[Leica] OT: lens shutters suck

[j2m46 at hotmail.fr (Jean-Michel Mertz)]

Thanks for the info, Tina. When I travel to the US, which I do once in a 
while, I buy the film I'm using at the local photo dealer's and always send 
the unexposed film back home either with a worldwide carrier (UPS, Fedex) or 
the official postal system, I've never had any problem so far  - they say 
there's no scan for such items. I've tried - once only - to have my films 
processed locally to avoid the X-ray exposure but the result was so terrible 
I've definitely given it up. I guess I must have knocked at the wrong door 
but my impression is that photo dealers today do not process the amount of 
film that would guarantee a fairly good professional result. The chemistry 
seemed outdated - due to a lack of business in the field of film processing? 
Though this was considered as THE local specialist for the "ancient" way of 
picture taking - he had vintage Leicas for sale!Jean-Michel> Date: Tue, 15 
Nov 2011 18:01:47 -0500
> From: images at comporium.net
> To: lug at leica-users.org
> Subject: Re: [Leica] OT: lens shutters suck
> 
> Some examples here, too, if you scroll down:
> 
> http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/tib/tib5201.shtml
> 
> Tina
> 
> On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 5:48 PM, <afirkin at afirkin.com> wrote:
> 
> >
> > Then I started the Kenyan films: I was very excited about these. African
> > panoramas. The first one I printed (after processing all 6 rolls and
> > contact printing) had strange densities that I had 'tried' to ignore on
> > the contact sheet, hoping it was the plastic I used to hold hte film flat
> > BUT no. The next shot (almost identical) was also 'scarred'. I 
> > immediately
> > blamed my processing: did I agitate enough? BUT the more I looked at them
> > the less I was convinced. This 35mm film is of course in small metal
> > containers, they were 'bunched' together in the handluggage and there is 
> > a
> > potential weak point where the felt stops light, but not X rays, so this
> > could explain why the patterns were somewhat irregular: I really don't
> > think my processing would have scarred across the film like this: the 120
> > rolls did not have the same pattern, so once again I think the entire
> > project was ruined by radiation. Helen asked me if I could 'rescue' any
> > and I said "maybe, if I scanned them and 'patched' them up in PS" but in
> > the end why have film and digitize it when you can use digital capture in
> > the first place.
> >
> > So if this is true then you cannot carry film when you travel by air, and
> > this is my major interest in photography. If I cannot use film on my
> > travels I will soon lose any skills I have.
> >
> > I rang a friend last week before come to the USA and he just said: "you
> > should think about getting one of those new digital camera things". I 
> > will
> > enjoy the darkroom workshop, but there is a sword hanging over the
> > darkroom and the thread holding it is very thin!!
> >
> > Perhaps I need to GROW UP ;-)
> >
> > That became longer than I expected, but kept me awake!!!
> >
> > Alastair
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Leica Users Group.
> > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> >
> >
> 
> 
> -- 
> Tina Manley, ASMP
> www.tinamanley.com
> 
> _______________________________________________
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