Stupid things Camera Companies leave out...

[lxdude]

A filter that automatically corrects the exposure and improves the composition as the shutter is fired. <<Grin>>

It goes right behind the eyepiece.

 

[GarageBoy]

I like the shutter lock a lot, sometimes I wind, put viewfinder to eye, think "ehh, doesn't look that great" and stick the camera back in my bag. I hate accidentally exposing frames, especially on rare (to me) films, like my last roll of E100VS

 

[flatulent1]

It goes right behind the eyepiece.

There's a loose nut in the way on mine.

 

[flatulent1]

The holder for the end of the film box so you know what film is loaded in the camera. Especially useful if you have more than one camera loaded with different films.

Dave

I use heavy duty packing tape to fix the box end to the back of the camera. I have done this to several bodies where there is a window in the film door, it's just easier to read.

 

[lxdude]

There's a loose nut in the way on mine.

Then you of all people can do it the KR way:

www.kenrockwell.com/tech/fart.htm

 

[pen s]

Built in adjustable diopter for eyepiece. Al my manual SLR's from 70's don't have them and getting correct diopter for my eyepiece is a pain. If you can't see, you can't focus.

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

Film windows. So helpful when shooting lots of different cameras and films. Love the slits on the back for 35mm, and good slide open windows on 120/220 cameras(so you can see the backing paper type).

Centered tripod mounting holes under the lens at the film plane. So many have them on the right or left side that need a special bracket or grip attachment that has it in the center.

Spot meters, I wish all my cameras had them so I wouldn't have to carry my handheld one around.

I don't care much for the shutter locks but do use them when they are available. I try to not put away or store cameras with the shutters cocked.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

A film boxtop memo holder; whatever happened to these little things on cameras post-classics? The Olympus OM4 was a gem, even more so for this small, often overlooked little detail, completely missing on today's cameras.

 

[MARKNABIA]

i got double exposure all the time...

 

[lxdude]

A film boxtop memo holder; whatever happened to these little things on cameras post-classics? The Olympus OM4 was a gem, even more so for this small, often overlooked little detail, completely missing on today's cameras.

The cartridge window is what happened to them.
My first 35mm camera, a Fujica ST 801, did not have a box end holder or window. A company was selling inexpensive self-adhesive holders, which were a thick piece of slightly translucent rather soft plastic folded over to make a clip, into which the box end was inserted. Worked great, but what I really liked was I stopped rubbing the skin off my nose on the rough leatherette.

 

[StoneNYC]

The "newest" film cameras from Canon/Nikon from the 1998-2005ish timeframe have all of these.

-Diopter
-Shutter lock (which I agree is super useful if you have a camera bag or walk around all day with a camera on your shoulder, inevitably you hit that darn button)
-film top holder (they don't often have that but mostly because the camera reads the DX codes and sets the ISO for you. [I agree still would be nice to have it]).
-PC socket
-30 second long exposure
-Mirror lockup

I wish they had a programmable super long exposures like up to an hour, 30 seconds is not enough sometimes. (Still offer shutter release cable but prefer it in camera).

But more than anything... Time lapse... I don't for the life of me understand why they can't have an internal timer that allows for you to take an image every 10 minutes or 30 minutes or every hour, it would be easy to program. Drives me nuts....




~Stone

The Noteworthy Ones - Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1 / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic

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[flatulent1]

Canon cameras used to have shutter locks, separate from a switch that turned the meter on and off. Many people were confused by this arrangement; Canon eventually combined them into a power switch on the T-series and have never looked back. Mamiya 645 Pro TL has a circular switch around the shutter button on the body. The power grip also has a switch around its shutter button. I keep forgetting to turn one of them off, and I don't know which is necessary to keep the batteries from dying.

The film window in the camera back is a wonderful thing. My Canon F1 doesn't have one; I can't remember how many times I've had to remove the lens, set the shutter to bulb and fire the thing so I could peer inside just to see if it was loaded, nevermind with what. I was quite surprised last year when I picked up my Contax AX wanting to see what film was loaded and discovered it had no window! It also had no memo holder. Fortunately I happen to have a few of the last Hama memo holders floating around somewhere and was able to stick one on.

Ya know Stone, if you want time lapse, several cameras that came out in the 1990s also have intervalometers available. Good luck finding them, of course! There are also remote switches with timers built in, available on ebay, for those really long exposures. I considered that such a good idea that I bought a few a couple of years ago. They are still in their boxes, of course.

 

[blockend]

If you standardise on film types, memo pockets are unnecessary. On my cameras 100 ISO means transparency, 200 equals colour print and 400 is black and white. If I deviate, it's on a camera with a rear window. Checking the rewind tensions tells me whether the camera is loaded.

 

[cliveh]

Anyway, why did they leave the optical image stabilizer off the M2?

Bill, I’ve often thought that. All those shots I could have got while diving through the air in front of the subject.

 

[MattKing]

Mamiya 645 Pro TL has a circular switch around the shutter button on the body. The power grip also has a switch around its shutter button. I keep forgetting to turn one of them off, and I don't know which is necessary to keep the batteries from dying.

Fred:

You probably need to lock both switches in order to prevent either one of them from being accidentally pressed when the camera is being handled or stored.

Otherwise, the camera itself prevents battery drain, by "timing out" automatically after a set period of time.

 

[lxdude]

The film window in the camera back is a wonderful thing. My Canon F1 doesn't have one; I can't remember how many times I've had to remove the lens, set the shutter to bulb and fire the thing so I could peer inside just to see if it was loaded, nevermind with what.

Well, there's another way to find that out: turn the rewind crank in reverse without pushing the button and if there's film in it, it will tighten up.

 

[flatulent1]

Well, there's another way to find that out: turn the rewind crank in reverse without pushing the button and if there's film in it, it will tighten up.

Damn. Didn't know that. (slaps forehead)

 

[Bill Burk]

Damn. Didn't know that. (slaps forehead)

It's a good tip that is for sure. Next time you wind the crank will turn backwards too.

But careful not to overdo this. You can kink the film and this leaves hard to diagnose marks on your slides.

 

[lxdude]

Thanks for that, Bill.

To clarify, I meant turn the crank in reverse to the way it turns when you're winding the film, therefore turn it the way it turns when rewinding.

What I should have said was: Without pushing the rewind button, carefully turn the rewind knob like you were rewinding, and if there's film loaded, it will start to tighten up.

 

[Bill Burk]

Thanks for that, Bill.

To clarify, I meant turn the crank in reverse to the way it turns when you're winding the film, therefore turn it the way it turns when rewinding.

What I should have said was: Without pushing the rewind button, carefully turn the rewind knob like you were rewinding, and if there's film loaded, it will start to tighten up.

Right lxdude,

And to clarify... I had once taken this to the level of obsession, like a nervous tic, even though I knew film was loaded, I'd cinch the rewind practically every time I had the camera around my neck. I got all these dark crescent moon shaped stress marks in the skies of all my horizontal slides taken with 35mm lens on OM-4. When I stopped that habit the marks were less prevalent though still happened occasionally - I think I reduced the habit but still did it from time to time.

 

[mr rusty]

Checking the rewind tensions tells me whether the camera is loaded

...and all people who know about and do this have in the past taken shots only to find the camera has no film.

 

[lxdude]

I had once taken this to the level of obsession, like a nervous tic, even though I knew film was loaded, I'd cinch the rewind practically every time I had the camera around my neck. I got all these dark crescent moon shaped stress marks in the skies of all my horizontal slides taken with 35mm lens on OM-4. When I stopped that habit the marks were less prevalent though still happened occasionally - I think I reduced the habit but still did it from time to time.

I always liked having the film a little loose in there- the rewind knob would still turn, but if the knob got bumped while I was carrying the camera or something, there would be some rotational play. I had heard that cinching could cause scratches.
It makes sense that the film could get pulled at a sharp angle inside from cinching, especially near the end of the roll, and leave marks. It seems to me that it would have been good for manufacturers to warn about cinching.

 

[Dave in Kansas]

...and all people who know about and do this have in the past taken shots only to find the camera has no film.

That certainly includes me.

Dave

 

[StoneNYC]

I just look at the counter.... If its advanced more than like 5 images I know there is film for sure...


~Stone

The Important Ones - Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1 / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic

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[Roger Cole]

AE memory lock. Why oh WHY did Pentax leave this off almost all their auto exposure cameras? I think the very late P30 has it, but then it is DX code only with no override, which is worse.

This lack is the one thing that prevents my LX from being the absolutely superb machine it should be and otherwise is. Even my Ricoh XR-7 has it. I have to get around to replacing the light seals on that camera. It's a lightly built consumer grade mainly plastic camera but it's so well thought out I just love shooting with it.