Uncle Jonesy's Cameras Podcast #69: Shake 'N Take

By Kevin Lane

Remember when you got your first camera? If your memory is clear enough, you probably remember other details about your first photographing experiences, like all the advice you received on how to make your photography better. It's a good bet that right there at the top of the list of suggestions you got concerned holding your camera steady so as to reduce or even eliminate camera shake. But it's also a good bet that, when you got your first few rolls back from the lab, a certain number of your shots were blurry due to - you guessed it - camera shake.

Camera shake is a problem we've all had at one time or another, but it usually appears at the beginner stage before we learn an effective method of holding our camera steady as we press the shutter. Once we learn to stand a certain way and steady ourselves as if we were a two-legged tripod, hold our camera against our face or chest, and hold our breath as we snap the shutter button, we usually see a noticeable improvement in picture sharpness. Of course, digital shooters most likely have a anti-shake feature on their camera, so nobody really knows how much shakin' is going on with them. But film photographers have to get this right if they want sharp photos. And I thought I had a long time ago.

However, since camera shake can be related to how we hold our cameras, it shouldn't surprise us that certain types of cameras - cameras that require a different way of holding them - can cause problems we thought we had solved to reappear. And that's exactly what happened to me whenever I used my Rolleicord Va twin lens reflex camera. Despite the fine quality of its lens, I often get shots that are not as sharp as I would expect, unless I'm using a tripod. Then, the photographs are very sharp. All other factors being the same (my ability to focus the camera, for example), the cause has to be in the way I hold the camera when I fire the shutter. 

My Rolleicord Va, a fine camera
by any measure but . . . 

. . . that shutter lever must be moved sideways from my R to L.
Could that be the cause of my camera shake?

Here is a Rolleicord frame from a recent trip to Savannah, Georgia. I actually had this negative
on the darkroom enlarger when I discovered how soft the focus is. 

Now, I have another TLR, a Yashica-Mat, but somehow I don't seem to have the camera shake problem with it. So what is it about my Rolleicord that makes it hard to hold it steady? I believe the answer lies with the Roleicord's shutter release itself:  a lever at the bottom of the from lens standard must be moved from the photographers' left to his/her right. I believe that this sideways motion is responsible for my camera shake problems. To bear this out, the shutter button on my Yashica-Mat is located on the lower front right of the lens standard. To fire it, you push it inward toward your chest with the index finger of your right hand. If the camera is against your body, it's not going to move when the shutter is fired.

The shutter button on my Yashica-Mat is on the front
lower left (to you). It's pushed inward to fire.

On our show #68, I described this problem to our faithful listeners and asked them for help, and we got some great ideas. The most prevalent suggestion was to use a cable release even when handholding the camera. And not only did our listeners come through for me, Shutter Brother Wayne had a suggestion that I never would have thought of on my own. You'll have to listen to the show to find out about that. At any rate, it was a lot of fun reading our listeners' input on this subject, and I can't wait to get out with my Rolleicord again and try this out for myself. 

The idea is that pressing the cable release won't
cause the camera to move. We'll see.

We had other great listener input as well, including a question about everything that is needed to start developing black and white film at home. Both Wayne and I have been doing this for a long time, so we both had fun thinking about the early days when we starting out developing our film just like our listener. And the rest of our input came in form of actual prints sent to us by three of our listeners, Andrew Bartrum, Jason Priebe, and Todd Barlow. You can see the prints in the photo below. Thank you!

Darkroom prints by (L to R) Andrew Bartrum, Jason Priebe, and Todd Barlow

And speaking of our listeners, we can't say enough about how wonderful they are to us with their support and input. And one listener went above and beyond with his input:  a generous gifting of a Minolta Maxxum XTsi camera body for me to consider using on my Alaskan cruise in September. I haven't as yet used the camera, but when I do I will give a full report on it on a future podcast. Thank you Jason!

Listener Jason sent me this pristine Minolta Maxxum XTsi,
seen here with my Minolta AF 35-70mm f4 zoom.

Lastly, inspired by Wayne, I've been going through my closets and finding things that I need to move along to someone else. I'm talking about things like cameras that I will most certainly never use again. One of these is an genuine Windsor, a clone of the Diana 120 camera that was made at the Great Wall Plastic Factory in Hong Long. This plastic camera helped to forge the lomography movement with it's soft focus and vignetting. Mine has the original lens cap, strap, and box. Although the box is not in good condition and one of the strap lugs is broken, everything else about the camera works just fine. I'll be putting this up for sale in the near future.

A vintage Windsor (Diane) camera from Hong Kong. I have
a photo somewhere of my as a child holding a camera 
just like this.

We closed show #69 with a reminder about our 3 Annual Photowalk with the Shutter Brothers, which will take place on Saturday, October 26, at Fort Southwest Point near Kingston, Tennessee. Go ahead and mark your calendars for what will be a fun and rewarding day of photography. More details soon.

Thanks to all the listeners who offered camera advice and also those listeners who sent us questions or tips. As far as we are concerned, all of you are on the UJC Team! If you want to contribute for a future show, you can send your questions, comments, tips, stories, and even voice memos to unclejonesyscameras@gmail.com. You also can follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and feel free to leave your feedback there.

Happy Photography! Now let's get some Good Pictures!