There was a hotel in Las Vegas with a curved glass wall that focused the sun on poolside, melting plastic chairs: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/39403349/n.../#.WYvQN1FOkdU
To bring this back to cameras, I had an Exacta VXIIa where the sun burned a hole in the shutter curtain just below the mirror. I patched it with some glue and india ink.
sorry to hear of your troubles !
i think you are the 2nd person i have heard
this happening to their speed .. i think it was domenic fochi
who had similar troubles in LA ...
A few years ago, I was checking out a Plasticca 600mm on a 30x40cm in a conservatory. I left it for a few hours, but turned it away from the sun - approximately NE. Not enough. The setting sun had just enough power to burn an interesting track in the left-hand bellows. Fortunately no flames, but an elongated hole. This is not a good way to calculate coverage!
rest for sure now it's a museum piece...
I'm not a mature adult, so I spent an afternoon trying to light a cigarette with a 360mm Tele-Xenar once. I couldn't get it to light, but my Fresnel lens on the ground glass made short work of it. It also burned a temporary hole in my retina where I was staring at the light trying to maintain focus. Like I said, I'm not a mature adult. Had there been an ant hill near by, I'm sure I wouldn't have gotten any work done that day.
As for the shutter curtain, your best bet is to buy a replacement someone pulled off a broken Speed Graphic from the auction site. They're easy enough to DIY a replacement. It's just a couple of screws and setting the tension of the spring, which is easy and not that delicate. If you have a DSLR, you can calibrate the speed yourself. I've also seen someone sell raw fabric like that. I can't remember where, but they specialized in shutter curtain fabric for rangefinders and didn't advertise any large rolls for Speed Graphics, but apparently you could special order some from them. Then you'd have to cut the holes out yourself and install the rods that go along the holes (which would be a bit more difficult than just buying another used one). You could also patch it up yourself with some fabric glue (or sew it on) and fabric from a changing bad. Just make sure you patch it evenly so the rollers roll up the fabric evenly across. If the fabric is thicker on one side than the other, it'll try to roll off center and bind up the rollers. That wouldn't be too hard, but it probably wouldn't be the best long term solution.
I've decided the first thing for me to try is to patch the shutter per some suggestions... If I can make it as light tight and remain lightweight, it should function consistently. If not, we'll move on to more involved solutions.
I ordered three patch materials... These are all pretty lightweight and strong.. I thought it'd be cool for the Singer patches if they worked because they owned Graflex... But they came with packaging staples through the patches and were not light tight. Who wants staples holes in their patches? Crazy... The Coghlans are about 90% light tight and lightweight but not as dark as the Tenacious tape. The Tenacious tape appeared to not pass light and is quite thin like the Coghlan patches. This is what I'll patch the shutter with this week...
My plan is to remove the back, blow out any ashes and dust and do any cleaning that seems necessary, re-install the back, patch the hole, try it out. I should have time to do this later in the week.
The camera is back from the dead.
The suggestion to patch the shutter was successful and low cost and low risk. I spent probably $20 on a bunch of patching materials I didn't need just to evaluate the options. If you want to patch a shutter, get the Tenacious tape shown above. Maybe some of the other tape can fix my nylon and velcro wallet I've had since 1990 or so.
I removed the back, used compressed air to remove ash and dust from the inside. I also repainted the back which had some missing or worn paint in places.
The patch was applied to both sides of the hole. It's very sticky. Stickier and thinner than gaffer tape. I used an old floppy as a backing so I could rub/burnish/bray the patch to the shutter cloth.. Anything flat would do. I just wanted the adhesive to be flat and the final composite to be flat.
It looked good. I let it set for a week and sometimes wound and unwound the shutter to see how the patch stuck.. It's been good. Will it work was my question. I went shooting this long weekend and used 400 speed film as a good test.. Still works very well.
Huzzah! congrats. now we know to look to tenacious tape for future projects.
any thoughts on how it might be useful for bellows?
I hope it holds up well, and look forward to an update in a few years =)
I bet it could work for patching contemporary fabric covered bellows. All by itself, 1 layer is not 100% completely light tight, but two layers (one on each side, or folding over on corners if for bellows) certainly is. The shiny backing paper is stiffer and thicker than the tape itself if you're curious about it's material qualities. It does have a fabric texture to it.
I had always wondered if that could happen ... not sure why it hasn't happened to me yet. Brilliant save with the tape. And brilliant new image. Just admired it on Flickr.
Russ
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks