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Oops, lens cap was still on...


MikeMyers

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This is a silly question, but maybe someone knows the answer. Let's say something happens and you quickly raise the camera to your eye and snap the shutter, just as you realize the lens cap is still in place. You can wait up to a minute until the camera finishes taking the photo in what it thinks is very low light.

 

Suppose you don't want to wait, but want to hit the <reset> button (which doesn't exist). What's the quickest way to get out of this mess - can you just turn the camera off, and back on again? If not, is there any other way to cancel what the camera thinks it's supposed to do?

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This has been lately one of the most popular questions in this forum. The answer depends on the type of your camera. M8: you can switch it off, or set the shutter to a high speed, so it will close your portrait of the artist behind the lens cap. With the M9, you can only do the latter. If you switch it off, it will be hurt and go on strike and doesn't want to play with you any longer if you don't feed it with the battery.

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In my case, it's an 8.2, and while I took half a dozen snaps of the back of my lens cap when I first started using the camera, I haven't done it now in a while. Maybe that's partly because I keep the lens cap in my pocket? Anyway, it happened again today, and I didn't want to do anything "wrong" and maybe damage something, so I just waited it out. Embarrassed? Heck yes, much more to myself than anything else, as luckily nobody else was paying attention.

 

(I used to think I could just take off the lens cap after making this mistake, assuming that the camera would see all the extra light flowing in, but no, it doesn't work that way - I think that's on purpose... Leica could have added a recording saying "stupid...stupid...stupid...")

 

Are you suggesting the best thing to do with an 8.2 is to turn it off and back on, or change the shutter speed?

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The light is metered by measuring the light reflecting off the closed curtain, so once you are taking the shot, the camera doesn't know that you are changing anything.

 

I have been turning my camera off when I do this, but apparently the M9 locks when you do this, so changing the shutter time seems a safer habit to develop, so I will try that from now on (not that I do this a lot, understand!).

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it happened to me in the beginning. now, i also leave the cap in the box. i have a filter in front of the lens. but when it did happen, i just switched it off for a short second and on again. so far no hickups with my m8 (early batch - i think).

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I'm usually going around without cap to avoid this when shooting. You have the filter already, don't you?

 

 

Nope, no filters yet. I know I get two "free" filters, but I haven't decided which sizes to get yet. For that matter, I also haven't noticed any maroon colored black clothing or anything yet, but I know it'll happen eventually.

 

Knowing how my brain works (or doesn't), I usually keep the lens cap in my pocket. I also often carry a different lens in one of my other pockets. (That reminds me of another silly question to ask, if you're going to walk around with a second lens in your pocket, none of my rear lens caps "click" into place or anything - they seem to stay in place, held there by nothing more than "luck". Maybe there's a way around this too....)

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It reminds of this time I had left the cap on, and raised the camera to my eye. At the exact same time I noticed it (no metering) and was going to pull the camera down, I saw a lady coming towards me from the corner of my left eye. She had this very faint smile, and just delicately pointed at my camera, without a word, without even slowing down, and she passed by me, bringing down her arm. It lasted but two seconds, but I remember the moment very fondly. It was a bit eerie. Like she was another me, saying without a word «Look what you're doing.»

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(That reminds me of another silly question to ask, if you're going to walk around with a second lens in your pocket, none of my rear lens caps "click" into place or anything - they seem to stay in place, held there by nothing more than "luck". Maybe there's a way around this too....)

 

cap is held by friction and four ridges...if the ridges are really worn, maybe you need a new cap. It should fit very snugly and never come off.

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