Bessa R accidental exposures

[nickchew]

Hi

I'm struggling with wasting battery and frames because I can't lock the Bessa R shutter release. This is worse cos I also have the mini-soft-release (great for shooting though).

What strategies do you guys use to stop the accidental exposures?
I was thinking of fashioning a cover for the shutter release from a pen cap but can't find one the right size yet.

Nick

 

[back alley]

don't advance the film till you're ready to shoot.

joe

 

[Nikon Bob]

Joe, that works for me too.

Bob

 

[nickchew]

Yeh but it does not address the problem of the light meter turning on from half pressing the shutter release (even when not wound).

I don't wind till I'm ready to shoot too. Learnt that lesson ;-)
Nick

 

[Peter]

Don't worry about battery, Bessa R and R2 do not use much electricity to power the light meter. My R2's battery lasted for almost a year of hard work. Maybe you could get a slightly bigger camera bag to prevent the shutter release from being depressed.

 

[o0dano0o]

or get a cheap case.

The case that my fed lived in for a while works fine (after a little inital surgery.) Ok so it's not pretty but it does the trick.

Hehe - the case is actually a kiev case which I picked up for $2 at a camera show.

 

[back alley]

ok so not advancing the film does not stop the battery, but i think you're worrying for nothing. first, batteries are cheap and really they last a long time---unless the shutter is down all nite (& then doesn't it turn off anyway?), and if that's the situation then you need another case.

joe

 

[rover]

That was reason #1 that I dumped my soft release, it only makes the problem worst. Joe is right about the film release, if you forget and wind the film, find one more beautiful woman to take a picture of, then keep your thumb under control and put the camera down. And the battery drain, well, take the soft release off, that will help, and getting an ever ready case works too.

 

[Pherdinand]

"keep your thumb under control and put the camera down"
Yeah right Rover. 🙂)

 

[FrankS]

Ah, yes. Premature exposure. Don't worry. It happens to most of us now and then.

 

[Kris]

Better waste battery and some film every now and then rather than missing the chance of taking photo of a beautiful woman passing by.

😀

 

[Nikon Bob]

I guess Cosina missed the boat on the locking shutter release. With the Nikon FM2n the shutter wind lever has to be in the stand off position in order that the meter and shutter work. I would guess that it is a fairly simple thing for the manufacturer to include at some cost though.

Bob

 

[Sonnar2]

Kris, you got it.. ;-)

 

[Jim H.]

For some unknown reason they discontinued the shutter lock on the R series. I think the L has a shutter release lock. It won't fire unless the film advance lever is pulled out from the body. I'm still waiting to recieve mine. I've had that happen to me with the R. When I reach the end of a roll of film but the film advance lever won't completely cycle, I push the little button on the bottom and rewind a little, just enough so I can complete the film advance stroke and return the lever to the standby position. Then I always somehow manage to hit the shutter release button either by accident or without thinking about what I'm doing. Oops! Hope all this makes sence to someone.

 

[o0dano0o]

When I reach the end of a roll of film but the film advance lever won't completely cycle, I push the little button on the bottom and rewind a little, just enough so I can complete the film advance stroke and return the lever to the standby position.

I think I broke my bessa by doing something similar. It was an 80 dollar repair. Now when I get to my 24 or 36 frames, I rewind no matter what.

 

[tedwhite]

Has anything improved on the R2A? Or are the same problems still there?

 

[rover]

R2a has a shutter release lock. Improvement was also made with the Bessa R2 regarding battery drain, the meter will only go on when the shutter is cocked in the R2 and I believe that carried forward to the R2a and R3a.

 

[tedwhite]

Then I think I'll save for the R2A. I was watching an ebay Leica CL w/40mm Summicron, but it's already at $500 with 5 days to go. And it's 25 years old. For not much more money I'll have a brand new R2A.

 

[Doug]

For some unknown reason they discontinued the shutter lock on the R series. I think the L has a shutter release lock. It won't fire unless the film advance lever is pulled out from the body. I'm still waiting to recieve mine. I've had that happen to me with the R. When I reach the end of a roll of film but the film advance lever won't completely cycle, I push the little button on the bottom and rewind a little, just enough so I can complete the film advance stroke and return the lever to the standby position. Then I always somehow manage to hit the shutter release button either by accident or without thinking about what I'm doing. Oops! Hope all this makes sence to someone.

Hi Jim -- I've found the shutter lock "feature" on the Bessa-L acts more like a "bug." Highly annoying, as I'm left-eyed and it's all too easy to inadvertently push the wind lever in to the lock position and lose the shot! I'd rather waste a few frames from time to time than lose even one intentional photo.

On the end-of-roll issue, for those cameras without a racheting wind lever, I just press the rewind button and finish the wind stroke, then immediately rewind.

 

[Roman]

Doug, being left-eyed, too, I'm 100% with you on the lever-issue - that was also the deciding factor (pro Pentax contra Nikon) when I chose my SLR system...

Roman