jhbeckman Posted August 20, 2003 Share Posted August 20, 2003 I was doing some late day photography up in the Adirondack Mtns using a Fuji GSW690III. I looked through the viewfinder to compose, and I saw an insect crawling around, I thought, on the front of the viewfinder. I tried to shoo it away, but it seemed indifferent. So, I went around to the front of the camera -- no insect. Until I looked into the viewfinder from the front, and there it was, crawling around inside. I don't know how it even could have gotten INTO the viewfinder in the first place -- it seems pretty sealed to me, and while it is not a huge insect, it's not tiny, either. Any thoughts or suggestions on how to lure him out or what to do? Note to fellow photogs: in buggy areas, it is probably worth going back into your car, if it's there with you, to change rolls. Just to add to my adventures with insects: as I opened the camera hoping that the viewfinder bug would find a way out, a little bee flew out of the camera (I think, anyway: hard to know whether it came out the camera, was just in the car, or was on some other part of me); if it WAS in the camera, it must have been between the lens and the film, and it spoiled what I believe will have been some of the best shots I've ever gotten (which is why I feel sure it was between the lens and the film). Anyway, I would be grateful for counsel on the matter of the unwanted occupant of my viewfinder. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimvanson Posted August 20, 2003 Share Posted August 20, 2003 Why! Look! John, it's a ShutterBug! (sorry john...but i hadta') Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crackers_. Posted August 20, 2003 Share Posted August 20, 2003 Japanese beetle? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawrence_title Posted August 20, 2003 Share Posted August 20, 2003 Join the club. I had problems with bugs inside my Hasselblad: http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=003q08 I don't know whether mine got in when I was changing film, or it crawled in one of the tiny openings around the prism. In my case, I didn't see any evidence that it affected the shots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulrumohr Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 Had a bug crawling on the focusing screen of my hassy during a commercial shoot last week. While the Art Director was looking through it! Trying to find the "door" he crawled through... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim h1664876971 Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 I had a cockroach crawl across a sheet of paper I was exposing in a filthy darkroom one time, dodgy little bugger it was... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard_milner2 Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 There are numerous reports of small bugs inside the prism assembly of SLRs. I had a bug in my Nikon FM shortly after it had gone for a service. It appeared once, and then disappeared, and I have not seen it since. Obviously it got in during the service, as I had never seen one in the previous 20 years of use. Some people advise you to freeze the camera, or put it in a polythene bag filled with insect spray, but if these methods killed the bug its body would be stuck inside the camera. My advice is to leave it alone. It will probably try to find its own way out because there is nothing to eat inside the camera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric friedemann Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 One day, I was shooting in Texas with two cameras. I looked through the viewfinder of one camera and there was one of those crop-eating boll weevils up by the prism. So, I picked up my other camera, looked through the viewfinder and there was a much larger boll weevil up by the prism in that camera. Making the best of a bad situation, I spent the day shooting the camera with the smaller insect in the viewfinder. I chose the lesser of two weevils. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
douglas_green1 Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 Eric, that was not Punny! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric friedemann Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 I'm not proud of myself. It's just that after the "shutterbug" line, I felt there wasn't anything left to lose in this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephen_w. Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 HeHeHe Eric, thanks for the chuckle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerry_friedman Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 Hi Eric! Pay no mind to those other guys because I thought your joke was very very Punny. My only question is this....(and I only ask this because of the too great number of equipment freaks on this thread....) but, do you think that Fuji products are more or less prone to have little bugs than other cameras, esp. Bronicas? Esp; do you think that Planar lenses have more weevils than Xenotars? Or is it only that Xenotar weevils are less translucent? Or, (and this is my own contention) that older Hassleblad lenses, esp. the 80mm size, more prone to bugs becaue of the focal plane shutters permiting larger bugs to enter the camera than between the lens shutters ? .....or, to put it another way: is it more diffiicult to remove small bugs from inter-lens designs than from focal plane cameras? ..........but what about other Fuji cameras? Is it possible that bugs are responsible for the short bellows life of fuji folders, which, everyone knows just simply collapse and fold up after 20 year's use? Ok no more. .....for now. Jerry Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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