Just got my new one, was about to ask why the viewfinder was so dark but put the battery in and it seems fine.

It reminded me of the time we took our F65 to service, as the auto-focus was playing up. It came back and we took it home, then a couple of days later took it to Lewes firework display. No matter how we tried to focus, it was always blurred. AF, manual, semi - no joy. Took pics OK, but always out of focus. We were furious, swore heavily at Nikon Service Portugal/ the shop, put it back in the bag and sulkily half-enjoyed the night watching everything not through a viewfinder.

Took it back to the shop and pointed out the problem. Girl behind the counter was puzzled, but sympathetic and noted our complaint and contact details again, we left the camera there and went off to do more shopping.

Five minutes later we had a call that we could come back and collect it. Her colleague was there, both were smiling.

During the service, they'd somehow changed the diopter adjustment on the viewfinder. We didn't even know it existed :o

This is a good illustration of my complete inexperience with cameras, so if - no, WHEN I ask stupid questions in future, please bear with me :)

Or read the manual!!!!!

Don't worry, I did the same thing (stupid question thing) some time ago. Changing 1 setting on an slr can unbeknown to you, change another.

Then when you post why, every one laughs, don't they Richard!

Managed to shoot an assignment without putting film in the camera - Canon F1, so no safety features - suddenly realeased I'd managed to get 70 odd shots on a 36 exposure film.

Its not the mistake you make, its how you get out of it. Told the subject that we could take better pix in a different location, put a film in and took a whole new set of of pics - no one knew. After that, always left the small handle on the film rewind knob up so that I could feel it brush against my eyebrow as the film was wound on - that way I knew there film in the camera and it was winding on ok.

ALL my digital cameras are set so that the shutter will only work if the CF card is installed - its a mistake you only make once.

Gareth

Oh and I now always spend 5 mins checking my gear fully works before any work with a torch.

Shot the last assignment without the AF assist switched on, all the shots whilst in focus were soft. Lesson learnt.


As GarethE said, mistakes are something you only make once!.

This isn't my mistake, and not with a camera, but it is photo related, so I thought I'd post it up...

When I was still at school, I had a job for a couple of summers working for a well known film processing company. The second year I worked for them, the operation had just moved to a new lab and at the same time switched from darkroom splicing the film ready for processing to using daylight splicing machines.

One of the guys working a daylight splicing machine hadn't closed the doors after cleaning and threading leader through the machine he was using. He then proceded to send about 30 or so 35mm films through, totally exposing them to the light before I walked into the splicing area, noticed the film visible passing through the machine, and shouted him.

Ooops!

John.

A w*rk colleague's brother joyfully set up his new digital camera, and the first pic he decided to take was one of the sun. Broke it. Even he couldn't explain why he opted to do that! :D

A w*rk colleague's brother

yeah, yeah, yeah :D

Not me. I value my cameras too much. :thumb:

I think the daftest thing I have done is left my S2 IS on the car seat, out of its soft protective case, whilst doing some spirited driving through the lanes... out of a hedge leapt a fecking pheasant, I slammed on the anchors and my camera shot forward off the seat and bounced off the steering lock. :o

The "silent" zoom feature on movie mode isn't quite as silent as it used to be! :lol1:

Just got my new one, was about to ask why the viewfinder was so dark but put the battery in and it seems fine.

It reminded me of the time we took our F65 to service, as the auto-focus was playing up. It came back and we took it home, then a couple of days later took it to Lewes firework display. No matter how we tried to focus, it was always blurred. AF, manual, semi - no joy. Took pics OK, but always out of focus. We were furious, swore heavily at Nikon Service Portugal/ the shop, put it back in the bag and sulkily half-enjoyed the night watching everything not through a viewfinder.

Took it back to the shop and pointed out the problem. Girl behind the counter was puzzled, but sympathetic and noted our complaint and contact details again, we left the camera there and went off to do more shopping.

Five minutes later we had a call that we could come back and collect it. Her colleague was there, both were smiling.

During the service, they'd somehow changed the diopter adjustment on the viewfinder. We didn't even know it existed :o

This is a good illustration of my complete inexperience with cameras, so if - no, WHEN I ask stupid questions in future, please bear with me :)

I did that yesterday! Glad it's not just me. I couldn't understand why they seemed fine on the screen, but viewed in the view finder.

Stupidist thing I've ever done was to mount my F4s with my 80-200 f/2.8 on a tripod and turn my back on it. I hadn't locked the quick release plate and the whole lot came crashing down...wrecked the mount on the F4s and broke the lens. The repair bill was horrendous. These days I double check every time...once bitten and all that.

Tried to take a decent photo with a Nikon :)