Shutter curtain: a burning question

[hlockwood]

When out shooting, I'm always careful to keep my M7 pointed away from direct sunlight. But I've begun to wonder if the ~90% reflector near center substantially mitigates the problem of shutter curtain burn compared to Ms without a built-in meter. Or is the obvious answer, yes, by a factor of ~10?

Perhaps someone with both types of Ms can perform the experiment for me. 😱 😀

Harry

 

[Merkin]

if the reflector is just painted on the cloth, I don't think it would cut enough heat to prevent curtain burn from happening.

 

[laptoprob]

It will only make the burning less intense if you catch the sun on the white spot. But yes, then it should make a difference. Not in real life though.
Be careful with cloth shutters.
I did a test quite a while ago and got instant burning with a fast 50 set at close focus. Set at infinity and stopped down makes the burning less intense.

 

[payasam]

Why should focussed distance make a difference, Rob?

 

[laptoprob]

The focus distance is measured to the film plane. The cloth shutter is a few mm in front of that. This causes an almost perfect focal point by a projected sun, with a close focused lens.
Trust me, I've tried and tested this.

 

[payasam]

I get it, thanks. Not that I was about to check.

 

[Leica All Day]

I burnt a hole in my m6ttl about 8 years ago....I had no idea what happened when I saw the hole in my curtain....I read on the internet how it can happen and I figured that it would never happen again (I left my camera on a coffee table and the light was just "right" or "wrong") to burn a hole in the curtain.....Luckily, I was under Leica's passport warranty and sent it back for a repair....well ever since that happened, I was always careful not to have that happen again...well, about 10 days ago , it happened again, ....But, this time I was shooting into the sun with a 15mm and my focus was set to "close focus distance" on my m2...well, I took about 3 or 4 quick photos of my subject and I guess that was enough to burn a small hole in my curtain...oh well......" live and learn"....cheers, michael

 

[silverbullet]

light lenses

light lenses

I'm happy that my Bessa R4 and the Zeiss Ikon have metal shutters. Especially the Bessa with the light 21mm keeps always the nose into the sky due to misbalancing. With heavier lenses the level is more horizontally.
So my MP for the dull days and the Cosinas for bright summer light...😎......1/2000 sec....🙄

Cheers
Bernd

 

[Mephiloco]

After repairing my bad shutter curtain the other day, I accidently burned a HUGE L shaped hole in my good curtain. Was driving home and tossed my camera on the passenger seat, behind my bag. Was changing film at a stop light, went to load it and saw this huge line. Guess when I hit a bump the camera lens changed angles and caught the sun and as I drove and it bounced, it burned a thick line through the curtain.

Really made me angry since this was the FIRST time I decided I'd be responsible and use my lens hood (which I have no cap/cover for) as opposed to shooting my Summarit without a hood.

Doesn't really bother me that much since I intend on keeping this M2 for some time and don't mind DYI repairs. I should've taken a picture of the hole. You're going to think I'm exagerrating when I say it was 3/4" vertical (maybe more, I'll measure when I finish my current roll) and thick enough for the stem of a q-tip to easily pass through.

The worst thing was the smell. Geez. It actually stunk up my car briefly, and the camera itself smelled for a couple days. Seems to have gone away now, though.