Burning is easy

C

cubastreet

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I recently found out how easy it is to burn a hole in the curtain.
I must have left my camera on the table I was sitting at in the midday sun.
The lens was 35mm stopped down to f/16 and still burned a hole, about 1mm square.

So I now know that you don't have to have a fast lens to burn a hole.

Can a hole this size be patched with liquid tape?
 
I did a test some time ago. Burning happens really quickly. Ofcourse at f2 it will be faster than at f16. But close focus is even more harmful than infinity, because the shutter is in front of the film. It can happen in a few seconds, depending on focal length. A 50/1,2 burns instantly.
 
Yeah sh*&@^! happens,
sorry to hear about your mishap "Cubastreet" but don't worry, it's a relatively easy fix. I had it happened with my MP shooting into direct sun and waiting for a truck to pass holding the camera still for some seconds (also a 2/35).
Get some "liquid rubber" a toothpick and a few minutes of time. Try on piece of paper how to apply a small amount and to get used to the consistency of the rubber and how to turn the toothpick a little to unload the glue without pulling a cheese like string that gets on the curtain.
Relax, take a deep breath and apply the gluey black stuff carefully in tiny amounts to both sides of the curtain. Don't start spreading the material around, it's solvent will soften the rubber of the curtain immediately. Just a tiny spot on the burned hole.

Seriously IMPORTANT !!!! : Let it completely dry for a day with no lens attached and back flipped open before you advance the shutter again.

Worked for me and I use the camera with no issues about 4 years after this DIY repair. If you fail, you can give it to repair anyway, so there's nothing to loose. Go for it - keep your hand steady 😉
 
Sorry to hear about this, cubastreet. I've never really understood what aperture/focus this happened the easiest at. But now that I see it can happen VERY easily, I will be constantly aware!
 
If you have a junker camera handy you can cut a small circle of material out of the junker camera's shutter curtain and glue it over the burn hole with a little contact cement. This was a commonly used method of repairing burn holes. If you're fixing the shutter on a screw mount Leica, Canon, or Nicca without a back that opens slip some wax paper between the pressure plate and the shutter curtain.
 
Whatever happen to the habit of using a lens cap when not shooting??? Either a lens cap, or the camera sits in my Domke bag with a UV filter to protect the front element.
 
putting cameras on tables is a bad idea in general. straps hanging all over the place, glasses full of liquids, silverware clinking around, the sun...there's no happy ending to this story.
 
Ha, ditto for me. My solution, having experienced "the burn" 2 years ago while shooting the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (or more accurately, while drinking & socializing on the beach after the parade) is simply to shoot w/a camera w/a metal shutter (Hexar RF, G2, M8, late Nikon SP) in those conditions. If that's not possible, I'll stop down the lens, keep it focused closer than infinity, & point it away from the sun whenever possible.

dfoo said:
Lens cap while shooting, for me, equals a recipe to take pictures of the cap.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the thread guy, being a new guy to RF world I never knew this.

Now, when takin photographs, would placing the sun anywhere in the VF (frame) would burn a hole on the shutter, so that shooting with the sun in the frame is something to be avoided? Or does the sun' position have to be on the axis of the lens to burn the shutter curtain?

Thanks, bob
 
burning test old thread

burning test old thread

BobPS said:
Thanks for the thread guy, being a new guy to RF world I never knew this.

Now, when takin photographs, would placing the sun anywhere in the VF (frame) would burn a hole on the shutter, so that shooting with the sun in the frame is something to be avoided? Or does the sun' position have to be on the axis of the lens to burn the shutter curtain?

Thanks, bob
Click to expand...

If you don't use a fast lens wide open you're OK. As long as you don't peer into the sun for seconds. In the burning test thread I posted details about time.
 
Perhaps dump the Leica body for a Zeiss Ikon, Hexar RF, or Bessa body? Metal shutters all the way baby 😉

Oops, just noticed this was the Leica M forum (ducks and runs for cover ....)
 
Or you can avoid those cheapo cameras with cloth shutters!!!!!!! chuckle, chuckle...... I am really surprised that leica still uses cloth shutters in its cameras!, I mean there are other alternatives that are just as quiet and more durable. I have a canon 7 from the 60's with a stainless steel cloth shutter that is damn near as quiet as the M4 I used on loan recently. and I do not have to worry about holes been burned in the shutter!!!!! Same goes for my Contax 2a's and my Kievs for that matter!!!!!!!! Michael
 
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