Anyone figured out how to cock shutter without winding film?

Hey guys!

I'm wondering if anyone has figured out how to cock the shutter on a Widelux f8 without winding on the film?

The reason is i would like to take some multiple exposures for night time shots and even at ISO 3200 and 1/15th, I'm not getting enough light. There isn't a bulb mode either...

I'd say you can't. The film is engaged with the sprocket on one spindle, and gripped in the take up spool on the other spindle. Both spindles will turn when you turn the wind knob, and drag the film through to the next frame. There seems to be nothing on the camera to allow you to do multi exposures on a single frame judging by the instruction manual at the Butkus site (donate $3 when you can). The manual is short, only 8 pages and in there it emphasizes not to fool around with the speed dial, get the speed set properly before pressing shutter button

Perhaps you should not fool around with anything else on that camera also, might be best to enjoy it just the way it is

It's impractical to have a "B" setting because the camera has a swiveling lens, it moves from side to side in a circular arch "painting" the picture as it travels through it's path.

If it had a "B" setting, the lens would need to be rapidly moving from side to side for the duration that you wanted it to. The camera is not designed to do that, it's designed to move across only one time when the shutter button is pressed

Im just trying to figure out how i can use the camera to take shots in real low light. A little disappointing that its looking like thats just not something you can do on this camera.

Thanks Kmac and Charles.

Jeff Bridges on the Widelux

JeffBridges.com - Widelux

Im just trying to figure out how i can use the camera to take shots in real low light. A little disappointing that its looking like thats just not something you can do on this camera.

 

Thanks Kmac and Charles.

Why not use a fast film ASA 1600 or 3200 with the camera mounted on a tripod and set the aperture to f2,8 or f4 at the slowest speed?

Or change cameras, an ordinary one for your long exposure shots and simply crop them

This shot looked better as a panorama than the full original image, I kept cropping till it looked right for my taste.

Use TMZ pushed to 6400 or 12500.

Whats TMZ Glen? do you mean TMax?

Whats TMZ Glen? do you mean TMax?

Here you go:

TMax P3200 TMZ 35mm is Back! 35mm 135/36exp. (ISO 3200)

Whats TMZ Glen? do you mean TMax?

"TMZ" is the Kodak code for TMAX P3200 film. This is nominally an ASA 800 film that handles push processing well. It's called "P3200" because it's marketed as a 3200 speed film, but is not locked in to that speed(unless your camera reads DX codes and won't let you manually over-ride them). BTW, the letter code is used with all B&W film and use to be used with color film. Among the current line-up, it is as follows

TMX=TMAX 100

TMY-2=TMAX 400(the -2 means 2nd generation)

TMZ=TMAX P3200

TX=Tri-X

TXP=Tri-X Professional(ASA 320)

Also, PX=Plus X and FX=Panatomic X

Kodak re-introduced TMZ in March of this year after discontinuing it in 2012.

Here you go:

 

TMax P3200 TMZ 35mm is Back! 35mm 135/36exp. (ISO 3200)

Thanks Vin

There are various ways to trick an older camera into multiple exposures by advancing to cock the shutter, and then rewinding by a frame (Nikon F could do this pretty easily), but when you do this the indexing is never perfect, so although it might be possible to do double exposures of different subjects, I don't think it would work for this purpose.

Thinking without trying it out, I can imagine doing this with a specially doctored film, though. You'd only get one shot per load, but you could perhaps bulk load a short length. In the dark, just remove the sprocket portion from a length of film, leaving sprocket holes at the start, shoot and cock in the dark until the film stops advancing, and then shoot and cock as many times as you want on the remaining non-moving piece of film. That seems safer than the quick and dirty alternative of winding the rewind tight while you cock and ripping the film until it stands still.

Usually you can get away with a double exposure by keeping the rewind button pressed and advancing film at the same time. The winding mechanism is disconnected by the rewind button but the shutter gets cocked. The frame might move slighty, it is not a perfect double exposure.

You would have to test the idea with a wasted film with the camera back opened, to see what happens. With some cameras you may jam the winding mechanism, so beware. I am not giving any guarantee. But it has worked for me a few times.

Experimenting with a few old cameras that I still have left, I find most will cock the shutter when you push the rewind button in, at least with film out. But the only thing that holds the film solidly in place is the sprocket you have just disengaged, so I think there's a fair risk of slightly disturbing the registration and ending up blurred. The ones I've tried vary in the amount of pull the clutch in the takeup spool has, but on some I think it will pull enough to move the film and it may be difficult to hold it exactly right. It might be possible to pull the rewind good and tight first, and then hold it when cocking, but even then I suspect that the movement required to blur the image is so tiny it won't be reliable.

The Nikon F is unusual in that rewind actually disengages the shutter cocking. To do a double exposure on that one you must first rewind by a frame and then re-engage the wind and cock it.