Explain the Copal 1, please

[Marcus Carlsson]

Hi,

This is my first post here and I have just bought a lens with a Copal 1 on.
I understand how I cock the shutter and so, but when I look at the shutter, there is a knob that looks like a triangle on the right side, but I doesn't understand what that knob does when moving it.

/ Marcus

[PViapiano]

Marcus...

That triangular knob opens and closes the shutter for viewing the image on the ground glass BEFORE you insert the film.

So you set it to the up position (and open the aperture to its widest position, too) and compose your image. When you're satisfied with focus, etc...CLOSE the shutter with that knob (to the down position)...then set your shutter and aperture...insert the film holder, pull the dark slide, take the shot, replace the dark slide, pull the film holder out.

If that little knob is left in the up position, you will expose the film immediately when you pull the dark slide!!!

[Marcus Carlsson]

Ok, now I understand why I have read in several other threads that you may ruin your exposure.

I thought that when I want to compose my image, I just use the T on the shutter.

/ Marcus

[Patrik Roseen]

Welcome to the forum Marcus! (Says one Swede to another...)
Good luck with your LF-photography... MVH Patrik

[GPS]

Welcome to the Swedish club hidden inside this forum!

[C. D. Keth]

Ok, now I understand why I have read in several other threads that you may ruin your exposure.

I thought that when I want to compose my image, I just use the T on the shutter.

/ Marcus


That's the old-fashioned way. Now they give you a whole other lever to do the same thing :P

[Jimi]

Yeah, the Swedish club is growing larger... welcome aboard! :)

[Marcus Carlsson]

Thanks everyone. It sounds great that so many come from Sweden.

[Struan Gray]

Hej Marcus. No mistaking me for a Swede, but I have lived in Lund for thirteen years now, so I'm starting to feel like a local. I still have problems with that white sock thing though :-)

Consider mounting the lens so that the triangular stop-down lever is rotated to be towards the top of the lensboard. This may seem a bit odd at first, but it positions all the controls and indicators so that you can use them from the right hand side of the camera. Less good for left-handers, but it saves time, especially if you have the camera at eye level on rough ground.

[Marcus Carlsson]

Hej Struan,

Well unfortunatly I'm left handed :)
But thanks for the idea anyway.
On the other hand, since I'm a re-beginner in LF, I think that at this point I will make everything slow and learn, so I won't stand under the dark-cloth and try to change the aperture :)

[Struan Gray]

Well, you can always mount the lens with the stop-down lever pointing down. On my camera that doesn't make much sense because all the camera controls are on the right hand side, but field cameras are often more symmetrical.

This spring I finally finished rationalising my lens set. Now all four lenses are in modern Copal shutters, albeit of different sizes. I spent a fair bit of time in the summer photographing in dim light while perched half way down a sea cliff. It made much more difference than I had imagined to only have one type of shutter to deal with, and to have them oriented so that I minimised how much I danced round the tripod.

That said, I lost more shots to midges than to shutter fumbling.

[Greg Miller]

Thanks everyone. It sounds great that so many come from Sweden.

I visited Jönköping in 1978; does that count?