ISO number and shutter speed question Voightlander Vito B

[vintagesnaps]

Hmm, couple of those look to me like the film may not have advanced properly. My Vitomatic has a longer, umm, I don't know what you'd call it - the lever moves forward farther than most of my other cameras so I have to make sure I advance the lever all the way. Or maybe the shutter isn't releasing properly or the camera itself isn't advancing film properly?

The second one looks like it might be a double exposure, is it possible you didn't advance the film and took a second picture? (not that I've ever managed to do that! lol yeah right) So maybe you got two exposures in one frame of film.

I'm thinking you might need to shoot another test roll and write down what you do for each shot to see if you can get a roll of consistently exposed images. When you went down the street you may have been in different light so the same settings may not have worked the same in each location.

You could even play around and practice a little with getting a feel for the camera without putting film in it.

 

[Derrel]

Yes, shot #2 definitely is a double exposure....city building shot, then an exposure of a hardwood type of tree...looks kind of cool, regardless!

 

[limr]

Sharon, do you mean the shutter throw?

I also think you might have a light leak.

 

[wfooshee]

Looks like a light leak to me.... Film door not sealing completely (very likely) or film handled improperly during processing (very unlikely.)

Again, no metering in the camera, so there's no place to set ISO on the camera. (And back then it was ASA. )

If it's not advancing film correctly, and doesn't seal at the film door, it's not going to prove very useful, I'm afraid. The shutter shouldn't fire unless the film has advanced completely and cocked the shutter.

I was going to say that an easy way to check is to work it with the camera unloaded and open, but I remember reading that this camera has some sort of interlock that it won't cock the shutter if there's no film loaded and advancing. Kind of hard to "dry run" it, then.

 

[jumpfrog]

Now things make sense! On a few occasions I didn't advance the film enough. As vintageasnaps says - you have to push it right to the very end to advance. I am now doing this. The teeth that catch the film do not protrude enough. Maybe one tooth actually fits fully in the groove on the film. I opened the case to inspect. Maybe some light got in?
Unfortunately, you can't practice with a vito b without film for some reason. The lever that advances the film won't work without film.
These posts have helped a lot. This afternoon I took lots of photos with my new knowledge.
I am eager to see the results!

 

[WayneF]

Tri-X can stand a fairly high degree of overexposure, and is a wonderful film!
...
On-line, search for something like Kodak Exposure Guide + Tri-X film.

That data sheet would be
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/f9/f9.pdf

But one does not have to buy ISO 400 film. We could buy slower film.

And Sunny 16 would only be an issue in bright sun anyway. Cloudy or shade would not be any issue.

But even bright sun would not matter much. B&W negative film accepts overexposure readily... the old saying "Expose for the Shadows" is calling for overexposing negative film. In fact, until 1960, when light meters were coming into greater use... beginning to be built into some cameras... Kodak had always rated all their B&W negative film at half speed, for a safety factor to prevent underexposure. Then in 1960, Kodak simply doubled the ASA number that they printed on the box. The film did not change, only the ASA number.

 

[Gary A.]

Dude, come to LA and I will give you a complete course in exposure and development.

You'll be shooting and developing like a pro in no time atall.

 

[vintagesnaps]

You're right, I forgot those cameras don't advance without film in them. There's a small chain I think that pulls the shutter and won't do so without film in it (go figure! lol). Sounds like you're getting it figured out.

Leonore I don't know, is that what I mean?? lol I don't remember ever knowing it was called anything in particular. I just know that camera takes a longer stroke to advance the lever than most.