OT: Am I smart or what!

[fgianni]

This is a TLR story, hence the OT in the title.

I bought a few weeks ago a Minolta Autopole (linear polarizer for bay 1 TLR cameras) to use with my Minolta Autocord.
Yesterday I took it out for a shoot, and noticed that on the focusing screen the effect was quite horrible, with black streaks moving across the image while turning the polarizer, and no visible proper polarizing effect on the image. 😕
So I thought: great, I got this rubbish from the boy for quite a bit of money, and probably the coating is gone. 🙁
I took the polarizer off, and went on shooting without it. 😡
As I was about to shoot the 12th (and last) frame it dawned on me: I had been wearing polarizing sunglasses! :bang: :bang: :bang:
Took the sunglasses off, put the filter back on and, wonder of wonders, it worked exactly as expected! :angel:

And the obvious question is: has anyone managed to do a more stupid thing lately? 😱

 

[boarini2003]

Well, many times I've opened the camera before rewinding the film.

 

[pvdhaar]

And the obvious question is: has anyone managed to do a more stupid thing lately? 😱

Don't know if it qualifies, but...

I've this habit to adjust the ISO on the light meter when I put a polarizer on the (meterless) 6x6. But I'm not really in the habit of undoing that when I remove the pola again.. No wonder my exposures are sometimes all over the place..

 

[leica M2 fan]

Listen to this one, many years ago we traveled a considerable distance down the coast to photograph a lighthouse we liked. Got there, set up, did the shoot and returned home. When I tried to rewind I discovered I had NO FILM in the camera. That qualifies I bet you.

 

[Pherdinand]

Uh, i read the meter and then happily shoot away slide film without transferring the readings to the camera. Three frames, not one.

 

[Solinar]

Great story. My guess is at some point, while rotating the autopole, the polaroid eyeglasses would totally block out the viewfinder.

 

[ywenz]

I think the guy with the topic "Ever bought the lens you want in the wrong mount???" did something just as stupid.. 😀

 

[physiognomy]

I think the guy with the topic "Ever bought the lens you want in the wrong mount???" did something just as stupid.. 😀

Nice, thanks man! 🙂

fgianni: Have had a similar thing happen with my Rollei p&s... With polarized sunglasses on the LCD looks all messed up... Freaked for 2 seconds & then took my glasses off... pretty stupid!

Peter

 

[kshapero]

Called Camerquest once cause camera wouldn't show an exposure. After one embarrissing question after another I discovered that my lens cap was on the lens.

 

[tkluck]

At one time the glass covering the insturments on US Air Force aircraft was polorized, to cut down on glare. The government them turned around and issued poloroid glasses to it's flight crews, cut down on the glare. Turn your head, the instruments disappear.

 

[kshapero]

At one time the glass covering the insturments on US Air Force aircraft was polorized, to cut down on glare. The government them turned around and issued poloroid glasses to it's flight crews, cut down on the glare. Turn your head, the instruments disappear.

Our tax dollars at work:bang:

 

[Kim Coxon]

I am not sure whether this was me being stupid or someone else.

Some time ago I bought a Canon VI-T mainly for the lens. I put a film through it and everything seemed to work perfectly but I wasn't sure about the bottom winder so it was left on the side. I saw several posts about how quick and easy it was so I tried it again wth a dead test film. Still didn't like it so it went back on the side until I decided to list it here. A very "knowledgeable person" contacted me and said he wanted it mainly for the finder and would I send it on approval. If it was what he needed he would pay for it and if not, he would return it and pay shipping both ways. No problem I said but asked if he could give me an appraisal of the camera and value if it came back so that I was asking a fair price.

So off it went across the pond. I then received an email saying it had arrived but it wasn't quite what was wanted so could I send a return address. What's more ther appeared to be a major problem with the shutter and it appeared to be jammed as the camera would only wind on with the rewind catch engaged and it would therefore need a full CLA. I sent address but next day got an email saying he had changed his mind and would buy it. He also told me that there was nothing wrong with the camera at all. As soon as he had taken out my fully "exposed" test film, the camera worked perfectly! 😱

Kim

 

[rbiemer]

This is a TLR story, hence the OT in the title.

I bought a few weeks ago a Minolta Autopole (linear polarizer for bay 1 TLR cameras) to use with my Minolta Autocord.
Yesterday I took it out for a shoot, and noticed that on the focusing screen the effect was quite horrible, with black streaks moving across the image while turning the polarizer, and no visible proper polarizing effect on the image. 😕
So I thought: great, I got this rubbish from the boy for quite a bit of money, and probably the coating is gone. 🙁
I took the polarizer off, and went on shooting without it. 😡
As I was about to shoot the 12th (and last) frame it dawned on me: I had been wearing polarizing sunglasses! :bang: :bang: :bang:
Took the sunglasses off, put the filter back on and, wonder of wonders, it worked exactly as expected! :angel:

And the obvious question is: has anyone managed to do a more stupid thing lately? 😱

Well, I think you are brilliant because you just gave me an awsome inspiration:
Ploarzing filters with RF cameras are "fiddly" at best BUT, since I wear glasses, I have a pair of clip-on sun glasses. That are polarized. And that are just big enough to cover the front element of most of my RF lenses. And the sunglass lenses are aligned.
So that means I can handhold one lens of the sunglasses in front of my RF lens and see the effect in the other lens. Cool and cheap solution for most of my lenses. Certainly not the best solution optically but this will be useful. I do wear fairly small lenses so I will look for a generic clip-on pair that are larger(I might spend about 11 dollars US total) just to cover the bigger lenses I have.
Cheap fun! Thanks!
Rob

 

[GeneW]

This really happened to a friend of mine many years ago. He was new to photography and had just got a Canon FTb kit and was trying out his new tele lens (135 or 200mm) at a mutual friend's place. He was shooting a cat on the other side of the swimming pool and kept walking closer and closer, looking through the lens with his other eye closed, until ... splash! He stepped right in with all his gear. The chlorine in the pool ruined the camera body.

Gene