Why Carry Backup Gear - Lessons learned

photomc · Nov 28, 2004

Well, went on a quick trip yesterday to see Dad, and took the Crown Graphic along. Found a church, for the project, and stopped. Got everything set up and was setting the shutter and aperture when I noticed the aperture blades were not opening up all the way. No back up lens, NO BACK UP Camera....

Must be the first time I have been with only one camera in years.... went ahead and made a couple of exposures, but could not use f/32 because that would have meant NO light coming in..now off to look for replacement lens/repair cost.

How many of you go on a trip (3+ hours) with just one camera/lens?

Shoot....

Francesco · Nov 28, 2004

Mike, I do it all the time (I like the discipline of having only one lens to work with). I do check the lens just before leaving the house. I have even gone on trips where it started out with a long car ride, then a long boat ride and then a hike around a deserted island; it would have been annoying to have the lens shutter fail on me after all that effort. Fortunately all my shuttered lenses are on new Copal 3s which are very reliable (touch wood).

Alex Hawley · Nov 28, 2004

Me too Mike. I have only one 8x10 camera, but I do have two lenses; a 12" and a wide angle 9.5". I don't view the lenses as being backups to each but it can work that way. No backup for the camera body though. Even if I had another, I wouldn't take it along because their wouldn't be room for it.

The potential for equipment problems plagues everyone and Mr. Murphy always strikes at the wrong time. My most recent example was forgetting to pull the darkslide at a family reunion; a choice shot lost.

removed account4 · Nov 28, 2004

i learned the lesson by bringing both a toyo monorail camera and a speed graphic to just about every job i do. i don't have more than one focal length lens anymore ( i used to have 3 90mm lenses cause they tended to die while on the camera ) so i just have to keep my fingers crossed and hope that when things go wrong, it isn't too dire.

John Kasaian · Nov 28, 2004

While having more than one lens is, for me, a distraction I find my 159mm Wolly and my 240 G-Claron so tiny that slipping one of them into my 8x10 kit dosen't add any significant wieght and bulk to my camera case but does make for a nice back up should the ilex or compound gremlins get rambunctious.

Nick Zentena · Nov 28, 2004

It's not just gear. I need to print up a hand full of negatives in multiple 8x10 prints. No problem this morning I go down turn on the heater for the chemicals. Wait the 1.5 hours. Start printing. Get about 10 prints done when I notice I'm out of paper. Waiting for the stuff to defrost now. Sure I had lots more then that.

raucousimages · Nov 28, 2004

I always cary a spare ground glass.

John McCallum · Nov 28, 2004

raucousimages said:
I always cary a spare ground glass.

As do I. There is little that could go wrong with the camera (LF's anyway - they're so simple), and normally I have more than one lens so worst case situation would be to have to change focal lengths.
But the GG is a thin piece of glass and everything relies upon it. Although I have never had to use the spare, it's comforting to know the insurance is there if I slipped off a rock.

Lee Shively · Nov 28, 2004

I'm not a large format shooter but I am obsessive about having back up equipment. On trips, I don't just carry a backup camera, I carry backup systems. In 35mm, I mainly shoot Leica rangefinders but I will carry a couple of Canon bodies and several lenses just in case. In medium format, I usually shoot Pentax 645 but if I'm going on a trip, I also carry a Mamiya TLR and a few lenses.

Nope. I never was a Boy Scout.

clogz · Nov 28, 2004

And then there's batteries. They always seem to pack up when you're in the middle of nowhere and you realise the spare ones are at home.

John Kasaian · Nov 28, 2004

Which is why my spare meter is a Weston Master IV---no batteries!

John McCallum · Nov 28, 2004

Lee Shively said:
.... Nope. I never was a Boy Scout.

You would have been a good one Lee .

mark · Nov 28, 2004

Murphy has reared his ugly head and killed both my shutters for the 5x7 on the same shoot one right after the other. When the shutters crapped out I realized that my hand made a dandy shutter. Stop it way down and be careful not to shake the lens when you move your hand away from the glass.

Charles Webb · Nov 28, 2004

I have had many equipment failures while working in the field, but have been able to work around such things as a shutter zonking out, broken GG and
lost adjustment knobs and on and on. It takes a little thought to save the day, but I have used my hand, hat or lenscap when a shutter chose "now" to
take a rest. My LF cameras (3) are all marked with working scales to to give me an infinity setting, 5Ft, 10Ft and 20Ft. For a quick set up for fading or rapidly changing scene use your pre determined focus settings and point your camera at he subject and shoot. This little scale also eliminates the need for the ground glass. Without the scale your LF could be dead weight

The paper sheet that accompanies a new roll or box of sheet film gives you the ISO/ASA, use the ISO/ASA film speed as your shutter speed and expose at F16 in sunshine. This technique will work in all situarions that you would normally meter. No I don't carry a back up meter, extra lenses or shutters just for emergency situations. To me part of the thrill of being on my own and in the field is the knowledge that if something breaks or goes wrong, I have the necessary skills/knowledge to overcome anything that may occur.

Before you whip out your trusty old Weston or spot meter make an educated guess as to what that meter reading is going to tell you. Keep doing this, and it becomes a game to play. Look at everything you see, estimate what you believe the best exposure for a given film with your lens, then meter it!
Very shortly with a little practice you will find that you can see and understand the little nuances and changes in light that the meter see's.

It's a lot like ObiWan said to Luke, "trust yourself, the Force will be with you!"

Personally, if I carried a spare anything, it most likely would be a bigger, stronger tripod.

Respectfully,
C Webb

Francesco · Nov 28, 2004

Charles Webb said:
Personally, if I carried a spare anything, it most likely would be a bigger, stronger tripod.

Respectfully,
C Webb

Well said!

Joe Lipka · Nov 28, 2004

Everybody here forgets their lenses. I forgot the groundglass - and the back of the camera. If it wasn't an 8 x 10 camera, I would have the excuse I didn't see it. Come to think of it, that was the excuse I used.

photomc · Nov 28, 2004

great input Guys, as always. Meter would not bother me to much, since I do use the ol' Sunny f16 before I meter, trying to see how well my internal meter works. And with LF it is easy to use a hat or hand for shutter, but the problem I had was with the aperture blade sticking, so instead of a nice circle, is was more like a early morning eye one side not open . So with input from Lee, I will try to clean it with a little Ronson lighter fluid. After all the lens/shutter could only be 40-50 years old..but since it's a Optar in a Graphex shutter, I may just replace it with a slightly newer lens.

Mark, thought about your shutter problems when I saw mine..blamed it on the full moon. It was just funny that I normally have my Mamiya 645 with me and for some reason did not bring it this time. Actually the pic in the critique gallery was made with the lens..made metering a little more difficult, since I could not use f32 (the aperture was closed all the way) so used f16-f22.

removed account4 · Nov 28, 2004

Joe Lipka said:
Everybody here forgets their lenses. I forgot the groundglass - and the back of the camera. If it wasn't an 8 x 10 camera, I would have the excuse I didn't see it. Come to think of it, that was the excuse I used.

hi joe -

i actually forgot all my film one day. drove 2 hours away set up my camera @ 6am only to realize that the film was not there. lucky i remembered to at least bring a second camera that took a different kind of film

Tom Duffy · Nov 29, 2004

I forgot my tripod once, but remembered only 10 minutes from the house. (good thing too, anyone for handheld 5x7? (except Ole...))

I've never had anything break, I've only forgotten stuff that I should have had in the first place, like a cable release. One of my problems was having a separate bag for each format, but many shared items (meter, cable releases, filters, stopwatch) to keep the costs down. I now check more carefully before leaving. I usually carry 2 lenses and a normal and wide bellows so that I should be able to salvage something from a trip. A broken ground glass would do me in, though.

roteague · Nov 29, 2004

John Kasaian said:
Which is why my spare meter is a Weston Master IV---no batteries!

I usually just carry one of my Nikon's as a backup meter or as a backup camera.

Loose Gravel · Nov 29, 2004

I was changing a battery in my meter one day and I dropped the little coin shaped thing that holds the battery in. Dropped it in sand. That thing just cut into the sand and disappeared. I sorted through the sand for minutes and found it. Now I do the operation on top of my dark cloth. I suppose if I just changed the battery every year at home on the table, that would work, too.

Never had a real failure, though. I carry spare meter and on big trips I have an extra tripod in the van. I forgot my darkcloth once. I have a spare ground glass and have never had to use it, although I think a glass shop could cut the glass for you and you could wax it while you wait for a new one. Not going to save your 'Moonrise', but neither is stopping to change the glass.

Why Carry Backup Gear - Lessons learned

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