Re: vertical dark and light band problem

[P3D Paul Talbot <ptww@xxxxxxxxx>]

Re: Don Radovich thinks some light bulbs came on about his weird
problem with a roll of stereo slides.  Don, your original message
said you weren't sure which camera (Revere or Colorist) exposed
the film.  Can you check the film strip for witness marks to
determine which camera it was?  A Colorist I has no witness mark,
a Colorist II has: ----^-- on the right chip, and the Revere has
                    __
something like: ___|  |____ on the right chip (slightly right of
center on early Reveres, slightly left of center on later models).

As to your theory of a stuck open shutter during rewind, I reached
that same conclusion regarding one of my first three rolls of stereo
photos, which were shot with a borrowed Revere.  The results were
much more severe than what you described, however:  the roll was
almost completely clear within the image area, except for a very few
faint outlines of some features of scenes I had shot.  (The transport
area around the sprocket holes was fine, so the damage obviously
occurred in-camera.)   This roll was rewound on a brilliantly sunny
day in a wide open place with no shade to be found.  I would guess
that for your irregular pattern of streaks to have resulted from a
stuck open shutter during rewind, some combination of the following
conditions would have been required: a) the ambient light was quite
subdued; b) the aperture was set to a very small setting; c) the
shutter was stuck part way open; d) you rewound in a halting sequence
of fast movement and short pauses.  Does any of this fit with your
recollections and what you observe on the film?

How might a shutter get stuck open?  I know that both Realist and
Revere shutters can open accidentally if the manual shutter cock
lever is used, but allowed to return slightly before the end of
their full range of travel; this should only result in one accidental
exposure (or double exposure), however, unless the shutter speed dial
is set to T.  Also, Piper writes: "The shutter escapement of the
[Revere] is subject to hangup by dirt and is the bane of service
men..."  (Don't know an "escapement" is, so I don't if this is
relevant.)

The Revere is self-cocking, and the manual cocking lever is not
normally used, except for double exposures.  It seems to me,
however, that the accidental opening could occur at the end of
the film if you are only able to advance the film part way and
the automatic shutter cocking is interrupted at the critical
moment.  Therefore, after I had that nasty experience with losing
1 of my first 3 rolls, I adopted the following precautionary
procedure:  if the end of the film is reached while advancing to
the next exposure, I rewind the film about 1 frame, then wind it
forward again until the advance is completed (noted by the solid
click sound), and then rewind completely.  This is probably overly
cautious with the Realist, as the lens cap ought to prevent any
damage from a shutter stuck open during rewind, but "better safe
than sorry."

Have you shot any more film through the suspect camera?  In my
case, the damaged roll was the second of the three rolls I shot,
so I knew the camera was fine both before and after the problem.

Hope this helps.

Paul Talbot


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