From: bjs@RUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Barry Sherman)
Newsgroups: rec.photo
Subject: Re: view cameras in foul weather
Date: 15 Sep 92 20:43:35 GMT
Reply-To: bjs@RUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Barry Sherman)
Followup-To: rec.photo
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA

donl mathis writes:

>There is *nothing* like the sight of seeing your
>view camera pivot over on its tripod and crash to the ground; a sight
>worth avoiding.

Indeed. As another who has seen that sight more than once I'll
back donl up 100%.  I'm not sure which was worse.  Watching it crash
to the ground when the ground was ashphalt or watching it crash to
the ground when the ground was a 2 foot depth of Pacific Ocean 
(This was when I had a graphic lesson in the ability of even a 
small wave to suck the sand out from under an object such that
it topples over. ;-)  Either way, I'm much more careful with my tripod
than I once was.

>There is always the problem of getting your film and lenses back and
>forth between the camera and the case; I just try to work with the case
>close to the camera to minimize travel time.
>
>I have also used the technique of pretending I didn't care about a
>little rain.  A towel or some such thrown over the camera kept most of
>the rain off of it, and the lens shade kept the rain off of the lens.
>Everything gets wet, but not horrible so, assuming a moderately light
>rain.

I've used the dark cloth to shield the camera in gentle rain.  Film
holders were transferred from the pack to underneath the dark cloth
where they were wiped dry with a towel.  Naturally, the towel 
also transfers lots of lint to the holder which, in turn, produces
lots of little white marks on the negative which produces lots of
litle black marks on the prints.  Fortunately (?) none of the negatives
have been worth printing anyway.  ;-)

>
>It was only *after* these adventures that I found out that flourite is
>damaged by moisture, and one of my (more expensive) lenses has a
>flourite element in it.  Hmm.

Oops.  Fortunately (? once again) I have no such lenses and feel
perfectly comfortable dumping my lenses in the Pacific Ocean for
a quick rinse/cleaning, preparatory to an emergency CLA by the
local camera repair shop.  :-)  Ok, ok, I'll admit it. When the 
camera fell in the ocean it had on it an old junky lens that was 
about to be replaced anyway.  Even though the replacement doesn't
have any flourite elements, that I know of, I'd seriously freak
out if it happened now.

>Surprisingly enough, I've found a technique that works very well in
>strong rains and wind, too -- leave the camera in its case, and leave
>it and the photographer in the car.

Hmmmm.  I've been coming to that conclusion myself.

Barry
--


|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Barry Sherman, Amdahl Corp.       | "Any fool can face a crisis - it's     | 
| bjs@ruts.ccc.amdahl.com           |  this day-to-day living that wears you |
|                                   |  out." - Anton Chekhov                 |
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| Amdahl, being a corporation, is a legal fiction.  Therefore it is incapable|
| of holding, let alone expressing, opinions.  Unfortunately, this has been  |
| said of me as well.                                                        |
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