Have you used wounded cameras?

[Juan Valdenebro]

Have you used wounded cameras?


Some months ago, I dropped my smallest bag downstairs (stupidly long downstairs!) with my black Nikon FE2 inside... After the first tough hit, the bag rolled down bumping for maybe 25 meters... What a neverending suffering! I thought the camera would be dead. Not a really protective bag, by the way...


With anguish I checked it... I love that camera, I painted myself black it's white name, brand, and other places on it to avoid problems in dangerous zones... Although I have better cameras for image quality and film format, I really know that's been the camera I've enjoyed the most in my life. I can't believe their low price: they're amazingly complete and trustable machines...


Well, the meter needle wouldn't move. Never moved again... The camera was at its end... I thought I had to instantly forget it forever, and I tried so... I couldn't: I remembered it falling and bumping all day... Had a horrible day... Even after thinking KEH would send me another one for almost nothing, I couldn't forget mine... I had emotions for it! I wasn't able to order another one, and haven't been, and won't...


Then I asked heaven why it had to happen... And then my conclusion was that I needed to handle light better without metering, and started a now fruitful process with several films, kinds of light, and standardized use of Rodinal...


One day, weeks after that dropping day, I took it in my longing hands to enjoy feeling it again, to remember good times, places, people... Started checking it again... I found it could shoot, and speeds seemed OK! I don't use AE, but then I set it to A to see if... Pointed to different light and dark zones in my living room and... The camera set different speeds! What a nice secret! Yet it meters, shoots, and it's almost perfect! Exposure compensation works too! Wow, exposure lock is perfect! Unbelievable!


So my beloved FE2 is normal, but it just doesn't let me see what it thinks about the light... Interesting, I thought. Apart from being ready to be used as always, with incident metering, I felt as if the camera was inviting me to play a new game...


I'm thinking of approaching Autoexposure seriously... I mean, to be able to shoot perfect slide film frames without metering in any way! I have that job pending, and I think soon I'll sacrifice the money for a lens (anyway I don't really need another lens) in some Astia and development to learn to judge if a scene is too light or too dark...


Sometimes the more limited a tool is, the more it takes out of you...

Any use of damaged cameras?



Cheers,


Juan

 

[ronnies]

This FTb has been bashed since it fell out my bag on the dockside in Mallaig harbour in the late eighties. It still works though the prism is now beginning to desilver.

Ronnie

 

[rxmd]

My M5 looked like this through most of the summer:

The vulcanite had begun to come off, so I decided to take it off completely. The viewfinder window was broken, and the speeds were off about a stop starting from 1/60 and slower. Oh, and the viewfinder has a broken foot. It worked fine through the summer, I took it on a field trip through the Caucasus in August and it's been fairly dependable:



That said, the camera has a new covering and viewfinder window now, has had a CLA and works like new. In other words, a wounded camera need not stay wounded.

 

[Livesteamer]

My first Leica is a M3 #802280 I got from Don Chatterton in 1990. It was a good user for $400. It took several years to figure out what I had. The big finder window in front has a bend in it and I owned it almost ten years before I realized that bend was not supposed to be there. Some time in it's past it had taken a hard blow. My early M3 was full of late features, single stroke, modern speeds, depth of field notches and round strap lugs. Some time in the past my M3 had died and been rebuilt. I don't care. It's a great camera. Joe

 

[newspaperguy]

I have a Nikon F that I've used for 40 years with a cracked prism... once
you get used to the "lightning bolt" image in the upper middle of your view,
it's not so bad. 🙄

Just sent the OM-1n I've been using w/o a meter to John H for an overhaul... OK, CLA.

Sorry, just realized those were both evil SLRs.

Actually, all my RFs work just fine.

 

[newspaperguy]

I have a Nikon F that I've used for 40 years with a cracked prism... once you get used to the "lightning bolt" image in the upper middle of your view, it's not so bad. 🙄

Just sent the OM-1n I've been using w/o a meter to John H for an overhaul... OK, CLA.

Sorry, just realized those were both evil SLRs. My RFs all work fine.

 

[35mmdelux]

My F3HP fell off a ledge onto concrete and hit the finder housing dead on, collapsed it like a flat tortilla. I paid good money for that camera. Changed out the housing, never a prob with the body.

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

I have a Nikon F that I've used for 40 years with a cracked prism... once
you get used to the "lightning bolt" image in the upper middle of your view,
it's not so bad. 🙄

Ha ha ha ha...

Yes, I noticed (too, and too late) I talked about an SLR too, but I hope members will share RFs cases as well...

Thanks!

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

My M5 looked like this through most of the summer:

The vulcanite had begun to come off, so I decided to take it off completely. The viewfinder window was broken, and the speeds were off about a stop starting from 1/60 and slower. Oh, and the viewfinder has a broken foot. It worked fine through the summer, I took it on a field trip through the Caucasus in August and it's been fairly dependable:



That said, the camera has a new covering and viewfinder window now, has had a CLA and works like new. In other words, a wounded camera need not stay wounded.

They say M5s are great cameras! If you ever decide to sell it, post that image on ebay, and I'll bid! 😀

 

[ronnies]

Ha ha ha ha...

Yes, I noticed (too, and too late) I talked about an SLR too, but I hope members will share RFs cases as well...

Thanks!

The OP talked about an SLR too. 🙂

Ronnie

 

[Mr_Flibble]

The first Kodak Medalist I bought had some surgery done to it. Nothing wrong with the shutter or the lens. The winding knob just doesn't cock the shutter anymore or stop once you've reached the next frame. No problem in both cases, I just use the red-window to see how far to wind, and used the manual cocking lever.

 

[gurkenprinz]

I own a Meopta Flexaret which will only focus smoothly to about 4 meters - after thats its an act of force, but still possible. I admit that it hurts a little to handle a 40+ year old camera like a hammer, but I am just too scared to take it apart.

Makes every shot at infinity special: "will it break this time or next...?"

regards, Chris

 

[Sisyphus]

I tend to always break a camera or two, and just learn to work with it. However, I finally decided to fix two of the broken ones I had; I am hoping they don't breal for a while now.

:s:

 

[rjbuzzclick]

I'm more concerned with how the cameras work than with how they look. I like them to bear the scars of their existence. This Petri Color Corrected Super I assembled from two non-working cameras. It's not pretty, but I'm proud of the accomplishment.

 

[Carlos Cruz]

My M5 looked like this through most of the summer:

The vulcanite had begun to come off, so I decided to take it off completely. The viewfinder window was broken, and the speeds were off about a stop starting from 1/60 and slower. Oh, and the viewfinder has a broken foot. It worked fine through the summer, I took it on a field trip through the Caucasus in August and it's been fairly dependable:



That said, the camera has a new covering and viewfinder window now, has had a CLA and works like new. In other words, a wounded camera need not stay wounded.

Where did you get new glass for VF? Mine looks awful at the moment with huge crack across vf.

 

[rbsinto]

My Nikon f has a meterless DE-1 prism that I bought years ago for a song because it had an inverted "vee" chip out of the prism glass which was centered at the top of the viewfinder.
I think it probably happened because someone removed the housing and then screwed it back on too tightly.
Anyway for the $35.00 I paid for it, it was a steal and I've used it for the last ten years.
Truly, I never even notice the chip in the field any more.

 

[rxmd]

Where did you get new glass for VF? Mine looks awful at the moment with huge crack across vf.

My repairman actually ordered a new part from Leica Solms for that (and for a surprisingly affordable price).

Otherwise a clear piece of glass should do the job, you just need to get the thickness right.

Then again, the crack wasn't visible in the finder, it just would fog up more easily.

 

[hans voralberg]

I have a meter dead, shutter speed display broken, tattered body FM2, yeah with dirty screen to boot, that still work fine. Want to change the screen though, it annoys me sometime.

To Juan: the meter needle is an easy fix, just send it to a good tech and your "wounded" FE2 won't be wounded anymore.