Jump to content

A Burning Question


claudia__

Recommended Posts

how serious of a problem is burning holes in your curtains by not

using a lens cap? i got a series 6 adapter for my canon 50 ltm lens

and put a shade with a uv filter on the lens. so of course now the

lens cap doesn't fit. will my curtains be set ablaze during the time

my lens is capless? i don't really think so, but i have heard tales.

TIA, and yes please treat this as a serious question.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm new to Leica since Feb and lost my 50mm Summicron-M lens cap 2 mos ago so take my advise with caution. I've had fears like yours but have relaxed a bit. I keep a GGr Leica filter on at all times. When I carry the cam over my shoulder I set aperture to f/16 to minimize amount of light hitting focal plane. And when shooting I have cam in my hand with strap wrapped around my wrist so I know it's not pointing at the sun. If it's not over my shoulder or in my hand it's wrapped in a large chamois or in a bag. I should probably also set focus to minimum since the sun is at infinity when I carry it over my shoulder.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you burn a hole in your shutter curtain, its a serious problem. In 30 years of not using lens caps, I've managed not to burn any shutters, but I'm charmed that way.

 

An easy way to sidestep the issue is to not leave your camera sitting for extended periods facing the sun. However, with all the other problems in the world, burning shutters should not be high on your list of worries.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I managed to burn a hole in the shutter of my M3 by being dumb enough to leave it lying lens up on a blanket while I sat out in the sun at the Marina Green in SF. It went to Leica, NJ to get a new shutter curtain. This happened a long time ago and hopefully I have smartened up at least a little bit. Good luck
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've stood there sometimes a minute or more composing shots with the sun in the picture, so far haven't burned the shutter, but I guess covering the lens from now on might be a smart idea because now that I think of it when I was a kid we used to light leaves on fire with a magnifying glass and it didn't take more than a few seconds.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quiche...

 

Have never had a problem in spite of not using lenscaps on any of my cameras over the

last 25+ years.

 

Wise thing is NOT to leave the lens pointed towards the sun... this is only common sense!

 

If there's ANY risk at all...don't stop the lens down to its smaller f-stops. Do you

remember when you were a kid and playing with the sun's rays and a magnifying glass? If

you wanted to start a fire quickly...you'd concentrate the beam of sunlight by making a

small point of light. Conversely, if the beam was of a larger diameter... you'd be holding

that magnifying glass in place ALL day and you'd never start a fire! Make sense?

 

Cheers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

HC, I'm not sure I follow your thinking. Stopping the lens down doesn't concentrate the light at one point (otherwise you'd get just a little teeny image in the middle of the neg?). I would think that since the sun is at infinity, keeping the lens's focus ring at the near focus point would spread the sun's image out, wouldn't it?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It has not happened to me in over sixty years of refusing to be bothered with lens caps so I have not been paranoid about it; however sometimes I wonder if it just might be pushing the odds. I am much more concerned about forgetting to take the cap off and missing the picture. To that end I recommend painting the cap fluorescent orange. In my most arrogant opinion neither stopping the apreture down nor running the lens out to mimimum focus is effective prevention, after all the shutter is a couple of mm in front of the focal plane and the total excursion of the lens is only about 3mm. That's an awfully slim margin of safety!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

thanks for the responses. will try to get a cap for the lens shade (an excellent suggestion btw.) i've got a IIIf but have to wonder if and why leica uses burnable shutter curtains in the more modern versions. my bessa has some sort of more durable material for the shutter. is there an advantage to cloth?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

H.C. said, in error if I may be allowed: <I>If there's ANY risk at all...don't stop the lens down to its smaller f-stops. Do you remember when you were a kid and playing with the sun's rays and a magnifying glass? If you wanted to start a fire quickly...you'd concentrate the beam of sunlight by making a small point of light. Conversely, if the beam was of a larger diameter... you'd be holding that magnifying glass in place ALL day and you'd never start a fire! Make sense? </I><br><br>

H.C. is wrong. To <I> concentrate the beam of sunlight by making a small point of light</I> is a function of the distance between the lens and the focal plane. In your camera this is FOCUS. It is not aperture (f/stop) When as a kid, you'd move the magnifying lens up or down to get the smallest beam you're actually FOCUSING the sun's image on the focal plane. You are not changing the amount of light impinging on the focal plane. Alternately when you stop down the lens to f/22 you minimize the amount of light energy coming thru the aperture and less energy = less heat = less risk of burning the shutter curtain. It's the equivalent of using a smaller and smaller magnifying glass. You want to minimize the light/heat (f/22) as well as defocus the beam (set it to close focus).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...