{"id":4679,"date":"2014-05-11T21:05:35","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T02:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/?p=4679"},"modified":"2022-05-29T08:14:57","modified_gmt":"2022-05-29T13:14:57","slug":"1072-oops-i-dropped-a-camera-in-the-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/11\/1072-oops-i-dropped-a-camera-in-the-lake\/","title":{"rendered":"#1072 Oops, I dropped a camera in the lake."},"content":{"rendered":"
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

I dropped a camera in the lake – submerged\u2026
\nOops.<\/em><\/p>\n

I trekked into Fortune Lake to continue my “Watershed Project<\/a>” with two cameras:
\n\u2022 a ‘small’ 4×5 Graflex large format camera<\/a>
\n\u2022 big hand-made 8×10 wood camera<\/a><\/p>\n

With supporting gear, I hauled 50 pounds of equipment to a remote part of the lake.\u00a0
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\"large

8×10 hand-made sliding box camera<\/p><\/div>\n

Sploosh!
\n<\/em><\/strong>I set up and shot a scene with the 8×10 camera after which I set the Graflex on a tripod and went for the film holders. With my back turned (just a minute) I heard sploosh! One tripod leg had slowly shrunk causing the camera to pitch into the water.<\/p>\n

\"classic

Graflex 4×5 camera<\/p><\/div>\n

Clean-up and Recovery<\/strong><\/em>
\nI fished the camera out of the water and immediately took the lens off and dismantled it – the nice thing about large format lenses is you can unscrew most elements of the lens without tools.<\/p>\n

I cleaned & cleaned & dried & dried with a soft cotton, absorbing cloth for 10 or 15 minutes and then went to save the camera by draining water and drying it as best as possible.<\/p>\n

Once home, I took out the affected gear, warmed the oven to 200F, turned the oven off and put the camera and lens parts inside for a couple of hours.<\/p>\n

\"Large

Nikkor 75 mm lens with 4×5 coverage – easy to disassemble!<\/p><\/div>\n

Results<\/strong><\/em>
\nI am happy to report that all critical elements are functioning – I did damage the Graflok spring back but there’s an easy work-around until I can find a part\u2026 Anyone have spare parts for a Graflex?<\/p>\n

Support<\/strong><\/em>
\nOttawa’s Camera Trading Company<\/a> did not have the part but did have the expertise to help me make the camera usable without the Graflok back<\/a> – that’s the value of Tom and Mark (and sometimes Bob) in the store – they know a lot!<\/p>\n

\"Ottawa

David Barbour<\/p><\/div>\n

As I was leaving the store I bumped into David Barbour<\/a>, veteran working photographer. He smiled commenting about my camera-in-lake Facebook post. “Never turn your back on a tripod!”
\n<\/em>Thanks David.<\/p>\n

In 1997\u00a0I assisted Malak<\/a> in the Yukon. At 82 years old he had seen it all. He told me\u00a0“I’ve made every mistake in the book!”<\/em>\u00a0It’s comforting to know others have big ‘oops’<\/em>es.<\/p>\n

I am a big, big fan of simple, mechanical equipment.
\n\u2026 I love it!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tweet I dropped a camera in the lake – submerged\u2026 Oops. I trekked into Fortune Lake to continue my “Watershed Project” with two cameras: \u2022 a ‘small’ 4×5 Graflex large format camera \u2022 big hand-made 8×10 wood camera With supporting Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[115,8,279,272,9,104],"tags":[298,27,90,6,297],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4679"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4679"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5851,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4679\/revisions\/5851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}