Electronic shutters...

Hey Everybody,

on Ebay is a posting for one lens, it has electronic shutter on it, the guy said it is Copal3. Anybody has any experience with it? What I should be aware of?

Thanks.
Peter Hruby

Peter,

I've never had one, but IIRC, Copal never made an electronic LF shutter, although Compur did. The batteries are mercury based and discontinued at least in the US, although there are allegedly more expensive alternatives. Maybe the batteries are still available in Europe.

You probably couldn't get it economically fixed if you had a problem, but if they're the same size as a Copal, just screw the cells into a new shutter.

If you search the archives you should find quite a bit of information. You could also call Adam at S.K. Grimes.

Steve

Copal did make an electronic shutter. It was introduced about the same time as the Prontor Autolux system and both were shown the same year. It was very short lived.

The Horseman ISS Shutter system is Copal based and is electronic.

If it is a Compur model, you should also be aware you will likely need a seperate control module to set the shutter speeds. Good luck.

Mike

Copal actually did make an electronic shutter, called Copal electric. At least size 1 was available, I don't know about size 3. Compur made several sizes of their "electronic" shutters, at least sizes 1, 3 and 5, and Prontor had a line of "Prontor magnetic" shutters. The Prontor ones as well as the Compur 5 can only be operated with a separate control unit.

The Compur electronic 1 and 3 run with the PX 21 alkaline battery, not a mercury one. It is an unusual size, but is still available with some searching. The Copal 1 electric might have used a PX-27 mercury one, but runs fine with a PX28 substitute (off the top of my head - I can check next week).

Apart from the Compur 5, all of those shutters are compatible with modern ones in terms of thread sizes and cell separation.

I have 2 of the Compur Electronics in service. A Compur 3 with 355 G-Claron, and a Compur 1 with 210 G-Claron. I really like them. For one thing the electronic timing is far more accurate than any of the best mechanical schemes. I like that it can time to 8 seconds. They seem to be forgiving of less than perfect voltages supplied. My #1 has run fine for 3 years on 9 volts instead of the normal 4.5V, and my number 3 is running on 4 #76 1.5v button cells, also fine. Radio shack can order the correct batteries.