Sinar digital shutter vs. Sinar mech. shutter

[Craig Wactor]

I have two Sinar behind the lens shutters in my possession. One is the digital shutter with a rechargeable battery, the other is the mechanical one. I don't have the cable for the mechanical one, and haven't tried it out yet.

I am not a huge fan of charging up the digital one, or having it run out of juice on me like it did the other day. Are the mechanical ones as accurate? Any other differences? Do you have to use the Sinar cable release for it, or will a regular cable release do the job?

thanks!

[Merg Ross]

Craig,
I have tested my mechanical Sinar shutter and found it to be very accurate at all speeds. It being the only one I own, I can not give you a comparisson of accuracy. My work is exclusively black and white so the question of accuracy is not paramount to my endeavors. I use the Sinar cable release which has a very long throw and I do not know if a substitute release would be sufficient. I have my Sinar shutter mounted on an 8x10 and use only barrel lenses.

[Armin Seeholzer]

HI Craig

You need the original Sinar cable release and if you shutter is in good shape he is very accurate. You should always put the timer on 8 sec. and open the shutter if not in use, this is stated so from Sinar.
Hope it helps.

[tor kviljo]

I have only good experiemces with the accuracy of the sinar-copal shutters, using them for exposing chromes mostly and being utterly satisfied with their function and - most important - freedom to mount anything possible of lenses on the camera.. The Sinar-Copal have been made in hughe numbers for over 35 years, and have been transportet around in trunk-cases on locations around everywhere, so are probably a much more robust system than the electric one. The digital (Sinar Expolux) is found often quite inexpensively on german ebay, and I have heared from the only norwegian user I have talked to, that his had a major mechanical brakedown and were "dismissed from service" due to expensive to repair. I would stick to the mechanical type if You are not entirely working indoor. I would have kept my Sinar - Copal if I could, but the buying of a Walker Titan XL as lightweigt travel camera last year, forced me to remount three of my 5 lenses in copal shutters and on tech boards, so the reason to rely on the sinar-copal dissappeared, everything now standardized on lenses in shutters on tech boards and using an adapter-boards for the sinars.

[Ralf-Finn Hestoft]

The biggest difference between the Sinar Digital and the Mechanical shutter is the top speed (1/500 for the Digital vs. 1/60 for the Mechanical) and the fact that the Digital Shutter can adjust speeds in 1/3 stop increments. But the Digital can only X-sync at 1/30 while the Mechanical syncs at 1/60. If you are using the Digital shutter in studio, you can leave the charging cable plugged in and it will power the shutter indefinitely.