Options for a shutter for a small Petzval

[Kirk Gittings]

I've got a couple of these that I want to try out, mounting them on a Phillips 4x5. Besides a Packard are there other options? Outside diameter is 51.6mm.

[Dan Fromm]

Depending on the lenses' focal lengths and apertures, front mounting on a Copal #1 or larger or an Alphax/Betax/Ilex #3 or larger may be practical. But a mount adapter won't be dirt cheap.

I recently had a small misadventure with an oscilloscope camera Ilex #3 that held a 75/1.9 OscilloParagon. Nice shutter, even ran reasonably on speed, but the diaphragm was limited to 28 mm, not the usual 34.6.

[Pete Roody]

Kirk,

You can use a front mount 'Luc' shutter or an equivalent. The have three screws that tighten to the barrel. You just missed a couple on the FS page. See Maurits's sale for a photo. His were branded 'Paris' if I remember correctly.

[Pete Roody]

Link for Maurits' ad:

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ad.php?t=74995

[IanG]

Thornton Pickard shutter either on the front of the lens or a "Between=Lens" version (their 1890's term) which fits between lens board & lens.

I'm just restoring 6 at the moment, three are larger than usual and fit 70-80mm diameter lenses. They were made from the late 1880's through to around the early 1960's and were sold by B&J in the US before WWII (with a B&J name on them).

Great shutters, I have about 11 or 12 at present and one's off to be matched to a Darlot for Wet plate work.

Interestingly TP shutters were designed to be retro-fitted to earlier lenses right from the start, they are Roller blind, easy to restore and quite accurate, they are mechanically timed (by tension) from 1/15 to 1/90, slower with a pneumatic release/valve (needs some experimentation as well) as T - also used for focussing.



or



Some UK members here have seen/heard some of my shutters in action

Ian

[Graybeard]

A front mount (entire lens goes in front of the shutter, you use the original iris) would probably work for you. S. K. Grimes will make an adaptor for $75-$100 with you providing a shutter (sadly they have a two month turnaround for this work but their quality is beyond reproach). An Aphax #4 or Ilex #4 shutter would probably be best but I believe that you could make this work with a #3 in either make.

Another alternative, particularly cost effective if your intention is to get some idea of the properties of the lenses before you commit to any major expense, is to use a front shutter. For this, the shutter goes where you would put a filter ring, up front (you can use a skylight filter outboard to protect the shutter leaves). How you put the shutter on there is up to your ingenuity and what plumbing fittings you can find at your hardware store and what cardboard and black tape you have on hand.

I suggest that you have a good look at the S. K Grimes website for a more detailed discussion.

An advantage of either of these approaches is that you will have a shutter that fires at a speeds greater than the 1/15th sec (thereabouts) of a Packard.

I am able do some of my own machine work and have fitted a number of Artars and Clarons to #3 and #4 shutters in front mounts. I have also fitted a Ronar 760 mm with an Ilex #4 in a front mounted shutter for my Deardorff. I find these perfectly practical for landscape work and nature photography.

Good light-

[Mark Sawyer]

Greybeard has a good suggestion with using a conventional shutter on the front. If I remember right, the Ilex #4 has a 58mm standard filter thread front and rear. Remove the glass from a few 58mm filters to form a short tube (or order a 58mm extender or rigid lens hood), and line it with black felt on the inside to shim it down to your front barrel diameter.

[Brian C. Miller]

For the "cheap seats" there's the home-made guillotine shutter, two darkslides, or black cardboard with a slot in it.

[Jim Galli]

What Mark said, but use a modern Copal 3 that you've already got. A 58mm filter (sans glass), in the back of the Copal 3 and some Velcro would be pretty slick. When you're done simply put the 5.6 300 cells back in for safer keeping.

[mandoman7]

I have an Ilex 5 with threads for the cells that just happen to be slightly larger than my 5" petzval projection lens After applying a couple of layers of black tape on the lens it fit nice and snug, and worked perfectly. The main benefit might be that I could experiment with the lens before investing in various adapters.