My camera caught fire.

[Mark Sampson]

If jp had been airborne in the B-17 when that happened, the Speeder would have become a small incendiary bomb very quickly, I think.
(Off-topic- In 1944 my father threw a Kodak aerial camera overboard from a B-17, in a futile effort to lighten ship; with two engines shot out they ditched in the North Sea and were picked up by the Royal Navy.)

In 1991 I burnt a 3/8" long hole in my Leica M3's shutter, the same way- left it on a table in the sun for a while without the lens cap. Didn't start a fire, and I didn't find out until I processed the roll of film. I still have that shutter curtain somewhere... a very expensive small piece of cloth.

jp, I'd love to see any pictures you have from that day.

[stawastawa]

I think there is someone in Portland, OR who works or worked on these. I'll try and dig up a name.

[Bob Salomon]

Leicas are famous for doing this, on a smaller scale.


Kent in SD

Almost every camera instruction book for rangefinder cameras came with a warning not to leave the camera pointed directly at the sun to prevent burning a hole in the cloth shutter curtain. This was one of the selling features for the RF Contax cameras as they were equipped with a metal focal plane shutter.

[morecfm]

If jp had been airborne in the B-17 when that happened, the Speeder would have become a small incendiary bomb very quickly, I think.

No wonder TSA wants us to unload cameras from bags from now on.

[hporter]

Jason,

Sorry about your Pre-Anniversary. They are my favorite Speed Graphic too.

Thought I would pass on that I bought an old used focal plane shutter on the auction site last year for an Anniversary Speed that I have. The previous owner had ripped the shutter cloth out. I think I only paid $35-40 for the shutter. The gears on the spool were a little different than the one in my camera, so I took the shutter cloth off the spools it came on and used contact cement to install it on my spools. Took about 45 minutes from start to finish and worked out great. I was going slow and taking my time, you could probably do it faster. The back comes off very easy, and it should be a simple matter to clean the mess up and glue in a new shutter cloth. Give it a try.

Harold

[LabRat]

Sorry about the burn, but better that than a retina (in a foolhardy attempt to view/photograph the solar eclipse, etc)...

Since it is centrally located, you might be able to try patching it with a thin, flexible, lightproof material as a last ditch effort, as much of the tensions are along the edges, but keeping it thin and not lumpy might work...

Watch out for that mean old sun!!! An old "desert rat" I know could not figure out where many burns on his van camper bed where coming from, when he realized the clear old wine jug water bottle he kept there was lensing the sun and burning holes...

A few weeks ago during my move, I stepped outside to see a billow of smoke coming from the back of an office chair, and saw that a small concave magnifying mirror (in a nearby box) was focusing the sun there and burned a big-assed hole in the backrest...

Angry sun warning!!!!

Steve K

[jp]

I'll try and dig up a name.

Thank you for the private message!


If professional repair leads end up not going anywhere, I may try patching it with members' suggestions. I also have a suggestion on the shutter curtain material. Thanks.

The accident didn't prevent me from missing the b25 flight. I took my Nikon DSLR and Rolleiflex and got some nice photos. The photos look good but I haven't gone through them with LR or scanned film yet. This was also a nice photo shot with my cell phone (nexus 5x) over Camden harbor:

[Mark Sampson]

jp, you're a lucky man despite your Graflex troubles. That's a great shot- I look forward to seeing your other images. (26 years this month since I got a ride in a B-17, still a peak experience for me.)

[Jim Andrada]

Two sort of similar stories about focusing the sun

1) When I was in high school (around the time of the last dinosaurs) the father of one of my friends brought home a 3 foot diameter glass parabolic mirror. Of course we propped it up and focused the sun on a piece of angle iron - cut it in half in a few moments.

2) One of my neighbors when I lived near San Francisco left a shaving mirror on his deck. When the sun reached the right (wrong?) angle it started a fire and burned the whole house down - very dramatic.

They used to sell little parabolic mirrors a couple of inches in diameter with a hole in the center as cigarette lighters.

[AtlantaTerry]

They used to sell little parabolic mirrors a couple of inches in diameter with a hole in the center as cigarette lighters.

They still do: https://www.aliexpress.com/item-img/...16690afhReBvY#