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Thread: Thornton Pickard Shutter Enlargement

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Nov 2006
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    233

    Thornton Pickard Shutter Enlargement

    I have mine arriving on monday as a cheap alternative to a sinar autoshutter for just now.

    I have a friend who is a very accomplished furniture maker / french polisher who can I go to for the work. All I need to know is. Can I anlarge the hole in the shutter for the lens?

    the hole is 2 inches I need it to be 3. From the sellers pics it appears to have enough wood around it to enlarge, but has anyone ever done this before and has it been a success?

    Any help or advice here would be much appreciated, even better someone with a packard 3inch who would swap me straight ;D

  2. #2

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    Apr 2005
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    England
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    Re: Thornton Pickard Shutter Enlargement

    Oh dear.

    If you enlarge the aperture to 3 inches, how much margin will you have left? Will you even have room to bolt the lens safely onto the wood margins?

    Remember that the shutter fixtures run inside the wood too. You can enlarge the shutter, however it depends on the overall size of the shutter unit and 2 inches is already at the larger scale of a Thornton Pickard shutter.

    Most likely its integrity will be compromised.

    Sorry - I don't use Packard shutters either.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
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    575

    Re: Thornton Pickard Shutter Enlargement

    I'm not sure exactly what you mean. Some Thornton Pickard shutters were sealed units, probably intended for front mounting on lenses. Others had removable wooden lens plates. If the shutter you are getting is the second type you could enlarge the hole in the lens plate or better still just make a new one with the approriate size hole.

    In either case inside the shutter there is another piece of wood with the same size hole which you won't be able to enlarge as it will be as big as it can physically be made (as shown in the attached photo). A lot is going to depend on the type of lens that you are mounting. Something with a relatively narrow angle (like a process lens) might just be OK, while a wdie angle would probably experience a severely restricetd image circle.

    Mounting a 3" diameter lens in front of a shutter that started life with a 2" hole doesn't sound too hopeful, but if the rear element is closer to 2" than 3" you might be OK.

    Have a look at a few pages I wrote about rebuilding a TP shutter as it should give you a good idea of what I am talking about.
    http://members.optusnet.com.au/~paul...tp_shutter.htm

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Location
    Harbor City, California
    Posts
    1,750

    Re: Thornton Pickard Shutter Enlargement

    Thaornton-Pickard shutters are not all the same size, so I think you are going to have to wait for yours to be received to be sure.

    Do you have enough lensoard for a 3" Packard? They run about twice aperture size for the overall size and then you have to figure on getting the tubing through the lensboard.

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Jul 2006
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    2,639

    Re: Thornton Pickard Shutter Enlargement

    As much as I like to modify and destroy as I go, I think you're gonna end up in a bigger mess than you started.

    I'd recommend getting in touch with Reno at Packard Shutter, and getting yourself a new or NOS shutter with the correct sized aperture. You'll have customer service and a guarantee with it, and time and instant, just like the TP's. They're also flat and more compact than TP's

    I've been after a sinar shutter like the one you want, but their price is too high until I find a camera worth spending that much on.

  6. #6

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    Nov 2006
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    233

    Re: Thornton Pickard Shutter Enlargement

    I have to admit looking at the thornton re-build I reckon it would be very easy to re-engineer it for a larger size with the replacement of the baffle with a modern material. As the centre section is nothing more than a means of keeling the box from collapsing in on itself. So a front mount conversion will be appropriate with the hole going to three inches. Either that or using the tenisioners. Make a new box of equal size and strength and enlarge.

    I'll keep you all posted on this one, as I used the dallmeyer the otherday in 2 candle light and on Type 57 (3000asa) it was far too fast for hand exposures therefore too fast to be useful on a packard.

    Athough I have sourced a sinar for about the same as a packard, I just hope I can fix my car now and have change for the shutter. Failing that get a new job and up my worth

  7. #7

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    Apr 2005
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    Re: Thornton Pickard Shutter Enlargement

    Well done! Told ya it's possible to get a Sinar for the price.

    The thing is, some of these Thornton Pickards are so beautiful and classically made, particularly the well-conditioned ones which have a quality that makes the Sinar autoshutter look tacky.

    I'm going to strip the metal of my Sinar autoshutter and spray the whole thing sexy black - like all those other non-black lens panels...

    PS - if you can, there are ISO 2 films as well as slow copy film. Alternatively, ND grads + polarisers + red filters if your speeds are too fast to use a lens cap option.

  8. #8

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    Nov 2006
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    233

    Re: Thornton Pickard Shutter Enlargement

    I must admit the only reason I was using type 5 is I bought 5 boxes ofr peanuts and the instant gratification of taking picture with a lens last used to take pictures of Naz's getting bombed in WW2 was too much of an incentive. Although they must have had nice bokeh on the strategic targets ... he he. ( sorry to any old german people :|)

  9. #9

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    Re: Thornton Pickard Shutter Enlargement

    Type 5??? Boxes of peanuts??

    Coherence? Slow down on those poppers..

  10. #10

    Join Date
    Nov 2006
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    233

    Re: Thornton Pickard Shutter Enlargement

    sorry it's a bit late. I meant to say ... I bought 57 at the price of peanuts, 5 boxes of it in fact. It's a bit late for this seeing as I should be resting for my job interview in the morning.

    Another round of smiling and being nice to potenial bosses ain't my favourite thing.

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