Travel With Shutter Cocked?

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Spleenrippa

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I know it will probably depend more on the type of shutter used in a particular camera, but in general does one have to worry about leaving the camera cocked in the bag for an hour/two/five/a day?
I don't know how many photos I've missed because I've whipped my Bessa R out of the bag and hit the shutter, only to hear... Nothing! 😛
Film-wise, I've wasted too many shots when out and my friends decide to leave. I always have empty frames in the middle of my rolls because I 'discharge' before putting Bess' away 😱
 
It doesn't hurt a thing. "Springiness" in springs does not degrade from compression within the normal limits... which a cocked shutter would never exceed.
 
I stopped doing it when I started using a softie though. (too many pictures of the inside of the camera bag, and then the shutter's not cocked when I pull the camera out anyway...)
I could do the hair-tie trick, but I figure it takes about the same amount of time to remove that as it does to cock the shutter.

But no, it shouldn't be any trouble to leave it cocked for that amount of time.

-Brian
 
I have always had the shutter cocked on every camera I have owned 24/7/52 for a lot of years. That doesn't make it right but it has never given me an reason to change. I see my local camera repair guru weekly to have something to drink and BS about photography. He has never told me to do otherwise.

But then I am one of those that never turns off an electronic camera either. I know Zeiss Ikon's, ContaxG's, Mamiya 7's and Bronica's don't use any battery power after a few minutes. Apparently some Leica's will run down the battery but my CLE does not.
 
When I became interested in firearms a few years ago I was tutored by an experienced person who recommended to not leave semi-auto handgun magazines fully loaded with ammo, as the springs would supposedly not supply sufficient feed pressure when the time comes to use the weapon, potentially causing misfires or misfeeds.

Of course, I ignored his advice, and left my 1911 .45acp with the magazines fully loaded, for years. And when I go out on the range to practice, the weapon still fires fine.

Of course, shutter speeds in cameras are more analog; a magazine either feeds ammo sufficient to fire properly or not, whereas shutters can have much more subtle speed issues.

But I've been in the habit of keeping mechanical shutter cameras not cocked until time to shoot; I'm not sure why, perhaps I was given that advice when I first started into photography in the late 1970s.

~Joe
 
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I leave all my gear in rest mode mostly because I want to know exactly when the camera is ready to shoot. And the best way to find that out is by cocking the shutter personally and right before you need to shoot.

Hence, I don't travel with the shutter ready.
 
Some cameras require you to tension the shutter before you can perform certain actions. A Rolleiflex SL66, for example, requires a tensioned shutter before you can insert the dark slide.

And most of us advance to the next frame after shooting with a Rolleiflex TLR (it's different with a Rolleicord, of course).

And autoadvance cameras always tension the shutter.

With most 35mm cameras, I tend not to advance the film. But I do with all medium format folding cameras. I can't explain that.
 
Sometimes I don't advance the film with the Rolleiflex because I've found the shutter button is really prone to getting accidentally fired in my bag. But otherwise I always have the shutter tensioned, and don't worry about it.
 
@JoeV- Ha, I also have a problem with leaving weapons in any kind of ready state... But then again, C7's (Canuck M16s) still have the full-auto mode ;-)

I think I might try leaving my Bessa (soon to be Bessas! Bought an R3A today!) cocked whilst in the bag... Until I decide the softie is costing me as many shots as firing the cam before storage was 😛
 
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