I downloaded this and tried it, and it seems to work ok for the slower speeds (1/15th sec to 1 sec), but the "start" and "finish" is too fuzzy to see for the faster speeds - possibly unless you know exactly what you're looking at, which I don't.Originally Posted by Stephane
I wonder if it's reasonably safe to assume that if you're ok at the slower speeds the faster ones are probably ok?
No, not a good assumption.
No - common modern shutters have three escapements and springs between which they switch at defined thresholds, even a perfectly timed range need not mean that the shutter is not outright broken in another. Besides, clumsy DIY repairs do mostly "correct" a flaw by introducing a second level of maladjustment. Usually, shutters dragging at slow speeds end up sprayed with grease, and will be too fast at mid-range speeds, only to slow down again at the fastest speed or two (where the grease acts as a viscosity brake).
They work .But you can make one for less than $40.00 and it is going to work in the same way .You can even one for $10.00 and use your computer to read the results through a sound card and it is guaranteed to work as a $1000.00 shutter tester !
The pictures look nice, the seller is reputable, the fact that others could make one for less is irrelevant since they haven't offered to make one for you, so if you want a shutter speed tester why not give it a try.
Brian Ellis
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you do criticize them you'll be
a mile away and you'll have their shoes.
The Audacity software is good; however, I use it with an OPTICAL sensor that plugs into the microphone input. Built it for cheap from simple schematics. Shining a strong light source through the shutter, Audacity detects and displays a "sound" (actually a light) wave that corresponds to the shutter opening and closing. Circuitry resides in a little 35mm film canister with an external AA battery. I think the whole shebang cost me less than $10 and a little solder.
before purchasing on the Omes testers I tried to use my sound card. I almost have it working. I can see a response on the editing program but I bought a stereo jack instead of mono and can't seem to get the wiring quite right. If some has done this can you please chime in and let me what I am doing wrong. I used this schematic.
http://www.nikonhs.org/tech_articles/stester.html
You may not need any resistors in the cicuit. My 15" Mac Book Pro has an auto level detect on the
Line-In. My tester couldn't be simpler to build-- a very satisfying project.
I've had some DIY photo pages for ages now - among them plans for TWO shutter testers.
The first version is a design that I found on the net, but the original web site is long gone (was hosted on Geocities...).
The second version was invented by a friend, and does not need either a separate power source (no batteries), or a light source - it has a bright LED as light source , and everything is powered from USB computer port.
The friend who designed it does not speak English, but I got his permission to make the plans and design available for free to everyone
Anyway, HERE you'll find both versions, plus some other stuff which might be of interest.
Paul Dixon sells testers on fleabay. You can contact him at pauldixon@cox.net. I'm not affiliated with him. His testers are the simple DIY testers but they are accurate when used with Audacity and cheap (for those of us that don't want to spend the time on the soldering). In the past I have sent a few to Carol so I used her notes to confirm. I burned quite a few sheets of film when I had the shutter tester in my drawer. My timings are all consistent so I'm in no rush to send them all to Carol.
And "sounds right" is meaningless.
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