it on the computer.
Lets try ½

 

[mark]

So you dropped your digital camera? Or your film camera? And what the hell does a histogram have to do with a film camera? Are you scanning the film? It is too damn early for this.

 

[haris]

Sure couldn't expect a digital to do that.

I have plastic Panasonic Lumix FZ20 (one with Leica 36-420/f2.8 lens). About two weeks after I bought it, camera dropped on concrete flor in photo lab from my shoulder (I am 1,90 meters tall). I wanted to take bag from shoulder and camera strap was over bag strap...

That plactic Pana digi gadget continued to work perfectly.

But, afer a three or four months of using it, I taked card off, battery off, put everything in box and didn't use it since...

What to say, I am film guy...

 

[Chan Tran]

The FZ20 is made of metal and plastic.