shutter speed?

[northway]

I've been experimenting with an old Century 5x7 (1904 model 40); the lens is in great shape. I've read somewhere that the shutter speed on "I" is about a 30th of a second, but when metering at that speed with my SLR the negatives are about 2 stops underdeveloped. I can just keep doing the same thing and change stops, but is there an easy way to check the shutter speed or is it advisable to have it serviced and checked to be sure?

[BrianShaw]

I've been experimenting with an old Century 5x7 (1904 model 40); the lens is in great shape. I've read somewhere that the shutter speed on "I" is about a 30th of a second, but when metering at that speed with my SLR the negatives are about 2 stops underdeveloped. I can just keep doing the same thing and change stops, but is there an easy way to check the shutter speed or is it advisable to have it serviced and checked to be sure?

I have a TBI shutter I use and both the actual and advertized (back on 1912 or so) speed is 1/50. I overhauled mine and it was measured on a sutter speed tester.

If you don't want it have it overhauled and measured, I'd suggest compensating the exposrue by 2 stops and just remeber to compensate when metering.

If your exposures are not consistent or the shutter stops working altogether, then seriously consider having it overhauled.

[Fotoguy20d]

but is there an easy way to check the shutter speed

Do you have reasonable skills with a soldering iron? Build yourself a simple shutter tester using $10 worth of parts from Digikey and a free audio program (audacity) for your computer.

Or just meter with your SLR set to shutter priority and set it for 1/125s (although that really sounds way too fast for one of those shutters)

Dan

[johnielvis]

if you have a light meter with a flash meter on it, you can use that to determine the shutter speed by putting a very bright light on one side of the shutter...the meter on the other side...meter the shutter "flash pop"...get the f stop...then meter as continuous light---get the shutter speed for the same f stop---this is your shutter speed.

I just tried this with a packard and my sekonic ... it works--but with bright light....and you have to be careful holding things in the same place too....