Electronic shutters

[BetterSense]

What electronic LF shutters have been created? Do they work well?

Clockwork shutters have the obvious advantage of working without batteries, but they do quit working after so many years and I have never been confident in their accuracy at the best of times. I have personally had shutters quit working which leaves a significant fraction of my lens collection unusable. Good shutters go for nearly the price of lenses with working shutters; an unfortunate situation. It would seem very easy to make an electronic LF shutter to the point where I have considered trying to convert one of my broken ones, if I could only figure out how to flip the shutter blades.

[Bob Salomon]

Rodenstock eShutter Rollei linear motor shutter Schneider electronic shutter Schneider electronic shutter

[Paul Ewins]

There were Compur Electronic and Prontor Electronic shutters, but they were really just mechanical shutters with electronic timing. Basically one mechanical speed (the highest) and then an electronically timed delay for the closing mechanism. I'm not sure about the Ilex or any of the other US based manufacturers of the era but I imagine they would be similar. The Compur 5s electronic was fully remote controlled, but I think that just amounted to adding on another servo to cock the spring rather than a new type of mechanism. There are companies out there dealing in laboratory optics (i.e. lasers and so on) that sell shutters but I don't think the prices will thrill you.

[Amedeus]

Sinar also has a digital electronic shutter.

I personally like the large Compur Electronic shutter. Dual acting electro magnet either opens or closes. The rest is a matter of timing. Some of the so called electronic shutters are nothing more than mechanical shutter tripped by electrical means.

[Dan Fromm]

Ilex and its successor Melles Griot. Solenoid to open and hold open, spring to close when the solenoid's power is turned off.

[BetterSense]

Does anyone have any experience with electro-optic modulators? Could you put a pockel's cell in between lens elements to act as a shutter? This could potentially solve the problems with leaf shutters on high speeds having smaller effective apertures due to blade-travel-time. But I don't know if light modulators are opaque enough, clear enough, and don't do other weird things like change polarization.

[Arne Croell]

There was a Copal electric, at least in size 1, about the same time as the Compur electronic. It was again a mechanical shutter with the timing done electronically, except for the highest speed . You can see it in figs. 4 and 5, p.7, in this article: http://www.arnecroell.com/grandina.pdf

[Amedeus]

Electro-optic modulators need to be used with polarized light or they don't go completely dark. Also most of them have a very small aperture ... designed for laser ... at least the ones I work with.

I've tested some other technologies with polarizing direction changers for large apertures but the light/dark ratio was not there.


Does anyone have any experience with electro-optic modulators? Could you put a pockel's cell in between lens elements to act as a shutter? This could potentially solve the problems with leaf shutters on high speeds having smaller effective apertures due to blade-travel-time. But I don't know if light modulators are opaque enough, clear enough, and don't do other weird things like change polarization.

[Captain_joe6]

Sinar had at least three: Sinar Digital Shutter, Sinar Expolux Shutter, and Sinar Expolux Tricolor shutter. The Digital is prone to failure, and the Tricolor is generally useless outside its very specialized field. The Expolux itself is a nice piece, but finding all the required parts can be a nightmare.

[Keith Fleming]

Isn't there a problem of the batteries for some of these shutters being no longer manufactured?

Keith

[Bob Salomon]

Isn't there a problem of the batteries for some of these shutters being no longer manufactured?

Keith
The shutters in my post are all currently available as the shutters are in current production.

[IanG]

There's also a large number of German made electronic shutters still available on Ebay, presumably made by Prontor for process cameras, These were being sold off by Surplus Shed but someone bought the lot and tried to sell them for much higher prices. I bought 3 frome someone on this forum but still neet to make a controller.

Ian

[Paul Ewins]

Isn't there a problem of the batteries for some of these shutters being no longer manufactured?

Keith
The Compur Electronics take an odd size 4.5v battery (V21PX) but the battery holder is removable and it would take very little effort to connect up three AA or AAA cells. I've also heard of people putting in three LR44s and a bit of packing into the holder.

[Arne Croell]

The Compur Electronics take an odd size 4.5v battery (V21PX) but the battery holder is removable and it would take very little effort to connect up three AA or AAA cells. I've also heard of people putting in three LR44s and a bit of packing into the holder.
It also works ok with a PX28/4SR44 battery and a conducting spacer, like folded aluminum foil. Its 6V, but it works fine with that, no change in the timing.
Btw, the Copal electric use a PX28.

[Bob Salomon]

There's also a large number of German made electronic shutters still available on Ebay, presumably made by Prontor for process cameras, These were being sold off by Surplus Shed but someone bought the lot and tried to sell them for much higher prices. I bought 3 frome someone on this forum but still neet to make a controller.

Ian
Prontor Werke still make the Prontor Magnetic but they do not make a controller for these shutters.

[amoebahyda]

The electronic shutters that I am using ,,, Prestor 8 and Sinar Expolux

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