Can a camera defect cause tilted photos?

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I bought a canon eos elan II E QD about two years ago, and have probably taken over 5000 shots with it. I have been noticing that my horizons are less and less horizontal with time, usually sloping the same way, i.e., down to the left. A few ones will be horizontal, but most of them will be sloping. It is so strong that it doesn't seem that I could even do that on purpose. Anybody experienced this? Could this be due to a camera defect? If so, what? Should I have the camera looked at?

-- Isabelle Clauss (izzzy_fizzzy@hotmail.com), September 05, 2000

Answers

I have this similar problem with a Nikon FE, which I bought second- hand. I noticed that the horizons on my pictures are not level as when I shot it. I figured out later after checking inside the body that the frame holding the removable viewfinder screen was not level at the bottom. It could have been damaged when the previous owner replaced the screen or removed it. Anyway, I just set the horizon using the top of the viewfinder and my horizons come out level.

-- Ron Gregorio (gregorio@ksc.th.com), September 05, 2000.

Isabelle,

Just a thought: Is it this the only camera you use? Is it possible that you are suffering from an inner ear problem? I don't mean to make light of the situation.

-- Ed Farmer (photography2k@hotmail.com), September 05, 2000.


This should be a very easy thing to trouble shoot. do you have a carpenters level? If not, pick one up or a camera bubble level that goes in the shoe. Place the camera on a tripod, and aim it at a nice clear horizon, and level the camera with the leveling devise. If when you look through the camera at the horizon with the camera set level with the tool, if your camera is having a problem, the finder will actually look off level when it is strait in actuality.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), September 05, 2000.

One other possibility not mentioned previously - there might be a film registration problem (i.e., something pushing the film at an angle across the pressure plate and rails). However, that would probably cause some noticeable focus shifting due to film buckling, so it's a long shot.

-- Hal Haygood (hal@haygoods.org), September 17, 2000.

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