The case of vanishing photographs.

photochucker said:

I own an Argus Cosina STL1000 with the same shutter and in very cold weather - like -30 C when I used it for the first shot after having it at room temperature it would not fire the shutter - got the mirror flap etc. but always a blank shot. I put it in the freezer - in a plastic bag to keep dry - with no film and the back unlatched. Let it get cold and then watched when I fired it. Every time it went from warm to cold the first shot was lost due to the shutter not working. Pure mechanical shutter. So my cure at the time was to always take the first shot twice if it was something that mattered.
A quick check using the freezer should indicate if this is also the problem. Once the first shot was done all the rest worked until the camera was once again warmed up and taken back out in the cold.

I don't take photos in that kind of cold as I moved a lot farther south and in winter most often shoot with a Pentax Spotmatic that doesn't have the same issue.

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Or you could get a CLA and then you would not need to fuss in cold weather.

Anirudha Ambekar said:

I finished developing a superpan 200 Roll a few minutes ago.To my surprise, all except 3 randomly spaced frames were completely blank! it looked as if all but 3 frames worth film was exposed to daylight before developing. the three pictures which did come out are both properly exposed and do not look overprocessed.
I am wondering what might have caused
this.

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I've been having the same problem with my Canon AE-1, and it was driving me nuts. Sometimes I would get 1 or 2 frames blank, other times I would get an entire remaining half of a 36 exp roll completely blank. It wasn't until I started shooting long exposures in bulb mode that I figured out the problem...

One day while shooting 2 second and longer exposures, after just 10 frames into the roll the shutter refused to stay open (using a cable release). I tried a few more frames in bulb mode, but the shutter would immediately snap shut at what sounded like a speed faster than 1/60th. I pressed the battery check button and it showed the battery was good. I rewound the rest of the film, opened the back of the camera, pointed the camera towards the light and fired the shutter. No light came through the lens opening...completely black. I noticed both first and second shutter curtains traveled across in sync, never leaving a gap to expose the film. Bad shutter. Off to Joe Careta for warranty servicing.

Sirius Glass said:

Or you could get a CLA and then you would not need to fuss in cold weather.

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YUP - that would have been something to do - but when I was using this camera the farthest south I got was Churchill Manitoba for about 2 years and wasn't making enough money to even think about sending it away to the "Big Smoke" for a CLA etc. Funny thing about that camera - I put through about 6000 slides and probably about the same number of mostly color negatives in about a 10 year period - and other than that little issue with really cold weather the camera worked flawlessly for everything else. I still have the camera - but don't use it anymore - Have much better ones to use now - but it still remains a favorite for me.

Of course shooting a homemade 10" x 12" camera with a 16" barrel lens that came from a projector with homemade waterhouse stops set to F64 or F128 is what I consider to be fun now!! I suppose a little shutter issue probably wouldn't stop me from using this either and I would guess that my hat might have some problems working in that cold as well!! LOL

Perfect can be overrated sometimes!!

Seasons greeting to all!!

photochucker said:

Perfect can be overrated sometimes!!

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Perfection is for those people who just cannot let it go.

Gerald C Koch said:

If one buys a used camera as a replacement it is essentially a pig in a poke. Whereas if you have the camera CLA'd then you will have a reliable camera again.

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Totally agree. If you fix your damaged camera then you know that part will likely last a good while. If you trade it in for another you have no idea if that new camera is on it's last legs. I would get frustrated by this as I'd always be experiencing cameras breaking down and would never trust a used camera again. Your strategy would drive me to pinhole cameras.

photochucker said:

Perfect can be overrated sometimes!!

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Perfection is for people who don't understand the variables of the craft, and how to use them.

- Leigh