Shutter speed tester on Kickstarter

[Steve Goldstein]

There's a new Kickstarter for a nice-looking shutter speed tester called Phochron XA. Just search for Phochron.

No relation other than being a backer.

[adelorenzo]

Cool project I just backed it. Thanks Steve.

[williaty]

I backed it as well. I've been using the smartphone app plus photodiode for a while and there's some serious limitations to it. This tester is a MUCH better solution.

[bwlf]

It looks really easy to use, I backed it also. I have also used the Shutter-Speed app for my iPhone, developed by Lukas Fritz in Germany, which uses sound or light (using a light sensing diode called the PhotoPlug attached to the audio/headphone jack (obsolete in iPhone 7 of course)) though you have to manually drag the slider to measure the peaks of the sound or light transmission. It is a bit of a hassle to use, and now I've lost the dongle, and was never quite sure if I was measuring the peaks on the waveform correctly. A much cheaper option, though requires some manual intervention, for only ~$30.

The shutter release sound you recorded previously is now shown as a waveform. Use the Two-Finger-Gesture to zoom in and out, until you see a signal similar to the one above.
Next, use the two blue knobs below the signal to measure the time between the two peaks.
With the button in the bottom left corner, you can set the Target shutterspeed. This is the shutter speed you set on your camera.
In the example above, the camera was set to 1/30sec. The measured time was 1/24,5sec. The deviation from the target value (1/30) is +1 third of a f-stop, this means the camera is overexposing the film by 1/3 stop !

Here is also a video of how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOcGn07YUpc

[bwlf]

There's a new Kickstarter for a nice-looking shutter speed tester called Phochron XA. Just search for Phochron.

Here is the link: Phochron XA Film Camera Shutter Speed Tester and Official Phochron XA website
(perhaps an easier to remember and pronounce name could have been chosen?)

It has reached it's project goal of $8,500 -- though the kickstarter ends in 6 days, on 17 Nov 2016.