How Often Have You Needed Your Backup Camera?

never in more than 3 decades of amateur use worldwide, but once during a professional wedding shoot. One of our Hasselblad 500CM bodies died. We had a complete backup system, to our great relief. --Warren
 
wgerrard said:
Taking a backup camera on a trip seems a common thing around here. I'm curious about how often the primary camera fails or goes missing on those trips. Does the old stuff break more often than the new hardware, or vice versa?

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Yep, had the shutter/iso dial come loose on a ZI body while on a road trip. My other camera was a Mamiya 7 but no 35mm backup. Called my local repair guy who sent me to a buddy of his 150 miles away. Drove 80 MPH to that repair shop to be there by 5PM when he closed. He stayed and fixed in 30 minutes. I swore to carry a backup after that.

Second time, I had a ZI body develop an electrical short that killed the battery in 1 hour. Pulled out the identical copy backup and kept going. Good thing I had a backup as I was in a small town in Cuba specifically to photograph. Round trip from there to anywhere in the US would have been 5 days and $700.

Now I always carry complete redundancy when I am more than one hour away from home.
 
russelljtdyer said:
I've never done that, had two film cameras with me, each with different ASA film. It sounds like a good idea. What are the two types you carry loaded and why? Do others here do the same? If so, which ones do you carry and have loaded?
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On a recent three-week trip through Scandinavia and England, my main camera was an M2 w/ slower film (either b&w or Portra 160), and my "backup" was a Bessa T w/ 400 or 800 film. I used the Bessa mainly for indoor photos w/ a CV 25/4 lens. Fortunately, I didn't need the Bessa as a backup, but it was handy to have a dedicated camera for indoor use.
 
dave lackey said:
My current kit is based on 50mm lenses for street and portraits on small town documentaries. I have an M3 + 5cm 1.5 Summarit and an R4 + 50mm Cron. My portraits are generally inside and that is where the M3 with TriX 400 film is used most of the time. The R4 is loaded with a slower speed film, currently Ilford Delta 100 for everything pretty much outside. The R4 will focus down to about 18" whereas the Summarit is nowhere close. Plus, the meter is very useful and I can switch from manual to shutter or aperture priority easily.
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This is what I've tended to do when taking two 35mm rangefinder bodies: have different lenses on them and/or different film. I'm mixed about the results. On one hand this was really handy at times. Other times, however, I found it frustrating "mixing things up" by switching. It could be a bit distracting at times.
 
Several years ago in Mexico the film in my slr got hung up during rewind causing the motor to fail. No place to buy another camera. Good thing we brought along a little digi P&S.

A few years ago there was a malfunction on the lens/flash communication on my wifes slr causing severe overexposure ... my daughter had a digital camera which she used to duplicate some prom snapshots.

Last year the flash stopped working on my camera while I was on vacation. The camera still worked but I used a small backup when I needed a flash.

So yeah, from time to time things happen and some sort of B/U is needed.




Edit... Prom story not during travel
 
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wgerrard said:
Taking a backup camera on a trip seems a common thing around here. I'm curious about how often the primary camera fails or goes missing on those trips. Does the old stuff break more often than the new hardware, or vice versa?

Who has a story?
Click to expand...


Only once: the Canon 5D (Mark I) got soaked after a while under the drizzle, and had to pick up my Canon Digital Rebel (300D), which is better than nothing.
 
It depends on how important photography is for you on a prticular trip. It could range from a dedicated photo trip like Bob's to Cuba, to totally incidental where if a camera were to stop functioning, it would be no big deal and you couldn't care less. For most of us, the reality is somewhere in-between. For me, trips are a rich time for photography and not taking along a backup would be a false economy. YMMV
 
My Nikkormat's shutter was inoperative upon arrival on a trip to eastern Europe a few years ago. But it was back up #2 in my kit.
 
Never had a backup camera and, luckily, never needed one. But I would probably get a second Mamiya 6 if I were going for some kind of "once in a lifetime" trip.
 
Many, many years ago I had a Pentax MX and while using it with a cable release it somehow fell and sheared off the shutter release button...I sent it back to Pentax and they repaired it...I had a second body and was able to continue without any problems...
I still own those two Pentax MX bodies and a few years ago had one of the CLA'd...I don't remember which one this happened to...they both work just fine...the one that got CLA'd had a shutter curtain that was sticking...

I normally shoot with two Nikon bodies F4e & F5 and at times maybe a button or switch gets knocked off it's correct placement (like the Focus switch M, S or C) and I can't get it to autofocus at all and I have forgotten all about this switch...so I just use the one body until I get a break where I can really figure out what happened...
 
Currently in NYC for a couple of days R&R. Cameras: M9 and Oly EP-2 plus adapter. I expect that the M9 will do most of the work. But the little Oly is sweet to have around.

Ben
 
When I was shooting for a living - always duplicated systems (mainly Hasselblad) as clients are not interested in why you didn't get the shots. For 35 it was both M's and Nikon SLR's - always duplicated for the same reason. Part of what I was shooting was industrial/aerial stuff - which takes its toll on equipment (vibrations from choppers and small planes) and often in dusty, hot and humid plants - or extreme cold.
These days I still like to carry at least 2 bodies (M's) and basic lenses (wide, medium wide and "normal" - i.e 21/35/50 or variations of this). There is also an extra M with a 35 in my travel bag - just in case. Considering what air-fares, hotel's etc cost - it is cheap insurance. For some reason I also bring along a short tele (75/90) but rarely use them - old habit, I assume.
 
Never had to use one right on the spot, including paid shoots with digital and for fun/travel with film.

With film, I had this one time that the "primary" camera had a bit of uneven shutter curtain run on a few shots, but I didn't know that until I developed the rolls so I didn't get to use the backup body. Especially with film, because you can't see the result right away, only time you'd get to realize the problem and switch to the backup body would be when a catastrophic failure happens, like jammed shutter, dropping camera, burned a hole on curtain (if you realize), film door/bottom plate broke, etc. That's rather unlikely.

I still bring a backup body to trips though. And of course when I shoot anything paid.
 
Twice in just over 30 years. The first was a Nikon FM that stopped working as I checked it at the airport - luckily I had enough time for a quick trip to a camera store and bought an FE. The second time was lens failure - a Canon L lens failed (centre element group had to be replaced) as the bride was about to walk down the aisle. So it's not just body failures that matter, when autofocus and image stabilised lenses contain little electro-mechanical computer driven thingies. (Yes, I had a complete backup set of extra body, lenses and strobes and carried on shooting). I guess 2 failures in over 30 years is pretty good.
 
A few years ago, I was in Buenos Aires and was shooting with my FM2N. Something happened with the mirror and the camera was unable to take pictures after that. I had brought my D300 with me so I used that camera after the FM2N stopped working. Fortunately this happened near the end of the trip, so I was still able to shoot lots of images with Ektar 100 film.

After I got back, I was able to have the FM2N repaired.

Ellen
 
Luckily only two times and both times were shortly before going to a trip, both times my M4-P was the useful spare camera.
 
lynnb said:
Twice in just over 30 years. The first was a Nikon FM that stopped working as I checked it at the airport - luckily I had enough time for a quick trip to a camera store and bought an FE. The second time was lens failure - a Canon L lens failed (centre element group had to be replaced) as the bride was about to walk down the aisle. So it's not just body failures that matter, when autofocus and image stabilised lenses contain little electro-mechanical computer driven thingies. (Yes, I had a complete backup set of extra body, lenses and strobes and carried on shooting). I guess 2 failures in over 30 years is pretty good.
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Oh, yeah...I dropped my Nikon 85mm 1.4 AF lens from the crazy height of about 3"...(yeah...three inches) hood first onto the sidewalk...it quit talking to the F4 body after that...turned out that the contacts got screwed up due to the somewhat small impact...I got it repaired and it's been fine ever since...didn't stop me from shooting as I just pulled a different lens out and kept on going...:D:bang::cool:
 
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