Electronic shutter on Ebay

[Jordan]

Anyone have any experience with these?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ELECTRONIC-SHUTTER-CONTROLLER-for-wood-field-camera-brass-lens-8x10-LARGE-format-/291432162031

[Bob Salomon]

That is just the controller. You would still have to find the shutters it controls.

[Jordan]

Thanks Bob. That was kind of what I was asking. So it doesn't somehow simply connect to a Copal shutter? It's hard to tell from the pictures and the seller's vague description

[Bob Salomon]

Thanks Bob. That was kind of what I was asking. So it doesn't somehow simply connect to a Copal shutter? It's hard to tell from the pictures and the seller's vague description

Not at all.

[Dan Fromm]

It seems to be a Melles Griot controller. See http://www.f295.org/main/showthread.php?6918-electronic-shutter-controllers

It should control Melles Griot and Ilex electronic shutters, but not all of them have the same actuate/hold voltages.

[Steven Tribe]

Calkovsky has a history of buying Surplus Shed's Surplus Stock (SSSS!) and then using Ebay at very different price levels to be able to obtain a balance between sales volume and maximum returns. He still sells a simple electric shutter from Surplus Shed that he took over from Surplus shed many years ago.

[DrTang]

I have one kind of like that although the rf plug on that is kind of offputting..I've never seen a shutter that uses that connection

most use a two prong plug that is just a bit smaller than the flash plug

or they use a screw on one...

that looks like it might have come off a special scientific camera set up

you might be able to adapt the socket to whatever you have though

[Jim Galli]

220V can be so unforgiving. I did enjoy the ad copy though. He's sure you can convert it to something more friendly, like 12V but please, no returns. What was it that P. T. Barnum is credited to have said that he probably never did?

[Jody_S]

Unless you have a very good understanding of electronics and time (& $$$) to burn, I would stay away. Completely useless for any practical LF application, but I'm sure the right tinkerer could hook this up to a large Packard with a solenoid, and contacts for a flash. Of course, if someone knows how to do that, they don't really need this contraption to begin with, as it's ridiculously easy to build this sort of time controller with about $5-10 worth of parts from a surplus outlet.

A couple of years ago, I bought the parts to build one, they're still sitting in a plastic baggie somewhere in my lair (I think I gave up on 'office' about the same time I bought them).