IIIg help needed!

[JohanV]

Dear All,

I should have known that proudly showing off my new IIIg in the 'show your LTM' thread would backfire.
My beautiful new arrival has put me in a rut:
I put in roll of HP5+ and took five pix of my kids, which came out like this:



granted, not tack sharp, but a start...
So two days later I take the camera to my dad's place for the new years' celebrations, take the remaining 30 or so shots, and they all look like this:



No, I was not drunk, and I paid a lot of attention to getting the shots as sharp as possible.
Now my question is: has something happened to the camera to disturb the rangefinder, or may accidentally moving the diopter lever have this effect?
Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance,
Johan.

 

[colyn]

When you were focusing did the rangefinder appear to align properly??
Did you have the lens screwed on all the way and what lens were you using?

 

[JohanV]

When you were focusing did the rangefinder appear to align properly??
Did you have the lens screwed on all the way and what lens were you using?

The rangefinder alignment looked perfect (aided by the separate viewer which gives great detail).
I had the same lens on as in the first shot: Summicron 5cm f2.0, which seems screwed in all the way.

Thanks for your interest btw...

 

[ffttklackdedeng]

Since the 'cron is collapsible (sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, Johan!): was it fully extended? Did you fold it into the body between the shots?

 

[JohanV]

I seem to have made quite a fool of myself here:

As I got a IIIc with a rigid 35mm summaron at he same time as the IIIg, I had been playing around with both, and clean forgot that the 50mm is collapsible, and I just used it in the collapsed position.:bang:
(I did wonder why it was so hard to change the aperture...)😱

So, lessons learned:

1. I am an absolute idiot.
2. Murphy was an optimist.

Sorry to have been a nuisance...

(And a big thank you to Colyn and Robert for bearing with me)

 

[colyn]

The only thing I could think of that would cause your problem now is maybe the beamsplitter mirror has come partly unglued.

Try focusing on objects at different distances and comparing that to the distance scale on the lens. If there is a considerable difference between the 2 then the rangefinder is in need of repair..

 

[bobkonos]

Johan,

You are not an idiot-this happens to a lot of people using collapsable lenses. But it only happens once! Of course, to never have to worry about this, you could go after the uber rare rigid Leica 50 Summicron in LTM. :~)

You reside in one of my favorite countries. Nothing like eating rabbit in beer after watching a bike race in Flanders...

 

[JohanV]

Johan,

You are not an idiot-this happens to a lot of people using collapsable lenses. But it only happens once! Of course, to never have to worry about this, you could go after the uber rare rigid Leica 50 Summicron in LTM. :~)

You reside in one of my favorite countries. Nothing like eating rabbit in beer after watching a bike race in Flanders...

Thank you for making me feel a little better and less ashamed Bob,
And if you want to come over to watch the "Tour of Flanders", I'll make sure there's a rabbit on the boil for you...

 

[Krosya]

I second that - I have done that - so I'm as much of an idiot. lol I have several collapsable lemses and for some reason when I used Elmar I did the same thing, - with same results. lol

 

[Xmas]

Johan

You are not looking at a >>$ repair bill and withdrawl symptoms until you get a camera back. All you need is a check list, check the rewind knob, check the cap.

HCB used a hood cap and had it on a lanyard attached to his left wrist - why do you think he had it on a lanyard he had enough $ for a pocket full of caps?

He musta taked photos of his cap sufficiently for it to annoy?

Noel

 

[Keith]

I suspect the humble lens cap is one of the worlds most photographed objects. The collapsable lens gaff hasn't got me yet ... but I'm new to rangefinders, so I'm sure it will! 😛

Happy New Year ... and rabbit in beer sounds very good.🙂

Cheers.

 

[Nikon Bob]

Another idiot reporting in here. Yes more than one lens cap photo to my credit and just waiting to forget to extend my Elmar one day. All normal easy mistakes to make.

Bob

 

[giellaleafapmu]

Never forgot to extend a collapsible lens but in second hand shop I once pulled a Summaron for a while and then told the guy that the lens was "stucked"...
I had it in from of me but for some reason I was just convinced that it was a collapsible 50mm lens...

Giella lea Fapmu

 

[Harry Lime]

I seem to have made quite a fool of myself here:

As I got a IIIc with a rigid 35mm summaron at he same time as the IIIg, I had been playing around with both, and clean forgot that the 50mm is collapsible, and I just used it in the collapsed position.:bang:
(I did wonder why it was so hard to change the aperture...)😱
So, lessons learned:
1. I am an absolute idiot.
2. Murphy was an optimist.
Sorry to have been a nuisance...
(And a big thank you to Colyn and Robert for bearing with me)

Been there and done that.
Other strokes of genius I have performed:

1) Lens cap on
2) No film in camera.
3) Removed baseplate before rewinding film
4) "Did I load this M with Tri-X or Delta3200?"


😉

 

[bobkonos]

Thank you for making me feel a little better and less ashamed Bob,
And if you want to come over to watch the "Tour of Flanders", I'll make sure there's a rabbit on the boil for you...

I'd love to and may take you up on that in the future. I saw the Ronde de Vlanderren in 1993, then saw CycloCross Worlds in Hussfelt in 2002. Rabbit cooked in gouze beer was consumed in Brussels on that trip (where I discovered Marcolini chocolate store-wow!). So let's stay in touch and perhaps we'll meet up in Belgium. RFF makes the world smaller.

OK, here's the mistake, as a predominantly Leica M user, I have made too many times: loaded the film, advanced a couple of frames, and discovered after 30+ additional shots that the film never engaged in the take-up spool. Oh what a lame feeling that is, togther with the feeling of loss of the photos that could have been. Solution: watch the red dot on the rewind crank or the crank itself, and make sure it turns when advancing the film. Sigh...it can be tough to be human, but what else can we do?

You have inspired me to dust off my IIIF and use it this week. With a rigid lense...

All the best to you.