I dreaded sunny days, so let's go where we're happy

[venta]

Well, despite the depressingly gloomy greyness outside, I just popped out to photograph the Sonning gravestones. Sadly the unknown(s) who put them there did so with little consideration towards photographic grouping - the place to stand to get decent photos of them would be in the middle of the road. I'm just not quite dedicated enough to my art to risk getting deaded for it, so my photos will be strictly to record the event rather than possessing any artistic value of their own.

Oh, and note to self: When you've been taking time-exposures (as you were at the weekend) and have had the camera set on bulb[*], set it back again straight away otherwise you'll forget, and will take a whole load of photos at erroneous shutter speeds next time you use the camera.

Other note to self: when you're thinking that the shutter speeds don't quite sound right, check whether you've left the thing on bulb instead of just feeling a bit puzzled and checking that the light meter seems to be working ok.

[*] The bulb (or 'B') setting on a camera means that the shutter stays open as long as you keep your finger on the button. Ordinarily you'd use this to take long (greater than one second on my camera) exposures in dark conditions. Under normal use, my camera carefully calculates for me how long the shutter should stay open (typically today it was between 1/125 and 1/30 second). However, if the camera's on 'B' it completely ignores the shutter speed - and the time taken to manually press and release the button is much longer than 1/125 of a second :( This will result in blurred and/or overexposed photos.

Comments

[kneeshooter]

This is a small manifestation of your camera-jinx-factor yes?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Er, no, the camera-jinx factor says that they malfunction randomly. This was a manifestation of pure incompetence :)

[wimble.livejournal.com]

I'll try to remember to check on my film camera's behaviour. It's got built in light meter, so I'd expect it to demonstrate clearly that the exposure's set to B.

Other than that, I think it's the same as yours, just a model up. And I don't use it these days.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I was using a camera with a built in light-meter; I'd expect it to demonstrate it's on B, but if it does so, it certainly doesn't do it clearly. The lights for the shutter-speed-you-want-for-this-aperture still light up.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Whu? I'm confused now, as yours sounds like it's behaving in a wildly different manner to mine: I've got a needle in the side of the viewfinder which waves up and down for under or overexposed, and this takes into account the aperture, exposure and film speed. No lights anywhere.

But then, I don't know what happens when it's set to B: obviously useful options would be for the needle to stick in a specific position (preferably at the top or bottom of the range of travel, rather than the middle), or, potentially, to flop around randomly, as it gets connected to a floating signal.

[venta.livejournal.com]

My Praktika (which I assume you're referring to here) was fully manual and requires a standalone lightmeter. It's also completely broken. The Praktika my Dad bought me to replace it has an internal light meter, and behaves like you describe, but... it wasn't the one I was using today.

I have a borrowed camera, which I was using today, with an integral light-meter. It's an Olympus, and is thus allowed to behave nothing like a Praktika.

I also have a recently-acquired Minolta which has an integral light-meter, but that hasn't featured in the story so far.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Which does indeed explain that. But you mentioned four different cameras in that comment. One of which you've already broken.

Do the other three know the fate you have in store for them?

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Oo, is it a Super TL? I had one of those, but sold it to my brother.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Which one ?

(And I have no idea, without checking. See comments about soundcard earlier :)

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

The replacement one - my Praktika had a lightmeter like that. You had to get the needle inside the circle. I thought it'd be a less personal question, given the name was on the outside of mine.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ah. I didn't know which of the four cameras mentioned you were referring to :)

And yes, it's more of a pleasantry than an intrusion finding out what my cameras are called. I was referring to soundcards merely because the underlying problem is that I don't take much account of model numbers and so on. When you're being donated cameras by relatives, things like "ooh, look a camera!" tend to be more relevant than "so what model is it, then?"