Stupid experience with a Leica

Hi there,

 

So I was in the San Juan Bautista mission this afternoon to try out

a new film for me: Fuji Neopan 400. No wife, no kid, just by myself,

very decontracted. Almost Zen. Maybe too zen. Great pictures

opportunity at that place, really feeling good. Feeling every shot.

I'm on the top of the world. There, a boring window ! I'll make that

a $5000 shot. Click. Done. Great picture.

Anyway, I'm zen. Come the end of the film as I enter the museum.

Let's change the film. I open up the base. Put it on some shelf. Put

it on some shelf. I opened the base. The shelf. The base. There.

I've done it. It reached my brain. 2-3 secs max. Maybe more. Oh no.

Not more. Please. I look at the film in the body. It's not suppose

to be there. It's supposed to be in the canister. I reach for the

base. Put it back. Slap myself. And rewind the film. Damn. I'm

pissed. I drove one hour to go to this place. Damn. Stupid. Damn.

I load some neopan 1600 (yes I did rewind the film ...) and

continue. But I was very worry. It spoiled the rest of the trip.

Came back home. Developed the film ... Only 3 frames fogged. I'm

back on the top of the word.

 

I'm sure it happened to every one of you. What other stupid

experience can you share ??

 

Fred

Yes it happened to me once. And when it happens, Murphy's law dictates that it will happen to a roll with the best frames I took on a 2-week trip.

Similar problem with first or second roll in a M6 three or four

years ago. Traumatic and have yet to repeat it...am sure it will

happen again.

you should be grateful you had film loaded in the first place! :-)

 

i think all of us have at least one similar experience like that, but that doesn't make you feel any smarter today...

A friend shot an entire roll in Monument Valley with a Red filter. when is opend th Hasselblad back to change film, it was a roll of color.

 

Once I went to the Michigan Lake shore and spent all day with two M3`s.. When i got home, I found I mixed the cameras with color and black and white.

Many moons ago my wife and I get to go to Hawai<br>

Rent a car, and we drive around Maui, checking out the non-tourista sites.<br>

Down one road I spy a pinapple harvest operation in progress, and stop the car and burn a full roll of 36 on the process.<br>

Wow!, I've got the whole thing down, and am going to make mucho bucks off of National Geographic.<p>

Right!<br>

Back at the car, open up the camera and take out the roll of film... and watch it fog in the bright Hawaiian sun as I forgot to rewind.<br>

Meanwhile the workers are leaving the scene to go somwwhere else.<p>

Yup! we've all done it... some sooner, some later.<p>

Cheers!

>Back at the car, open up the camera and take out the roll of >film... and watch it fog in the bright Hawaiian sun as I forgot to >rewind.

 

Ouch. I was very fortunate on this one as I was already in the museum and the light was very dim. Only 3 frames. I'm glad I've learned the lesson the easy way.

 

The red filter on a color roll story is terrible. I really feel bad about this one ;-)

 

Fred

While golfing last week, a friend had his Digital Rebel. Me, my M6. He just kept shooting everything in sight. I was a little jealous; it's a beautiful course and I had only one roll with me at the time. I sold him the camera when I bailed on digital and now he was rubbing my nose in it!

 

We got to the clubhouse and were enjoying our Bloody Marys when he realized that he had forgotten to put a CF card in his camera. I was openly disappointed but secretly gloating. Of course I later discovered that I was shooting Tri-X when I thought it was NPH, but thought better of mentioning that particular detail to him.

 

Guess it happens to the digital folks, too.

>We got to the clubhouse and were enjoying our Bloody Marys when he <br>

>realized that he had forgotten to put a CF card in his camera. I<br>>was openly disappointed but secretly gloating.

<br>>Of course I later >discovered that I was shooting Tri-X when I <br>?thought it was NPH, but >thought better of mentioning that <br>particular detail to him. <br>

<br>

Haha. This one made me chukle ! Great ! <br>

<br>

Oh btw, I'm sold on Neopan 400. Very fine grain and easy to develop ! Here the first shot of this afternoon's roll.<br>

 

<img src="http://my-expressions.com/up_media/334/pblog/326/1093224768_statue.jpg">

About ten years ago, we went to Zion national park. Got to the motel, put my film in the little fridge (I used to think you had to keep "Pro" film refrigerated or it'd spoil like milk!), set my wristwatch alarm for 5AM and went to sleep. Next morning, quietly soa s not to awaken the family, got dressed, grabbed my camera gear and tripod, tiptoed out the door, got in the car, drove to where my Photo Guide said the best view of first light would be, parked in a little lot, put on my backpack, hiked about a half mile up a trail, found the best outlook, set up the tripod, put a lens on the camera, opened the back to load it. Film still back in the little fridge in the motel.

I swung the back of a Nikon open in low early morning light, before rewinding. The film was wrapped tight and the flange on the takeup spool helped block the light. I took a chance and had it processed. I only lost 2 or 3 frames.

 

My worst mistake so far: after shooting a partial roll,I rewound a roll back into the cassette, becasue I needed to shoot a different film in that camera. I intended to later advance it past the exposed frames in ored to finish the roll later. I marked the roll by sliding a film box end into the canister along with the cassette, so I wouldn't forget to do this.

 

But I forgot. I wound up with a half-roll of Cinnamon Pass superimposed on Rocky Mountain National Park.

 

And this, too, shall pass.

fred, that image looks great. what soup?

>fred, that image looks great. what soup?

 

Kodak HC-110, 4.45 minutes @ 20 degres. Low agitation (once a minute). Very happy with the results as well. I've found my all around 400 iso film.

 

Fred

I live near Gilroy CA (San martin) and go to San Juan Bautista often. Don't give up. Also, explore the old cemetery on the hill. It is really a very sad place. You will know what I mean if you explore it. The shops are also good to explore, photographically. I could fill this thread with SJBM photos. Just keep at it.

 

Right now I'm using my new laptop and I don't have the photo I want to share loaded on this unit. I'll send it in a few minutes.

 

Ok, I do have the cemetery photo on www.pbase.com so I'll post that link here. Click and take a look. Hope it works!

 

http://www.pbase.com/mrtoady/cemeteries

 

 

Todd

July 1981, got a roll of the new Ilford HP5 72-exposure film to try in my M2. Very thin base, very limber. Headed out to a scenic canyon 50 miles away. Spent some time at a gas station abandoned for decades, neat place. Spent all afternoon clambering over the rocky bluffs and palisades of the canyon. Encountered an unseen rattlesnake, moved out of his way fast... The M2's frame counter had made two full rotations and still no end to the film, but I started watching the rewind knob. Which wasn't turning. You know what happened; I didn't load that thin film right, and all 80-odd exposures were on frame #1.

 

BTW, there was a plastic developing reel made specially for that long roll, to fit Nikor and Kinderman tanks. I don't think that film was on the market very long.

Fred, I'm another Fuji Neopan 400 fan - it's a great looking film and have <i>almost</i> become my favorite b&w 400-speed film. I'm also a huge fan of <b>Fuji Acros 100 </b>- if you like the Neopan 400 do give Acros a try as well :-)

<br><br>

When it comes to stupid mistakes...let's see....

<br><br>

a) On Maui - shot a whole roll of colour film through the 'Blad with a yellow filter on it...

<br><br>

b) The usual 'opening up the back before the film is rewound' - managed to do that on both 35mm and MF bodies...

<br><br>

c) Shot 36 frames without a roll in the camera....personal winner...

Was out today testing a camera I had serviced. I keep thinking, "The helical is grinding really badly. Wonder why I never noticed before."

 

I shoot a few more frames. Keep thinking about the helical. Later, I check the camera and discover it's one that I'm still servicing. The one I wanted to test is at home on a shelf -- 185 miles away.

Had a Leica around my neck and realized I had forgotten to wipe my ass.

Shooting was fine. A surprise 50th birthday party in NYC. Shot some nice

wide open TMZ shots, well maybe they were nice I'll never know.

 

Distracted I FIXED the freakin' film FIRST. Never, never in nearly 40yrs of

developing film have I done that. The real bitch was that I realized 4 minutes

into the so called developing. Nothing but clear film of course. Stupid.

Fred, we've all done it! Went on a trip to Arkansas once and found an old graveyard with a bunch of my ancestors. Shot 36 frames with my Nikon FM2. When I returned home and went to take out the film - big surprise - no film!! Even my wife was pissed as I had gone to great pains to shoot her against the largest magnolia I've ever seen.

I've done that. I was on a business trip to Dallas and visited the book depository. Shot one roll of film on the entire trip, since it was a business trip and there wasn't much time. Shot some great shots. I get home, rewind.... oh ohhh, this rewind is kinda smooootthhhh......

 

I open the camera, no freeking film inside......

 

 

Bloody all metal Leica's have no film window in the back.....

<i>"We got to the clubhouse and were enjoying our Bloody Marys when he realized that he had forgotten to put a CF card in his camera."</i>

<p>I don't know about the dRebel, but the D70 has a custom function that locks the shutter if no CF card is installed. Have him check to see if he has this feature so it doesn't happen to him again.

Once I went to London without a camera in my bag. Realised and spent the rest of the day hoping I would have no encounters with Martians or miss the second coming or witness the finest sunset in mankinds experience of sunsets or Airforce One crashing into Richard Bransons balloon and falling into the House of Commons! Luckily none of this happened whilst I was without my camera for a day.

Not a mistake, just an annoying flop.

 

June 6th, in Chicago, after a Leica Sales event. I loaded a roll of T-Max and walked down Michigan Avenue to run into the most photogenic crowds I've ever seen. I was on a roll; great faces, lots of hipshots, a couple of nice citiscapes, statues, signs, people crossing streets... The kind of stuff I like.

 

When I was close to the train station to board the train home, I shot exposure number 36. I still pulled the film, very gently, and got two more. Pulled again and went to exposure #40 and then I noticed that the rewind knob was not turning. Had to run to a shop where a technician tried unsuccessfully to pry the film out of the chamber. At the end, I decided to pull it out of the camera and the bag. It had snapped off the canister and was very tightly wound in the take up spool.

 

At least I got one good thing that day: the Leica salesman gave me a practical demonstration of how to load a Leica. No more accidents or misloads ever since I learned how to do it...

 

Now, I'll cross my fingers...

I shot my usual 24 exposures in 40 seconds of freefall skydiving, had a neckbreaker opening with my parachute; while I'm cussing the packer at 3,000 feet I thought I heard my camera rewind on my head, after landing I open the back without checking first, still dazed and confused, and the roll was not rewound. I threw the pictures across the hanger, looked like a kite with a tail. I rarely get upset, but there's no "my bad, do-over" on a first jump photo session. I did get some stills off the video, but nothing beats the 35 for skydive photos. I don't let her pack for me anymore, and I always double check before opening the camera back. ps. I'm not wealthy enough to fly a motorized Leica on my skydive helmet, although one guy occasionaly uses a Hasselblad. Blue Skies!