View Full Version : Miscellany of Beginner's Blunders
Everyone makes mistakes but, when one uses a new camera for the first time, then it's time for all kind of funny things to happen. After a few blunders, one will eventually learn from experience. This thread is for my fellow list members to share their mishaps with new gear...
Usually, the bigger the format, the bigger the probability of failure. Large format with its total lack of automation is very prone to all kind of user's errors but I have found that for me MF is more dangerous, as I am more confident when I use MF, so I am more likely to forget some important part of the process.
When I was in Vietnam, I heard once that there was a nice fish market in a small town a few hours drive from the place I lived. That seemed very nice, the only problem was that the fishermen came to sell their stuff at dawn and evrything was sold out before 8am. One day, I decided to get up at 2am to be on location for the opening of the market. The light was wonderful, with the first rays of the sun illuminating stalls full of colorful fishes and other strange sea creatures. I knew that it wouldn't last long, because the sun would soon be high in the sky. I took my Fuji 6x9 loaded with Provia film and shot a whole 220 roll. Then I looked for a quiet place to reload. At that time I realized that the cap was still on the lens :bang: Of course I managed to shoot a few more rolls, but the magic light was gone.
From that day, I never used a lens cap on any of my RF cameras.
[The original idea for this thread came from the thread "Erreurs de débutants" on the French Galerie Photo Phorum (http://www.galerie-photo.info/forum)].
Cheers,
Abbazz
Done the lens cap thing also...
How about this one - changing film as evening draws in, 100 asa coming out, 1600 asa going in and, you guessed it, not changing the film speed setting on the camera :bang:
Oh, and wide angle lenses (CV 12): fingers, thumbs, feet, hair, shadow, strap etc...
Wayne R. Scott
04-13-2007, 17:38
On my first wedding shoot with my then new Bronica ETR I shot a test polaroid with the polaroid back. The lighting was good to go; so I slapped on a 120 film back and began shooting the family shots. Since I was not real familiar with the Bronica I shot each pose with my Nikon 35mm also. When I got to number 24 on both cameras it dawned on me that I should have run out of 120 film as it only gets 15 shots per roll on the ETR. I looked down and I still had the multiple exposure set on the camera body!! (this is the only way to get the shutter to fire with a polaroid back) I am suprised the 120 film did not catch on fire from having 24 exposures on a single frame!!
Wayne
While perhaps not as publicly embarrassing as leaving the lens cap on, I had issues with remembering to focus the lens when I first started using rangefinders.
I came to RFs from autofocus SLRs where focusing was rarely an issue. There were many occasions where I'd be several shots into a roll before I remembered I had to focus. It was especially bad because my first lens was the CV 25mm which isn't rangefinder coupled, so it wasn't intuitive that the focus was off. Fortunately, I've learned my lessons now for the most part. :)
The first camera I got was a Carena, when I was 12 or so.
At the time my mother's friend's husband worked for the national railway service in Switzerland and got me into a car-house. I had all these photos taken of me inside locomotives, etc.
It turns out the film didn't catch and advance, so none of the photos came out. This actually happened 3 or more times (and I lost quite a few potentially good photos), so I'm now extra careful (and paranoid still to this day) whenever loading 35mm film.
my favorite is always spending a great deal of time metering and setting aperture and shutter speed, then forgetting to focus. Or vice versa :) I never cease to impress myself with my willingness to set the lens to a DOF range per the aperture, go outside, and change the aperture and shutter but neglect to change focus before taking a shot down the street :banghead:
Did you know you can focus a 50mm Elmar without extending it? Makes for a nice blurred circle on film.
When I first got my Bessa R2 along with 35mm and 50mm lenses, I would perpetually forget to adjust the brightline setting on top of the camera. I would carefully compose for the 50mm brightline and then realize I had the 35mm lens on, or vice versa..
mfunnell
04-13-2007, 19:15
Mine, on my M3 and other manual cameras, is to set the aperture, meter the scene, decide on a shutter speed, focus, frame and fire. All fine, right? Well deciding on a shutter speed isn't the same as setting the shutter speed :o now is it? Too much AE in my past (and present) I guess. I'm especially prone to do this with the VCII meter mounted on the accessory shoe.
...Mike
dazedgonebye
04-13-2007, 19:45
How about determining the distance on the rangefinder of my 6x6 folder and shooting away...without setting the distance on the lens?
Uncoupled, just one more thing to forget.
planetjoe
04-13-2007, 20:09
The lens cap thing is a real beginner's mistake, I was once told.
Riiiight.
I was still doing it, every so often...but lately I seem to have gotten stupid. My M4 has a pinhole in curtain #1, so I've had to get used to not winding on after each shot, just to keep the sun off the curtain until the next shot presents itself. That's hard enough. But couple that to the fact that I'd also been putting the lens cap back on between shots...total disaster. I might as well be shooting with a rock, for all the good a capped camera does me.
Just incentive to get the $#@! curtain patched, I guess.
Cheers,
--joe.
One mistake that occurs frequently when I use my Ikonta 524/16. This camera has an uncoupled rangefinder. It means that you have to focus the rangefinder, then read the measurement on the scale and adjust the focus on the lens accordingly. When I have not used the Ikonta for some time, I will focus the rangefinder and take the picture, without focusing the lens. Nice blurry pictures!
Cheers,
Abbazz
Today I was out shooting hot-air balloons at dawn, switching between the dSLR and the M4 - I kept forgetting to wind on the film!
Last week I used my M645 (medium-format SLR), which has an uncoupled meter in the finder - I kept forgetting to transfer the shutter speed to the camera!
Forget there's no film in the camera? Pretty bone-headed... but doable!
jan normandale
04-13-2007, 23:27
After loading a fresh roll of film and not checking to see if the film is winding onto the take up by watching the rewind crank each time you advance the file for the next exposure??
Jan, yes, I did a particularly frustrating version of that mistake... Years ago Ilford briefly offered HP5 on a very thin base in 72-exposure rolls. I loaded a roll in my M2, but the film was so thin and limber, it bulged up at just the right spot to avoid catching on the film-advance sprockets. I went out in the field taking landscape pics and had a ball until I noticed that I'd taken well over 72 shots... and the rewind knob was not turning. Back home in the darkroom I discovered the limber leader had also slipped out of the takeup, and the film had not advanced at all. Very annoying!
Gee,you guys are me.What a soothing thread.Just yesterday I tried to get one last frame out of a 36 exp.roll and it didn't go,pulled off the spool and wouldn't rewind.Tried to salvage it,no luck.Now I have to explain to my daughter where her new kitten pictures are.Wish me luck.........Robin
.Now I have to explain to my daughter where her new kitten pictures are...Robin
Heaven, perhaps? ;)
With me, in no particular order, it's the lens cap thing, the uncoupled rangefinder thing, the film not winding on thing and my personal speciality - an unconquerable belief that any camera purchased on e-bay functions perfectly and should be immediately used for unrepeatable pictures....
Cheers, Ian
oftheherd
04-14-2007, 05:13
Once in a hurry, back in the 70s, I went to change film in bright sunlight on a higly reflective sidewalk ant the Seoul National Museum. Opened the back and discovered I had forgotten to rewind the film. Slapped the back shut and actually saved about half the roll. I think that was Fuji slide film. Whatever, it had one heck of a good anti-halation backing.
Forgetting to take the lens cover off a 6x7 sure leaves a lot of real estate unexposed. But my Super Press 23 forgives me after several sneering laughs.
Just about any other mistake mentioned here I have done at least once. Say, anybody ever use a dual format folder, in the 645 mode, but compose and shoot all photos in the 6x6 mode? Interesting. Where's uncle Joe and aunt Sally? :D
Berliner
04-14-2007, 05:25
Switching to color from b&w, and realizing the reg/green/orange filter is still on the lens...after rewinding the exposed roll.
I've also left the lens cap on cameras without meeters, and shot entire sceens without film loaded/loaded so it's actually winding...
The good news is it happens less and less frequently.
manfromh
04-14-2007, 06:18
Few times I've forgot to change the shutter speed when going into a darker/lighter area. But thats all thats happened in 6 months of using rangefinders.
I remember the time I forgot to change the film speed on my Hexar AF after I placed an ND8 filter on it. All the photos I took of my special someone turned out...kinda dark. :bang:
Lesson learned.
wyk_penguin
04-15-2007, 01:13
Kept on advancing a stiff FSU camera and tore the film out of the can.
Well, it's classic - I was part way into a wedding with my Mamiya Press and discovered the dark slide was still in. Fortunately I could re-shoot the preliminaries (bride dressing, etc.) but the first shots would have been better. "If I only could develop my dark slide!" :bang:
Heaven, perhaps? ;)
With me, in no particular order, it's the lens cap thing, the uncoupled rangefinder thing, the film not winding on thing and my personal speciality - an unconquerable belief that any camera purchased on e-bay functions perfectly and should be immediately used for unrepeatable pictures....
Cheers, Ian
Yes,Yes,this is my life!!!!!! Ian,once again you've done it........Robin
Robin
A changing bag or hand over the complete camera to mini lab person, should have gotten them back.
Ive done Ian's straight out of the post package a 36 casssette and then the discovery that the rewind lever did nothing at all, darkroom time...
Noel
sheepdog
04-15-2007, 06:03
Wonderful thread!
Oh how it hurts reading about errors you thought you had repressed.. In addition to most of the rf-related errors here with the notable exception of lenscap portraits (I don't dare using those), I've arrived at a concert with Pan-F loaded (1/5sec makes for a lot of nice motion blur, hehe) and more notably - transferred all (read: ALL) of my scanned images onto a new external harddrive before dropping it on the floor the next day.. I'm not going to have any trouble filling my spare time the next couple of years.. :bang:
Kind regards
Kjetil
oftheherd
04-15-2007, 06:58
Well, it's classic - I was part way into a wedding with my Mamiya Press and discovered the dark slide was still in. Fortunately I could re-shoot the preliminaries (bride dressing, etc.) but the first shots would have been better. "If I only could develop my dark slide!" :bang:
Did that a couple of times too, and after being so careful to pull the cap off the lens. :confused: :mad:
I have too many cameras, and manage to forget one small detail with each reintroduction. Snafus from the last few years: (1) Opening Contax T3 to load film, and finding a half-shot roll. Anti-halation layer limited the damage to four frames. (2) Finger blocking the Summicron-M 35. (3) Counting 3EV in the wrong direction while setting M4 shutter. (4) And biggest goof-up was last week with Contax T and no film loaded. Never squeezed 39 frames out of this camera before... Note to self: stop laughing at other photogs, and start checking my own spool for rotation!
Robin
A changing bag or hand over the complete camera to mini lab person, should have gotten them back.
Ive done Ian's straight out of the post package a 36 casssette and then the discovery that the rewind lever did nothing at all, darkroom time...
Noel
Hi Noel,I figured that out too late,as I sat in the dark calling myself D.A..It wont happen again.Claire and I just took more pictures........Robin
Funny thread … it makes me feel better because I’ll know to be not alone when I’ll do my mistakes.
Right now I did all sort of mistakes since I passed to Rf cameras, I shot with the lens cap on and without film in the camera (not the same session ..eh!), I took lots of photos of my fingers with my cv21. I remember shooting with my BessaR with wrong framelines in the VF (nobody mentioned this one…).
I also changed the film without changing film speed on the asa dialer and shot with the wrong hyperfocal setting on my bessaL and cv21 (this both in the same session …shame on me) and Agfa Isolette (RF uncoupled).
I also remember once the film didn't catch and advance on a lomo lca.
Last but not at least I opened the bessaR and found a not completely rewinded film…
Anyway the one I still do and did just saturday is shooting with the wrong hyperfocal distance setting ...
Ciao
Nico
Yep, I've done alot of these.
AND
With the Crown Graphic.
Set f stop, focus, compose, forget to cock shutter, cock shutter, forget to pull dark slide. Pull dark slide, forget to put dark slide back in before removing holder. Give up and go home for the day.
I once loaded a Bronica ETRS 120 back backwards. In other words, I shot a whole roll of film with the paper backing facing the lens.
Yep, I've done alot of these.
AND
With the Crown Graphic.
Set f stop, focus, compose, forget to cock shutter, cock shutter, forget to pull dark slide. Pull dark slide, forget to put dark slide back in before removing holder. Give up and go home for the day.
I once loaded a Bronica ETRS 120 back backwards. In other words, I shot a whole roll of film with the paper backing facing the lens.
Well, at least you could switch spools and try again :)
I don't own lens caps, lucky me. But after buying the Canon A-1 I spend the evening toying (horsing) around with it. When done I "pre-set" the iso dial to 400, as that was what I was going to use the next day. We had an engagement party, so all the family was there. Me and my brother would do the pictures.
I arrive with my camera bag packed with film and lenses (had to bring them all of course, even the f/4 zoom, eventhough it was inside and evening). Pulled out the A-1 and the f/1.4 50mm and decided in the spur of the moment to use B&W instead of color, because my brother was already using color.
It took me untill I got the pictures back from development to realize that I use Agfapan APX 100 for b&w...
Luckily I used my Olympus with some cheap minolta 400 film as well for some shots, so I gave those to my brother. The b&w shots are hidden in a drawer.
I forget to mention when I loaded the Agfa Isolette with 35mm film (experimenting home made "pano" solutions ...) and I opened or left opened (cannot remeber) the small window on the back to check the shot number ... the whole roll has gone ...
This thread is a weight off my shoulders...name a boneheaded thing and you bet I've done it atleast once.
photophorous
04-17-2007, 08:46
I've forgotten the lens cap. I've also forgotten to focus. And, in aperture priority, I've gotten so caught up in picking the best aperture that I forget to notice the shutter speed dropping too low. But I think my most unique mistake was the time I wound the film back into the canister turning the rewind lever the wrong way. It left streaks all over the whole roll. I wondered why there was so much resistance, but my dumb self just kept winding.
Hi, im new to this forum and wanted to post this as a new thread but im afraid i cant seem to find the 'post new thread' link?!!
Ive just sold a Mamiya 7 II kit for a friend , hes hardly touched it- its been sitting in my safe for a long time. Anyway the person who bought it is returning it tommorow stating "The LED which illuminates the shutter speed for "30"
ie 1/30th of a second in the viewfinder does not illuminate at all under any
setting (both manual exposure and automatic exposure) whereas all the other
shutter speed leds do. I have tried new batteries with exactly the same
results."
Does anyone know what i can do to check this/ troubleshooting as im no expert on this camera. I know it has only had 1 roll of film through it & been stored well with batteries taken out of it so am concerned it might just be something small (i hope).
Many thanks hope someone out there can help-
M. : )
Welsh_Italian
04-18-2007, 09:28
When I went to spend two weeks with my fiancee, I took what I knew to be a brilliant picture of a fighting chicken. You know those shots, when you know in your bones that the exposure, focus and framing are just perfect?
Then my fiancee said to me, "is that supposed to be on there" pointing at the lens cap still on the lens...
I was trying out a Konica C35 a few weeks before and was wondering why the film wind was a bit sticky. "I know, I'll give it a nice strong turn", which made the winding on so much easier! Too easy in fact...
Of course I had ripped the film from the cassette. Oops!
Welsh_Italian
04-18-2007, 09:34
Or when using an auto-exposure camera like the Olympus XA in poor light.
Remember Al, you don't pull away until the second click! :bang:
Switching between my Hexar AF and my Leica, I usually bring the Leica up to my eye, frame the shot, and take the picture without focussing for one or two shots. Last time I sold a camera here, I decided that I could list it before I finished the last roll. I took some shots of the camera with my digicam and decided that I should open it up and take a shot of the inside. Surprise, surprise.
GoodPhotos
06-04-2007, 08:34
At that time I realized that the cap was still on the lens :bang: Of course I managed to shoot a few more rolls, but the magic light was gone.
From that day, I never used a lens cap on any of my RF cameras.
My IIIf (like the IIIc before it) has small pinholes in the shutter that ruin the frame if I leave the lens cap off. This isn't a problem for me really because I'm now used to the practice of focusing, composing, removing the lenscap, shooting and putting the cap right back on, but at the festival yesterday while focusing on the crowds people kept trying to be helpful telling me "Your lenscap is on!" everytime I'd try to make an exposure!
:)
Fresh out of photoschool in the Army, for my very first photo assignment, I was tasked to load the 4X5 film for the portraits of the entire Battalion in formation. (Yes, 4X5 this was a few years ago.) Several hundred man-hours later when we got back to the shop to process the exposures, we realised that I had loaded every single sheet backwards so every expopsure was shot through the emulsion. We salvaged the job, but it was far from the best work possible. Took me a while at that post to make up for that initial impression. :rolleyes:
mtbbrian
06-04-2007, 09:11
Done the lens cap thing also...
The thing I dislike when I do that, if your camera has apeture priority, the shutter will be open for second or two.
Every time that has happened I think that there is something wrong with the camera!
:mad: :D
Brian
I shot a whole roll yesterday and only realised when I started to rewind it that there was no film in the camera :-)
I'm in the habit of leaving a bit of torn up film box in the hotshoe to tell me what film is in the camera, and removing it when the camera's empty. I obviously forgot to remove it this time....
Ian
I shot a whole roll yesterday and only realised when I started to rewind it that there was no film in the camera :-)
I'm in the habit of leaving a bit of torn up film box in the hotshoe to tell me what film is in the camera, and removing it when the camera's empty. I obviously forgot to remove it this time....
Ian
Believe me, Ian, we've ALL been there on that one. Ever since doing that myself, I try to watch the rewind knob to make sure that a) there's actually film in the camera and b) the film that is in there is actually advancing. Gee, I guess that reveals one of the many other mistakes I've made (i.e., not getting the film loaded properly so it never advances and so I'm still shooting up to frame number 43!).
-Randy
P.S. As for the mistake of leaving the lens cap on, gee, I didn't think one could oneself a rangefinder camera shooter if you hadn't made that mistake at least a couple of times!
Ha, me too, Ian! Just last week I set out to take some shots of construction down the street, and after a few shots I got suspicious about how easy the film wind was.... Checked the rewind and verified no film in the camera! Duh... went back home and put some film in.
Then maybe hard to believe, the stupidity arose at the end of the roll too, as I popped the back when home in my office... without rewinding first!
I shot some star trails on slide film with my TLR once. Putting the camera away I realized the orange filter I'd been using for B+W's earlier in the day was still on the taking lens.
I frequently lose track of whether the film has been advanced, the shutter cocked, both, or neither on the one camera I have with separate controls for both. I've only double exposed a single frame with it, but wasted far more...
Opened the back on a 35mm camera without rewinding first, happened only once so far. Just lucky I guess.
Took pictures of the back of lenscap with Bessa L one too many times, then put a stripe of hideous yellow paint on the cap where it can be seen through the viewfinder. Problem solved.
What will be next?
350D_user
06-04-2007, 12:05
How about managing to misload a Leica Standard, wander round Malta with it, then wonder (and panic) when the counter hits 27... for a 24 shot film?
Thankfully, the 350D didn't do that. I also managed to get 18 shots from the film, so all was not lost. :)
Let's see, uh ...
Never had the lens cap problem. However ...
1. Changing film and forgetting to reset the ISO/ASA. :(
2. Forgetting to focus. (Maybe too many beverages?) :)
3. Forgetting to wind. (See avatar as of Jun. 4)
4. Worst blunder in recent times ... running late and forgetting the camera! (Took the film, forgot the camera, yeah, go figure!)
Let's see, uh ...
4. Worst blunder in recent times ... running late and forgetting the camera! (Took the film, forgot the camera, yeah, go figure!)
Interesting :D,.
Btw, last sunday I did the opposite...took the camera with a few frames to shot but I forgot the film .... just like having the cigarettes and no lighter for miles :bang: :bang: :bang:
Morca007
06-04-2007, 13:21
I've done the whole forgetting to check for winding, only to find it never loaded thing. Not fun. :(
My first time shooting any sort of good B/W film, I took it to a one hour photo place, not knowing to tell them it was 'professional process.' They ran it through the C41 machine. I got a call telling me it was ruined. This wouldn't have been as bad if the shots were reproducable, but some were portraits of my favorite teacher who had come to visit us after she retired.
shadowfox
06-04-2007, 13:22
Or when using an auto-exposure camera like the Olympus XA in poor light.
Remember Al, you don't pull away until the second click! :bang:
This is btw, one of the ways to create pretty but abstract dancing lights especially when done near a colorfully-lit toll-booth or city strip.
:cool:
There's very few I haven't been guilty of, starting with my very-first-ever roll of film through my then M4-2 which I didn't load properly resulting in a roll full of blanks.
Since then I've left lens caps on, forgot to meter, forgot to focus, gotten ISOs confused, loaded film improperly, grossly over & under exposed, forgot to reset the M2's frame counter, selected the wrong frameline or forgot to change framelines on the R2A and just generally ended up with poor photos for want of concentration.
Luckily the only mistakes I seem to make nowadays are poor composition or choice of subject. :D
Berliner
06-05-2007, 07:13
I did this last weekend...I used the 50mm framelines to compose & shot a whole roll of 36 exposures. Problem was, I had a 75mm lens on the camera.... I am expecting lots of cut off heads...
dostacos
06-05-2007, 18:35
sell your Bessa R on RFF and have the new owner ask if you want your half shot roll of film back:o :o :eek:
Ha, Dan I did send photos to the seller of my Canon ELPH Jr from the half-shot roll he left in it! Haven't done that myself; my trick is just don't sell any cameras... :)
sell your Bessa R on RFF and have the new owner ask if you want your half shot roll of film back:o :o :eek:
Or leave an exposed roll in the center console of your car and discover it three years later. :(
landsknechte
06-06-2007, 20:11
My latest blooper... Opening the base plate on a IIIc before rewinding the film.
St.Ephen
06-11-2007, 19:18
Something i remember from my childhood, that makes me religiously look to see the rewind crank turning.:rolleyes:
My family and I were on holiday in Scotland many years ago, went on a daytrip to the tiny island of Iona. We had glorious weather(very unusual), and a wonderful day made even better when we saw Harry Secombe:angel: filming "Highway." My dad took the pics. He also took snaps of Gordon Jackson:angel: after he'd stepped out of a burgundy helicopter, with his arm around me and my mum. He wouldn't let my dad take any until he'd finished signing his autograph on a post card.:cool: I also remember giving the guy a big hug....I watched "The Professionals" when i was a kid.
Two weeks later, when the photos came back from processing, the negs were fine, except for the Iona trip. They were completely blank.:bang:
Something i remember from my childhood, that makes me religiously look to see the rewind crank turning.:rolleyes:
I do this instinctively now. Back when I had my first 35mm I would always try to get that 38th frame (or 22nd., not to show my real age) and I had cases where the film either didn't fit right in the sprockets and wouldn't advance, or worse, get all jammed up on the take-up spool after a few frames. :( I'm always paranoid about a mis-loaded roll.
OBTW, that Canon QL mechanism has me spoiled! :)
spyder2000
06-15-2007, 08:13
One I've not seen here but has happened to me. With roll film cameras, specifically a Koni-Omega Rapid M...failing to remove all of the tape that seals the fresh roll of film. Exposing said roill. Removing said roll and finding the remainder of that piece of tape lying between the lens and film.
DOH!
Great forum folks.
...failing to remove all of the tape that seals the fresh roll of film. Exposing said roill. Removing said roll and finding the remainder of that piece of tape lying between the lens and film.
DOH!Good one! Not quite at the same level, I've had a cat hair bridge the corner of the film gate, caught in the black flocking of a leaf-shutter camera. The DUH part of this was really how long it took me to figure out what was making that mark on most but not all of the negs!
erikhaugsby
06-15-2007, 20:37
Back when I had my first 35mm I would always try to get that 38th frame (or 22nd., not to show my real age)
Not sure if anybody else does this, but on my M2 I never count out how many exposures I've taken; instead I just shoot until I can't advance any more.
This is mainly due to the utter inaccuracy of my bulk loader (it won't click each frame, so I'm left guessing the number of turns I've had relative to the number of frames), but regardless of the cause I haven't had any problems with ripped or damaged film in the camera since I started to bulk load.
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