Prontor Professional Shutter control questions

[bibbt]

I have a couple of questions about using a Prontor Professional 01 shutter that I just acquired. It has a late production Fujinon T 300mm f8 installed in it. Highly unlikely the lens came with this shutter originally. I plan to use the lens on my recently acquired Linhof Technikardan 45s for general landscape photography.

My initial thoughts are this shutter is nice but unnecessarily complicated for general outdoor shooting. I completely understand some of the advantages of a self cocking shutter. Some people really like the Sinar Copal shutters for this reason. Will I learn to fall in love with this shutter if I cough up the bucks for the twin cable control box? Seems like one more dang thing to wag around and slow down my setup time. I have yet to find any of my cable releases that have a long enough throw to trip the shutter. Also seems to take a lot of force is required. I have used Copals and Compurs my entire 40+ years for shooting and have been satisfied. That being said, I think the Copal is a more reliable shutter especially when it comes to the slow speeds.

I would like to hear from some of you that are using the Prontor Professional Shutters. Someone educate me on what's so special about these Prontor Professionals. I know it was probably very expensive. I am thinking about putting this Fujinon back into a Copal like it probably came with.

Any thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated.

Bibb in San Antonio

[Jac@stafford.net]

Someone educate me on what's so special about these Prontor Professionals.

I never liked them except once for a dedicated electronic flash lit negative copier.

[Bob Salomon]

You don’t need the control box, although it is convenient, especially if you also have the correct aperture control stick and the correct shutter speed selector attached, then all shutter functions are controlled from behind the camera: opening the shutter wide open for focus and composing, stopping down to taking aperture for DOF preview, closing the shutter, firing the shutter, setting aperture, setting shutter speed.

But, if you don’t want this then you just need two cable releases, one to screw into the white ringed cable release socket and one for the red one. The red one should be longer.
The white socket lets you to control the shutter functions, wide open or stopped down operation. The red one fires the shutter. You will feel while operating the white one that the tension on the cable release will change when the shutter is at taking aperture or fully open. Releasing the pressure will close the shutter for making the exposure. You can still use the aperture and shutter controllers this way, if you can find them.

What is so special about these shutters, other then operating convenience, is that the Prontor Professional and the Prontor Professional S have less vibration then any other mechanical shutter, also the S has higher shutter speed then the non S and disengageable click stops.

[Myriophyllum]

Hi,

+1 to what Bob said...
The Shutter control works very well, but I don't use it outdoors because it is clunky and heavy.
So two cable releases are my choice here.
I prefer Prontor Prof. (and the last Compur shutters in black) over Copal...

Best
Jens

[bibbt]

Ok, I will do some shooting with this shutter and then decide if I like it. If it truly has less vibration, that is always a good thing. Now I just need to find a cable release with enough throw to trip the shutter. My shutter isn't an S but it still has the disengagable click stops. I had to watch a youtube video to find that out. The lever that controls the click stops is itty bitty and you would miss it if not really looking for it. Thanks to all of you for your feedback.

Bibb in San Antonio

[Bob Salomon]

Ok, I will do some shooting with this shutter and then decide if I like it. If it truly has less vibration, that is always a good thing. Now I just need to find a cable release with enough throw to trip the shutter. My shutter isn't an S but it still has the disengagable click stops. I had to watch a youtube video to find that out. The lever that controls the click stops is itty bitty and you would miss it if not really looking for it. Thanks to all of you for your feedback.

Bibb in San Antonio

Any Linhof or Gepe Pro release will fire the shutter and control the shutter’s operation. Best to use a locking one for the white socket. The Zeiss type disk lock will work better then a T lock with the Gepe releases. Any German made Kaiser release will also work. Again with the Zeiss disk lock.

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

From Jens
... two cable releases are my choice here.
I prefer Prontor Prof. (and the last Compur shutters in black) over Copal...


Same for me.
When I bought my first LF lenses 19 years ago I decided for a new lenses, and at the time I had the choice between various shutters, eventually I chose the Prontor Professional for its unique characteristics.
Regarding slow speeds, I never had any sticky slow speeds with all Prontor Pro I have, either those I bough new or others bought with a used lens.
Being a long time Rolleiflex TLR user, sticky slow speeds in compurs and prontors are part of my photogrtaphic life and for me are not a real issue, provided that you have access to a competent craftsman for a CLA, once every 20 years ...

Eventually when the Prontor Pro was discontinued, I had my last new LF lens bought new, mounted on the only remaining mechanical shutter at the time, the Copal.
I have nothing against Copal shutters of course, and I would prefer them to be still manufactured today, but this is another story.

Regarding the pair of cable releases, I eventually chose those made by Gebrüder Schreck in Germany, which I mail-order directly from the factory.

http://www.drahtauslöser.com/ESITE/

And actually you can fire the Prontor Pro only with the manual lever, no cable needed, but of course you can't take benefit of the preview operation controlled by the "white" cable, which is so convenient for focusing. And to preview you have to use the B setting, so this is not really convenient since you only have 2 hands for other camera settings ;)
And of course when not using the "red" cable for tensioning and releasing the shutter, you are at risk of some blur if you inadvertently move the camera when manipulating the shutter release lever.
I have sometimes used the lever only with no cables, when in the field I suddenly realized that I had forgotten my cables at home ... better to let one pair of cables permanently mounted on each of your Prontor Pro ;)

[Myriophyllum]

From Jens
... two cable releases are my choice here.
I prefer Prontor Prof. (and the last Compur shutters in black) over Copal...


Same for me.
When I bought my first LF lenses 19 years ago I decided for a new lenses, and at the time I had the choice between various shutters, eventually I chose the Prontor Professional for its unique characteristics.
Regarding slow speeds, I never had any sticky slow speeds with all Prontor Pro I have, either those I bough new or others bought with a used lens.
Being a long time Rolleiflex TLR user, sticky slow speeds in compurs and prontors are part of my photogrtaphic life and for me are not a real issue, provided that you have access to a competent craftsman for a CLA, once every 20 years ...

Eventually when the Prontor Pro was discontinued, I had my last new LF lens bought new, mounted on the only remaining mechanical shutter at the time, the Copal.
I have nothing against Copal shutters of course, and I would prefer them to be still manufactured today, but this is another story.

Regarding the pair of cable releases, I eventually chose those made by Gebrüder Schreck in Germany, which I mail-order directly from the factory.

http://www.drahtauslöser.com/ESITE/


Salut Emmanuel,

old Compurs, I know what you are talking about! I love to use my pre-war Rolleiflex originals...

The Schreck cable releases look like my ones, I wouldn't be surprised if those offered by Kaiser, Linhof and Horseman came out of their factory.

Best wishes
Jens

[Pere Casals]

I have used Copals and Compurs my entire 40+ years for shooting and have been satisfied. That being said, I think the Copal is a more reliable shutter especially when it comes to the slow speeds.

I've a collection of 4 Synchro-Compur shutters attached to my collection of Symmar convertibles. Because of a very presumably long term lack of maintenance three of the four had inestable low speeds and inaccurate high speeds. I did something that it cannot be recommended at all to others, but as it worked perfect to me I explain it. I sprayed a high performance lubricant in the notch of the speed lever of the worst one and and I fired some 20 times each speed, it worked perfectly: perfectly consistent and accurate timming, checked with a shutter tester. After a year the perfectly consitent operation continued, so I did the same with the other three, all of them now work perfect, like new.

I tried the same with seiko shutters and it was a total pitfall, nothing improved and even the blades got contaminated with oil, that I had to clean.

The lubricant I used it was Interflon Food Lube oil (not the grease). IMHO the kind of lubricant was absolutely critical.

Of course no doubt that the recommended way is a good Pro CLA service, but in my amateur position, involved value/costs/shippings, and not intensive usage that way worked perfectly, my old (1960s) compurs now all work all like new, it's amazing how fine they work 3 year after that sort of "CLA".

The other problem I had with the 1960s Compurs it was missfiring the flash. Internal contacts IMHO are designed for higher voltages than the modern devices use to feed the PC connector, so a thin oxyde layer may cause problems. I solved that with a DIY intermediate triggering circuit that feeds the internal contacts with 12V and provides an optocoupled signal for the modern device, with that circuit flash triggering works perfect.

[bibbt]

Ok, just ordered a Kaiser professional cable release that appears to be identical to the Schreck and Gepe. Black, 20" long with adjustable throw and disc lock. Looks to be really heavy duty. $47 on Amazon prime and sold directly by Amazon. I will have it Friday. I will report my findings when I test it out. Thank you guys for all the great info.

[lenicolas]

Hi, I’m unearthing this thread because I just received a lens in a prontor pro shutter.
I was under the impression from reading this thread and others that a pair of cable releases would be enough to operate this shutter.

I have found that when using a Gepe cable release in the preview socket, my cable release opens the shutter, but when released it doesn’t close completely. It stays partially open, a lot like gummed aperture blades on a slr lens :

214748

The catch is that the shutter performs perfectly fine when operated with the red “picture taking” socket, Even in bulb.
The seller says the lens was tested extensively days before I bought it.

Is it just a case of the wrong cable release?
Has anyone encountered this or did that white socket work for you with any cable release?