Sugar Spills, Oddmund not so bad after all.....

["BIRKEY, DUANE" <dbirkey@hcjb.org.ec>]

Oddmund Wrote:

>You know, this mechanical vs. electronic camera "problem" is just 
another
>imaginary difficulty, which doesn't have much sense in my opinion. If 
you
>take a high end mechanical camera and a high end electronic camera, 
you will
>find that there is very little difference concerning risk of failure.
snip
> The conditions were difficult, but I had less problems with the 
electronic cameras, than with the
>mechanical M. 
snip
>Once I was drinking sweet mint tee with some villagers. The M was 
hanging
>around the neck. A drop of this sweet (sugar) drink fell down and hit 
the
>aperture ring of my 35mm Summicron. I just swept it off and continued
>drinking and discussing. The next day the ring was like welded. I 
tried to
>clean up with a Q-tip and alcohol. No way, no possibility of 
unblocking it!  

A well placed drop of a sugary drink can incapacitate most any 
electronic camera,  I seen many a point shoot camera that has been 
incapacitated by Coke, Beer, Salt-water and sand.  I would venture to 
say that had that drop gotten into the front of your Nikon PS, it would 
have "seized" (a pun,humor) to function.    As a rule, Mechanical 
cameras and lenses can take those drops better than PS or Electronic 
cameras.  Sure the EOS1n is sealed, but drop sugar water into the 
mirror box and watch out! Some  EOS lenses are quite susceptible to 
sugar drops too.  I am surprised that a single???? drop froze up your 
Summicron.

Incidently, electronic shutters are technically more reliable (as far 
as exposure consistency) than mechanical ones but some mechanical 
shutters sure last longer and most mechanical inaccuracies don't amount 
to much.  I can think of some electronic cameras that are quite 
problematic, the Nikon FG for example.

Anyhow, my recommendation is to stop wearing the camera around your 
neck while eating or drinking.  I get neck aches if I put anything 
around my neck for even a short period of time and it becomes harder 
for me to focus.     Besides that, you wouldn't want to be accused of 
wearing your Contax, Nikon or Leica as jewelry would you. 

>PS: I am back in the camp of Leica users again! A wealthy photographer
>friend visited me this weekend and gave me a M4 body in perfect shape. 


My opinion of you has changed Oddmund, I was wrong, you do have 
friends.  Enjoy!