Stupid things Camera Companies leave out...

Markster · Feb 26, 2013

Question about the shutter count: If a camera gets a full CLA, ought the odometer be reset to zero?

P.S. I'm still waiting for somebody to make that DIGITAL-MODUL-R for my Cannon AE-1P! It REALLY shouldn't be that hard. Even if the end result is $6000 USD like the Leica version.

It really is that simple, and that awesome, and that important... and yet still lacking!

Diapositivo · Mar 1, 2013

Markster said:
Question about the shutter count: If a camera gets a full CLA, ought the odometer be reset to zero?

P.S. I'm still waiting for somebody to make that DIGITAL-MODUL-R for my Cannon AE-1P! It REALLY shouldn't be that hard. Even if the end result is $6000 USD like the Leica version.

It really is that simple, and that awesome, and that important... and yet still lacking!

If money is no object, I think you could ask an artisan (one of those people making adapter rings or working lenses on your specifications) to convert a Leica back for you.

The basic logic should be entirely contained in the back.

The artisan should take a normal Canon AE-1Program back, a "normal" Leica digital back, strip the electronics from the Leica, and putting it to the Canon. It might be not very hard to do for a specialist.
Some flying wires might take energy from the winder or the artisan might adapt a battery compartment to the back.
The final result should not look very attractive but it might be possible to do it.

Markster · Mar 1, 2013

I've been eyeing my A-1 back for a couple nights now thinking along the same lines. I'd love to have $1 Billion to blow and just have a panel of experts sit at a table around me to problem solve the solution.

Main thing I can think of is the battery space. Depends on power consumption requirements.

Wouldn't even need many extra wires. Just some external switches. On/Off and when on the sensor is dormant waiting for light. When it sees light it saves the image. If you need more power, make a screw-on mount like the power winder A (only it can be half an inch thick), and a single lead to the back to connect the juice.

Oh, how I've been designing it in my head. I just don't have the means or expertise to do it.

williamkazak · May 15, 2013

darkosaric said:
Nikon F3 - it has all

What? No flash shoe, only 1/90 flash sync.

maderik · May 15, 2013

Diapositivo said:
If money is no object, I think you could ask an artisan (one of those people making adapter rings or working lenses on your specifications) to convert a Leica back for you.

The basic logic should be entirely contained in the back.

The artisan should take a normal Canon AE-1Program back, a "normal" Leica digital back, strip the electronics from the Leica, and putting it to the Canon. It might be not very hard to do for a specialist.
Some flying wires might take energy from the winder or the artisan might adapt a battery compartment to the back.
The final result should not look very attractive but it might be possible to do it.

It's not quite that easy - the DMR is both a back and a winder contoured to the R body shape. It requires some signaling between the camera and the back to synchronize the exposure -- you want to reset the sensor just before the shutter fires and read out just after, otherwise you get a lot more noise. Since the AE1P lacks that signalling, it would have to be hacked in. The back also bulges out a lot more than the Canon back which would make the AE1P viewfinder a PITA to use. If you mainly want to use Canon FD lenses, there are much better solutions.

LJSLATER · May 15, 2013

williamkazak said:
What? No flash shoe, only 1/90 flash sync.

Would it be safe to say that most F3 users don't use a flash?

williamkazak · May 16, 2013

Well, I had a pair of F3 bodies that I used for weddings for a very long time. Flash, on a bracket was mandatory. Every two years or less, the PC had to be replaced because they would "burn up" from use.

Les Sarile · May 16, 2013

LJSLATER said:
Would it be safe to say that most F3 users don't use a flash?

Faster sync speeds was not as important indoors as the F3's TTL flash which was not common at the time of it's release.

williamkazak · May 16, 2013

I had to carry three different neutral density filters to use flash outdoors with the F3. I must have used two F3 camera bodies for over ten years for weddings, indoor model shoots and all of my personal work.

fstop · May 17, 2013

Les Sarile said:
How about stupid things they put it?
Nikon introduced a feature into their aperture priority capable cameras (F3, FE2 & FA and others?) that sets a fix shutter speed when you load a new roll and advancing it to frame 1. This is to prevent you from accidentally setting it in aperture priority with the lens cap on and the camera setting a long exposure as you try to advance to frame 1.

Actually that is a useful feature to speed up loading film. regardless of mode you can cycle shutter to wind film on take up spool. With the lens cap on and loading a new roll with the camera in aperture priority mode it will take forever to load or you have to switch modes.

It is also useful to confound the uninititated into selling the body cheap because they are tricked into thinking the camera is stuck on one shutter speed when they were playing with it either with the back open or fire a few shots and see no speed change.

I got 2 FAs cheap because of this very reason.

Les Sarile · May 17, 2013

fstop, As you see from the quote, I was aware of the purpose of this idiot proof feature. Of course, anyone unaware of how a covered lens would affect aperture priority has already missed the point so why implement it?

Of course in Nikon's final manual focus SLR - the FM3A, they smartly left this feature out of it. They also smartly left the extra locking mechanism need to open the film back . . .

LJSLATER · May 17, 2013

Right after I got my FM2N, I thought the meter was broken when I inadvertently set the shutter speed to B, which shut the meter off. With my F2S, the B setting is also the 2-second setting.

With the F3, why is that it locks any manual shutter speed above 1/80 before frame 1, but you can still go all the way down to 8 seconds? It seems more consistent with the idiot-proof design to lock shutter speeds slower than 1/80.

While we're at it, why not make the camera lock in at 1/80 in A mode, but change M mode to allow access to the full range of shutter speeds (and the damned meter)?

Les Sarile · May 18, 2013

Looking at the electronics in the F3, probably due to the limitations of embedded control devices of the time?

LJSLATER · May 18, 2013

You mean the F3 doesn't have a Pentium processor on board? Unacceptable! :joyful:

Les Sarile · May 18, 2013

Back then, the brain was in the photographers head and not in the camera . . .

fstop · May 19, 2013

Les Sarile said:
fstop, As you see from the quote, I was aware of the purpose of this idiot proof feature. Of course, anyone unaware of how a covered lens would affect aperture priority has already missed the point so why implement it?

Of course in Nikon's final manual focus SLR - the FM3A, they smartly left this feature out of it. They also smartly left the extra locking mechanism need to open the film back . . .

My coment was somewhat tongue in cheek as FAs are coming out of closets and either the owner or the heir forgot or don't know how it works and dump them cheap.

How many ebay auctions start with "This was my father/mothers camera I dont know if it works"... or "its stuck on 250th"

Les Sarile · May 19, 2013

They should have a tongue in cheek icon!

I'm with you as those simpler cameras are actually not so simple as it means more work on the photographer's side of the equation.

I've picked up a few of these bodies that were "jammed" but only needed fresh batteries - or batteries put in correctly.

LiamG · May 19, 2013

Les Sarile said:
fstop, As you see from the quote, I was aware of the purpose of this idiot proof feature. Of course, anyone unaware of how a covered lens would affect aperture priority has already missed the point so why implement it?

Of course in Nikon's final manual focus SLR - the FM3A, they smartly left this feature out of it. They also smartly left the extra locking mechanism need to open the film back . . .

I think the point of the locked 1/80 has been somewhat forgotten. Nikon was really thinking about the danger of adding automation to their F line, and trying to avoid shooting themselves in the foot- a situation I can think of (one I've been in too many times) is shooting with flash in the dark, loading film by feel; if the camera just starts going in A mode right away, you could get into trouble; A is one of the locking spots on the dial after all (although so is X). Obviously everybody wants something different, but I like a predictable number of frames, so I know when I need to switch cameras or fit in a film change.

I also like the lock, when lots of bodies, bags & lenses are swinging around, it's insurance. I've opened the locked bodies so many times, I have to go through an extra little tic to open something like an FM now.

benjiboy · Jun 24, 2013

Markster said:
Question about the shutter count: If a camera gets a full CLA, ought the odometer be reset to zero?

P.S. I'm still waiting for somebody to make that DIGITAL-MODUL-R for my Cannon AE-1P! It REALLY shouldn't be that hard. Even if the end result is $6000 USD like the Leica version.
It really is that simple, and that awesome, and that important... and yet still lacking![/QUOTE

]
For a company to research design manufacture and market a digital back for a camera that's been discontinued for more than 20 years that can be bought for buttons on e bay would be financial suicide, even Kodak wouldn't have thought of that one

StoneNYC · Jun 24, 2013

benjiboy said:
....even Kodak wouldn't have thought of that one

Bahahahhahahahaha!!!!!

~Stone | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

AgX · Jun 24, 2013

There had been motorized cameras that secure the rewind in way that one needs a tool to activate this function, but that tool has been ommitted:

remedy:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Stupid things Camera Companies leave out...

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