Do you charge the shutter immediately after each shot?

[andreios]

I am TRYING always to do it immediately after taking the exposure - there is nothing worse than trying to click the shutter and finding it isn't cocked.

 

[special.foto]

I always advance the film immediately after taking a shot. The force of habit is way too strong. However, I've read where it's not healthy for a camera to leave it in a "cocked" state for prolonged periods of time. For example, you take a shot, cock the shutter, and put it away until the next time you shoot. Apparently, a cocked state puts stress on some components of a camera's shutter mechanism. So, I guess that could be another argument for getting into the habit of not cocking the shutter immediately after shooting--because you don't know if that last shot will actually be *the* last shot. I do store my empty cameras in an un-cocked state.



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My case too, the force of habit is stronger, altough i try not to leave the shutter cocked for more than a week or so (i usually shoot film on weekends)

My thumb just advances the film without any thought. If for some reason I don't want to advance I really have to concentrate on it. It's just so automatic. Jim

I know the feeling, i put the camera to my eye, i shoot, i bring down the camera still looking at the scenery and in the same time i advance the film.

It depends. When I'm out and taking photos I cock the shutter after a shot. When I see I'm coming to a finish, I try to leave a camera uncharged.
Actually, these days I use mostly automatic cameras - Contax G1 or Canon DSLR.

Usually when i see that i finished shooting and by accident i cocked the shutter, given the fact that i don't like to leave it like that, i look for another potential shot, so i don't waste it with an accidental dud. Also it has happened to me to search for that last shot, and then by reflex to cock the shutter again... Can you imagine the frustration? :bang:

 

[rbsinto]

My SLRs are all motorized, so they're always cocked after every shot.
However, my rangefinders don't have motors (at about $8,000.00 a pop, I can't afford S36's), but through force of habit, I re-cock their shutters after every exposure, to always be ready for the next one.
Interestingly enough, I recently purchased something from Sover Wong, the World's acknowledged expert on the Nikon F2, and in the package I received was some standard literature he sends, which indicated (among other things) that after a shooting session, mechanical cameras shouldn't be left with cocked shutters as the practice tends to weaken the tension in spring mechanisms leading to shutter speeds becoming slower.
So now I'm trying to remember to store my gear even short-term with the shutters uncocked.
I've not had problems not doing it for over 30 years, but I suppose it certainly can't hurt to try it.

 

[alistair.o]

I do it without thinking. As and when I get back home, I always set aside a little time to clean i.e. rocket blower, my gear and reset the bag for the off. It is at this point I press the shutter button - one wasted shot but, it could have meant the difference of one golden opportunity on the street.

 

[oftheherd]

My 167mt is motor driven, so it is always tensioned. My Fujica ST isn't, and I don't. I find it very easy to cock the shutter as I raise it to my eye. Never had a problem with that. My Kiev isn't easy, but I don't cock it after shots either. My personal belief is that it isn't good for the springs. I don't have any scientific proof of that. But things I have read in the past, and what just seems to made sense, tell me that is the thing to do.

With MF folders, I do wind the film on though, just as a habit to always know that the frame indicated is a fresh usable frame. I don't tension the shutter until I'm ready to shoot though.

 

[craygc]

For Leicas, the spring load is at about 50% uncocked and 75% cocked so not much of an issue. And if you use a softie then an elastic hair tie looped around twice fixes the "I have no shutter lock" problem... :bang:

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

I always wait.

 

[Alberti]

Actually, leica engineers have said that it's the same if u have it cocked or not. I am paraphrasing but it was something a long the lines of, the springs or whatever are always at 50% tension, when you cock it's at 75%, he said it's the same, doesn't matter which you do.

Not sure where I read it exactly though, somewhere on the net a while ago.

I have used an M2 for ages, always cocked the shutter. The Leica information, such as discussed in LFI magazine of the seventies (the technical columnist Broertjes) state that the cocked shutter (the spring is wound up) will last longer, maintaining better evenly exposure times.
So in rest (say days, months) the camera has the shutter spring under tension.
Now with the M8 the shutter is still cocked immediately: for the same reason., imho.

And besides that, it is embarrassing to first cock, before a shot, you lose the moment.
albert

 

[Alberti]

In this economy, you gotta charge as much as you can! 😉

LOL . . . . . . 😉

 

[robbeiflex]

I voted "Wait until next shot", but then I read the thread and now my style is changing. If I'm out shooting and intend to keep shooting, then I charge it right away. If my camera is going back into the bag then I don't.

Cheers,
Rob

 

[Shane Guthrie]

Absolutely. You never know when you will have next "decisive moment".

Same for me. I can usually keep from hitting the shutter button even if it's in a bag. True, I get the occasional wasted frame, but that's far better than losing a shot.

 

[sevo]

I try hard to delay it on folders, as winding on only after unfolding for the shot reduces dust problems, but I often fail at it. Given that my initial 35mm SLR experience was motorized so that winding on was nothing I actively did, it probably were my pro medium format years (my mainstay SLRs, 500C/M and RB/RZ, all black out until wound on) which made winding on immediately an unconscious automatism.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Some genius would then argue that the shutter loading system in rangefinders has a fatal design flaw: it has no shutter loading confirmation 😉

You don't have this sort problem with the Nikon D3 or D300 ::ducks::

 

[David DeMello]

I've read instructions for several early models of Leica copies (like FED 2 and Canon II for example) that advice against changing the shutter speed after the shutter is cocked. So, if you cock after each shot, you're either deciding to ignore that advice or to go with the last speed used, right?

Thanks.

 

[elmer3.5]

Should!!!

Should!!!

Hi, can´t vote on this one, i really should cock the shutter everytime, but i forget to many times...

 

[kuzano]

No...

No...

Absolutely no...
I do not want the shutter mechanism sitting with the springs stretched to tension until I next use the camera. That may be a long time.

Now, I also strongly discourage this on classic folding cameras, as well as NOT ADVANCING film to the next shot before closing the camera for the day.

I will elaborate in a new thread I am about to start called "Old Folder Tips".

 

[Matthew Runkel]

Yes, and I can't imagine not doing so. Winding after a shot is usually done during meaningless "slop time." The time available before a shot is not slop time, so the camera should be ready. The difference in spring tension is by all accounts trivial, like the difference between 30% and 35% of capacity (made-up illustrative numbers).

 

[mathomas]

only with a Hasselblad MF (ie 500 series) do I advance the film after a shot. This is actually recommended by the makers.

+1

more characters

 

[Leica0Series]

I could vote both ways. Using the M4, I advance right away. Using the 0-Series, I wait, as you can only change the shutter speed while you're winding the film, so if you've already advanced the film and the light changes, you're stuck. And the M8 doesn't give me a choice.

 

[rogerzilla]

No, because the shutter might get tripped in the bag or the case.

Leica say it makes no difference to shutter accuracy or wear, because the spring tension isn't very different whether cocked or uncocked.