Okay:
I took a close look at my ilex 5 shutter and relized i was not crazy to think i had to plug it in. (see earlier post be me under same title) See, i'm not as dumb as i look.
It says electronic on the front and the plug unit is a shutter release?
so, my initial questions stands. How do I used this outdoors?
How many sets of posts does the shutter have? In the picture you see an Ilex 3 shutter, which is a powered shutter. One set of posts is for power in from a special controller, the other is for flash sync.
Go to this link.
http://largeformatphotography.info/lfforum/topic/497686.html
It has two sets of posts. It is an electronic shutter. This I already knew, but was just confirming. My question is, how can I use this shutter outside?
Contact Bob Fowler from my pervious link.
W.
Wayne,
I think the answer is "You don't".
However, you might try here:
http://www.globalspec.com/FeaturedProducts/Detail?ExhibitID=14584&fromSupplier=1
or here
http://www.chemie.unibas.ch/~holder/shutter/
I've never seen one, but it appears to similar to the Compur #5 electronic shutters, whose controllers I believe used 6 C-cell batteries and came with 12- or 30- foot cables.
Steve
These shutters were designed to be used with a controller. Without the controller you will have a hard time using the shutter, indoors or outdoors.
These electronic shutters frequently show up on ebay, usually without a controller. The controllers occasionally appear on ebay, but rarely at bargin prices. Probably these shutters were commonly used in labs and industrial settings, where several shutters were used with one controller. Either that, or the people who convert them to surplus are leaving the controllers behind. All of the original controllers that I have seen for Ilex electronic shutters are designed to plug into the wall, so even if you found a controller it would be hard to use the shutter outdoors.
Perhaps some later controller exists that will work from batteries. A potential drawback is that these shutters, unlike the Compur Electronic 1 and 3, need current to stay open and so long exposures might use up the batteries. (I don't know about the Compur Electronic #5.) The electronic protocol is described at http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-...?msg_id=007Ixa.
Okay, I need to clarify. I have the control unit for the shutter. I simply need a way to hook it up to a battery. There has to be a way to convert it from 110 wall current to some sort of battery current. Perhaps I will talk the fine folks at radio shack.
Matthew, if you search on the web for "AC Inverter" you will find many devices that convert DC into AC. Most are designed to run from fairly substantial batteries, such as a car battery. If your outdoor usage is close to your car this might work. Otherwise you are likely to find the battery and inverter rather heavy.
I doubt that the current draw for the controller is very high; the cheap inverter that RadioShack sells will probably provide enough power to drive this thing.
The inverter plugs into the cigarette lighter adapter in the car (the "power point" in today's PC world) and provides a standard AC outlet.
On my previous vehicle, a Toyota, the key had to be in either the "accessory" or "on" position to provide power to the cigarette lighter adapter. On my current VW, the adapter is always live so you can run electrical devices even when the key is out of the car.
Obviously this solution will work if you're close to the car. If you're not, you might look at some of the emergency power devices that are made to be charged up to provide emergency power. I've seen these for around US$100 or thereabouts. The issue here will be weight. If memory serves, they generally run around 15 pounds. Not too bad if you're walking for 10 minutes, but not something I'd like to hike with for a full day. (You can see an example of the type of thing I'm talking about at:
http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?I=539PP400
I've never personally seen this unit, but it should give you an idea of what this class of device is like.)
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