RANGEFINDER 101 (remedial)

[wayne naughton]

Sit up straight children and repeat after me..... "Take the freakin' lenscap OFF and put it in your pocket BEFORE you start taking photos....AGAIN.... TAKE....." Geez, how embarrassing, how was i to know that the camera would be fully functional, including onboard flash, without removing the stuffin' cap...in front of a couple of hundred people too..... shot about 6 frames before i realised..... Ah well, things'll get better...hopefully. i've only used the camera 3 times and i think i've made every conceivable stuffup possible....and i thought a GA645 was idiot proof <G>

wayne

 

[A.C.]

Wayne, you're not the first, and you won't be the last...and you'll be in extensive company...

 

[wayne naughton]

trouble is with mf is that it hurts your pocket as well as your pride.... <grin>

w

 

[A.C.]

Wait until you try LF...

 

[Dave Miller]

Take solace in the fact that you are not alone; will someone please invent a see through lens cap.

 

[David Brown]

will someone please invent a see through lens cap.

Spiratone marketed one called (IIRC) the "opticap". It was a clear filter ... :rolleyes:

 

[Dave Miller]

Spiratone marketed one called (IIRC) the "opticap". It was a clear filter ... :rolleyes:

Presumably it needs a lens cap to keep it clean?:confused:

 

[wayne naughton]

what fooled me is that the camera still went through the motion of af and all the data was still showing on the viewfinder..... stuff it, back into town tomorrow with a srt and my trusty 35mm F1.8. can't go wrong with my SRTs and a pocket full of neopan....doesn't sound like a rutting tomcat when i press the shutter either..... <G>

wayne

 

[wayne naughton]

Wait until you try LF...

hmmmm...weegee naughton..... has a nice ring to it, like it..... <G>

w

 

[Michael W]

what fooled me is that the camera still went through the motion of af and all the data was still showing on the viewfinder.....
wayne

Because those Fuji 645 rangefinder cameras are metering & focusing through windows that are in the body, rather than TTL I believe.
I've learnt never to keep lens caps on my rangefinders, that's one reason why I keep good filters on them.
The Leica M6 does give a warning if the cap is on, the meter lights will blink. You'd think that Fuji could have done something like that.

 

[Donald Boyd]

This child never uses lens caps, only a filter and a hood ... and inside a bag ready to be whipped out with the strap around my neck.

 

[copake_ham]

You shot a bunch of frames with the lens cap on!

OMG, I've never done that - well, at least not in the past week or two!

 

[wayne naughton]

i've learnt my lesson...no more caps

w

 

[papagene]

It is really embarrassing when one of the people in the group is your daughter and she says NOTHING at all and lets you just snap away! :rolleyes:

gene

 

[Earl Dunbar]

She is getting her revenge.

 

[bdial]

Wait until you try LF...

Indeed, that gives you the opprotunity to leave the lenscap on, and take pictures on the dark slide, all at the same time.

...It is really embarrassing...

It's grand fun with the subject who is telling you the lens cap is on, is some general. Ask me how I know...

 

[wayne naughton]

I suppose that's how he ended up a general, having such a sharp eye for detail and such.....

w

 

[rosey]

Am I imagining something here, but wasn't there a 35mm rangefinder some years back that snapped over the lens, only going on one way, but also included a protrusion designed perfectly to block the viewfinder window? Hence, the user would always know when the cap was on.

Anyone recall this?

 

[Andy K]

The Canonet QL17 GIII won't allow the shutter to fire if there is not enough light to make an exposure and therefore won't shoot with the lens cap on.

Also the CV Bessa R3M camera flashes its meter reading if the lens cap is on.

 

[toyotadesigner]

Just fasten a 40cm cord in your camera bag and glue the other end to the lens cap. With this tiny trick the lens cap will 'plop' of as soon as you pull out your camera.

It works as long as you don't have a Fuji 6x9 where you need the lens cap to terminate long time exposures (more than 1 second) .

A second lens cap or a chapeau claque might help with these models...

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

The Canonet QL17 GIII won't allow the shutter to fire if there is not enough light to make an exposure and therefore won't shoot with the lens cap on.

Also the CV Bessa R3M camera flashes its meter reading if the lens cap is on.

If you have the QL-17 in manual mode it will let you photograph your lens cap to your heart's content.

Wayne

 

[Mike Kovacs]

Picture my first shot with my "new" Contax G1. I meter the sky: 16 seconds exposure on auto f/5.6, WTF?

&*%(&)^$% lens cap still on! In the bottom of the case ever since... If I was shooting in manual sunny f/16 I would have had a nice, black slide for sure.