What is this part on this Crown?

[Bob Kerner]

I'm trolling Fleebay to find a suitable Crown Graphic as my first LF auction purchase. What is the part located at the seven-o'clock position under the lens, the thing that looks like a cylinder?

I have an old manual and it is pictured in the manual but it is not explained. Not all cameras seem to have this...at least the one I owned for 3 days didn't. Is it part of the shutter?

Thanks,
Bob

[jp]

I believe it's a solenoid that wires to the flash so that you may make an exposure while hanging onto the light sabre. I could be wrong. I unhooked it and removed it from my speed graphic.

[Bob Kerner]

I believe it's a solenoid that wires to the flash so that you may make an exposure while hanging onto the light sabre. I could be wrong. I unhooked it and removed it from my speed graphic.

Thanks. That makes sense. The manual mentions a solenoid but does not link it to the picture. I bet it was an add-on accessory.

[Leigh]

Yep. As jp498 said, it's a remove shutter release.

There's a button on the back of the flash gun. Press it with your left thumb to activate the solenoid to fire the shutter, which fires the flash through the sync contacts.

Rube what?

It was an add-on. I still have a couple of them NIB.

- Leigh

[Ivan J. Eberle]

That's close but the sequence in firing a bit different. Think of it as a shutter-delaying solenoid, used to synchronize the peak burn portion of a flash bulb pop with the shutter opening. Bulbs burned over the duration of the shutter opening and closing, but took a few milliseconds to ramp up to optimal brightness and color temperature. (Solenoids have an adjustable delay factor.)

Electronic flash is typically of much shorter duration and synchronizes with the shutter at X-sync-- that is, when the shutter is at full opening, by mechanical switching contacts inside the leaf shutter itself. Electronic flash was a major paradigm shift; solenoids and bulbs were largely obsoleted by it's swift adoption.

[Leigh]

That's close but the sequence in firing a bit different. Think of it as a shutter-delaying solenoid, used to synchronize the peak burn portion of a flash bulb pop with the shutter opening.

Nope. The flashbulb delay was built into the shutter itself.

That's what the M sync setting on the shutter was for.

The operating sequence is exactly as I described above, at least on the ones I've installed.

- Leigh

[Ivan J. Eberle]

Maybe I stand corrected. Seems the Supermatic shutter depicted had the 20 ms lag built in to the shutter. So, in this case the solenoid was superfluous for purposes of the delay. So here it was probably set up only for use as an electric cable release.

Other shutters, however, without sync posts on side of the shutter (Graphex or Rapax, non-Synchromatic, for instance) used similar solenoids to lag the shutter opening by 20 ms. while the M bulb ramped up to speed.

[Leigh]

Other shutters, however, without sync posts on side of the shutter (Graphex or Rapax, non-Synchromatic, for instance) used similar solenoids to lag the shutter opening by 20 ms. while the M bulb ramped up to speed.

That's quite possible. I'm sure many of the older shutters had no built-in flash sync.

(Love Monterey. I lived there for a while.)

- Leigh

[Mark Sampson]

The solenoid system pre-dated shutters with built-in sync, and allowed the use of flash with non-sync shutters. The concept dates from around 1930, when flashbulbs became available (speaking of paradigm shifts).

[ic-racer]

When Horseman did their version of the press camera they also provided a solenoid. My experience with the Horseman is that the sensitive electrical switch allows for sharper hand-held photography, when compared to the camera jerk that can happen when using one's thumb on the mechanical plunger. I'm not sure how smooth the Crown's mechanical shutter release is, but maybe the Crown solenoid would also help make hand-held work less shaky.