pretty much my favorite camera.. Trusty, reliable, simple. the Preanniversary 4x5 speed graphic I've been using for years to make soft focus photos that please me.
I was at the Owls Head Transportation Museum Sunday morning photographing a B17 before the place opened and crowds showed up. At around 8am, I was done with that and was asked to go for a flight in a B25 for some photos, which got me kinda excited and distracted. I forgot to unwind the shutter back to (o)pen. I lugged the camera into shade under cover. Apparently the lens was not in the shade because within 30 seconds, smoke was pouring out of it. I did the equivalent of "stop drop and roll" and released the shutter back from 3/4 to O to smother the fire. The fire was out, but the damage was done. The smoke was very metallic smelling mixed with tire-burnout smell. (I had other cameras with wider lenses for shooting within the b25)
A belt and suspenders approach in the future would be to not simply set the shutter curtain to open when not taking a photo, but to remove the lens. If it's heavy lens like a AE or my Gundlach Hyperion, I always remove it because of the weight and value. I had a 7.25 verito on it which is pretty light and not a risk of physical damage from the weight... But it can burn things pretty well.
If anyone has experience fixing this, I'd be glad to hire someone to fix it. I can use it without the 3/4 speed ranges, but it's now full of ashes and the 3/4 inch shutter speeds are very useful. I have a nos shutter curtain that probably goes to RB-D or Super-D slr but not sure if that's compatible. I could tinker with it, but if someone is skilled in this, I'd rather have it work nicely as I'd like the camera to be reliable.
IMG_20170808_083642 by Jason Philbrook, on Flickr
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