Changing lens in the field

I have had the occasional problem changing lenses in bright sunlight, even when I try to shield the camera.

Gunter Osterlight in his highly regarded book "Leica M - Advanced Photo School" says

"Because the rubberised cloth curtains do not come into direct contact with the camera's body film gate at any point, and since they operate in without touching each other, caution is advised when changing lenses in bright light"
 
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I see people with a mobile phone between their teeth.

Slightly better than down their pants I think.

A client of mine dropped her phone in the toilet. Yuck. She dried it for a week and carried on using it.
 
Leitz used to make a double sided M connector ring. That way the protruding rearof the 21 S.A. or 28 Elmarit would fit up inside a 90 or 135, well most of them anyway.
 
bean_counter said:
I always use double-sided M rear caps. Makes spare lenses a bit longer/bulkier in the bag, but makes handling MUCH easier. I haven't dropped a lens or cap since I started using these.
Click to expand...

I don't know exactly what type of caps you are talking about (as you know I live amidst the desert), but I understand the general intention and I agreed with it very much: The rear of the lenses always caped.

I just add two things: the front of the lens always hooded, and caped too or not according to the lens type. Thus for example a 135mm lens with a metal hood will not need any cap on the hood, while a 24mm may impose on you to stock the lens with a front cap too and the hood below.

and ....

... for the moderately wide belly pouch you don't buy from any camera bags manufacturer, you build yourself a strong flat bottom, to give stability to the lens arrangement.

Kindly don't force me to start detaling all mistakes and lack of sense of Lowe pro and the like belly pouches, this week end at least.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
Changing lenses in the field is easy - on my last trip I frequently swapped between my 50mm Summicron and ZM 25mm without any problems. One thing I found to be very helpful was to make sure I had a rear cap for every lens (rather than n-1 caps) so you always have an unused cap available (assuming you always have a lens mounted on the body). I leave the camera suspended around my neck on its strap, remove lens A and put on rear cap, swing around backpack (an Osprey talon 22, much more comfortable than any shoulder bag I have found and also lighter), drop the lens in the top pocket, retreive lens B, remove rear cap (drop in pants pocket), and attach lens. It is the swapping of the rear cap from one lens to the other that made me feel like I was going to drop a lens. With enough rear caps, you don't handle more than one lens at a time.
 
Hm. Of course I change lenses in the field. So here is my lens changing procedure:

Camera with the strap around the neck.
Finding that f.... front cap in one of my pockets and covering the lens.
Right hand: taking new lens out of the bag
Right hand: pressing lens release button of camera
Left hand: demounting the lens from camera
Left hand: taking of rear cap from new lens in right hand
Right hand: mounting new lens to camera
Then putting rear cap on lens and storing lens in bag. Taking of front cap from new lens.

The weakest point here is that I ALWAYS forget in which poket I stored the front cap. Don't know why I am not able to store it in the same place all the time :(
 
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