Shutter tester

[Witold Grabiec]

Has anyone seen or better yet, used or tried one of these laser shutter testers?

Laser shutter tester (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=43479&item=3870533742&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW)

[darter]

The device seems intriguing... but. How did they obtain the name "Compur". Since Compur shutters were made until quite recently, the name is likely still trademarked. Has this new company bought the rights to the name? If not, then I question the integrity of the company. For myself, I wouldn't buy unless that issue is cleared up.

[neil poulsen]

It's interesting.

I don't particularly like the readout. I like my shutter speeds in decimal form, so that I can determine how many stops I'm off from nominal.

Practically speaking, I wonder what this one has over the Calumet shutter tester, which is less costly and less complicated. Apparently, it's not impacted by ambient light. But, how much difference does this really make?

It looks like it only checks for actual shutter speed, versus how much light is transmitted. The latter can take into account aperture/shutter inefficiency, as well as shutter speed. Of course, the inexpensive Calumet doesn't take aperture into account.

Price is reasonable, for what one gets. Laser generator, etc.

[Witold Grabiec]

I actually search the net for

Tyrell innovations (http://www.tyrellinnovations.com/docs/start.htm)

apparently the maker of this tester.

But their web site says nothing about this product. They seem to privde 3D modelling devices. They're based in Poland (+48 country code).

[Calamity Jane]

Hummm. I guss I am cheap (heck, I KNOW I'm cheap) - I use a $0.25 photodiode to test shutters.

Of course it helps when you have a $2,000 oscilloscope to do the measurements . . . . ;-)

[Bob Fowler]

All right, I know this is a large format forum and MOST large format cameras use leaf shutters, but...

I prefer a tester that can work with ANY camera and give meaningful information. This thing doesn't measure curtain travel times of focal plane shutters, so IMO, it's just an expensive toy. It's OK I guess if you only have cameras with BTL shutters...

[george jiri loun]

If you see the interface picture you can see that there are 2 types of shutter - lens and focal plane...

[d.s.]

Someone listed here, or p.net a couple of years ago the plans to build a tester for under $10. 00, used with a freeware program "cool edit". I built one. The solder was three dollars of the price. All parts are available at Radio Shack. You get a visual of shutter opening / closing, and the shutter open time to three places past the decimal. I mounted mine in a small card board box and adjust the height with books. I use it on LF lenses and 35mm bodies. The only drawback is that it works through the computer and is not a stand alone thing.

dee

[Ole Tjugen]

I bought one of these - or at least I think I did.

Haven't seen it yet after a month and a half, nor have I heard anything from the seller (who, by the way, seems to be both in the USA, Germany and Poland).

The transaction is now in paypal dispute.

[Juergen Sattler]

I asked myself the same question - how good are these and looked up on eBay who had bought one and sent him an email, asking if he/she would be so kind to share their experiences with this shutter tester. The person answered back (he/she is from Denmark and the english is a little rocky, but it's easy to figure out what that person meant.

Here is the entire email I got which includes feedback to the developers:

"Hi

Here is the feedback I send to the developer

It uses EZUSB.SYS and EZLOADER.SYS. I don't know of the driver install
problem has something to do with my Danish XP SP2

Has tested several focal plan cameras and a couple of lens shutters

Here is some of the results (has not included my Contax SLR's because
the
was very, very close to the nominal speed):

nominel actual

FED2 (focalplane)
500 785
250 324
100 110
50 61
25 35

Mamiya 1000s (focalplane)
1000 730
500 400
250 210
125 113
60 51
30 27
15 14
8 7
4 4
2 2
1 1,1
2 2,2
4 4,7
8 9,35

Old Pickard (focalplane)
? 60

Copal #1 (MP4 and my main large format shutter) lensshutter
125 136 (but it was way to slow in the start, but after a lot
of
exersise it's stable)
60 60
30 27
15 14
8 8
4 4

Betax (from a Graflex 84mm and it need exersie and/or cleaning)
lensshutter
50 70
25 12
10 6,5
5 4

Old Kodak TBI (probably from befotre 1914) lensshutter
? 100



Ole Gregor,

----- Videresendt af Ole Gregor/FMT/Viborg Amt den 04-04-2005 20:32
-----

Ole
Gregor/FMT/Viborg
Amt
Til
"tyrell POP3"
04-04-2005 20:29 <orman@tyrellinnovations.com>

cc


Emne
Vedr.: Laser Shutter Speed
Tester
USB(Document link: Ole Gregor)



Hi

Here is some feedback

Has the shuttertester up and running on my laptop (with XP SP2, Danish)

It was very difficult to get the drivers installed (XP just told unkown
device and would not allow install of an alternative driver - it's
probably
SP2 behaviour, had to remove the device at make several attempts)

I was i bit frustrated, because I couldn't change from lens to focal
shutter, then i discovered that i only can change shutter type with the
laser on (it would also be nice with a display showing if there is a
USB
device attached and working). It would be nice with this information in
the
manual/intro

I has also tried to install the tester on a Win2000 PC and it doesn't
work
(and it's a well known problem with EZUSB.SYS), but you should
highlight it
on the manual/intro

Has made several test and it's very, very nice with a PC program and
the
statistics.

The focalplane test confirmed my intution about problem with one
camera,
but also showed that another one was significant faster than expected
(and
it explains a couple of slight underexposure).

I also got the time og my old Pickard focal shutter and is suprisingly
stable (1/60 on a shutter from before 1900 !!!)

The lens shutters is difficult with the lens, but gave some very
interesting results with the lens elements removed. An important lesson
was
need to exersise the shutter (a Copal #1), after 10-15 openings it was
much
more stable and close to sthe right speed - this lesson would have been
difficult to optain with a traditional shuttertester (i would have
started
cleaning after af few tests)

I has helped me, and a few improvments will make it easier for others
(better install of the drivers and additional hlep/info on use)"



When I pasted the message over the shutter time comparison got screwed up, but I don't think that's all that important to know what HIS shutter times were. It does sound like a pretty good product if they can get over some of the glitches he desribes here.

Juergen

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

French friend of mine uses routinely a home made shutter tester in the spirit of what Dee Seegers mentions. A photo transistor, may be one or two components plugged to the serial COM port of any PC computer withdrawn at the last minute from garbage ( a '386 would do the job easily), a freeware. Only drawback : the freeware is not a linux freeware but a freeware for another PC operating system ;-)
E-mail me off-line for details.