PDA

View Full Version : Safe settings for lens storage ?



Michal Makowski
29-Nov-2006, 14:21
How I have to store my lens when I’m not using it for long period of time. What are “safe” settings (aperture, time and shutter) for the lens? I have Copal 0 shutter.

Alan Davenport
29-Nov-2006, 17:49
Uncocked, i.e., fire the shutter so the springs are relaxed. Other than that, "where" the settings are set doesn't make any difference.

Bob Gentile
29-Nov-2006, 23:11
Adding to Alan's reply... on her website (http://www.flutotscamerarepair.com/), Carol Miller (arguably one of the most respected LF shutter techs in the U.S.) posts the following:
---------------------------------------------------------

Q. What's the best way to store a shutter?

A. Keep it in a dry area (off the floor if it's cement, like in a garage). Best to set the speed dial on "T" or "B" and uncocked so there is no tension on the springs.

To keep the shutter in shape, you should take it out and exercise it at least once a month, running through once at each speed, and at least 10 times at the lower speeds, to get that slow gear governor moving. Even if you're too busy or have too many shutters... get them out once in a while throughout the year and exercise them or they'll become sluggish over time.

Michal Makowski
30-Nov-2006, 00:38
Thank you. I’m going out, I have to take my lens for a walk;)

Patrik Roseen
30-Nov-2006, 12:24
I think I heard somewhere that it would be better to have the aperture fully open when storing it for a long time. Could be that the blades protect each other this way?

Maybe someone could confirm this?

Donald Qualls
1-Dec-2006, 13:33
The blades will be in maximum contact when wide open, which *might* protect them (slightly) from corrosion if you violate rule #1 (or might ensure that they corrode into a solid mass -- depends how bad things get), but if corrosive conditions aren't a problem, it shouldn't matter -- there are no springs in the aperture to weaken at any setting, and *shouldn't* be anything on the blades to either promote or hinder corrosion.

Brian Vuillemenot
1-Dec-2006, 14:27
I think I heard somewhere that it would be better to have the aperture fully open when storing it for a long time. Could be that the blades protect each other this way?

Maybe someone could confirm this?

I've actually heard that the lens should be stored with the aperture fully closed, but I'm not sure what the rationale behind that was.

C. D. Keth
3-Dec-2006, 11:56
I've always been told to store cinema lenses wide open, because the iris blades are thin and fragile enough that some fairly small amount of shock could bend one or more of them if they weren't protected by the housing, which they are at the wide-open setting. I'm inclined to believe this since after a fairly recent shoot we discovered a lens with a bent blade and it was stored set at f/16 (which is quite closed down on those lenses)

Jan_6568
4-Dec-2006, 14:30
Uncocked, i.e., fire the shutter so the springs are relaxed. Other than that, "where" the settings are set doesn't make any difference.

So how to store self-cocking shutter? What do you think?

Jan

Donald Qualls
4-Dec-2006, 18:24
Self-cocking shutters tension the springs and release with each press of the release lever, so they'll always store uncocked.

Eric Woodbury
4-Dec-2006, 18:44
Why would I store lenses for a long period? Keep it ready to go at all times. My camera tech told me it didn't matter if the spring was relaxed or not. A good shutter design should not be able to damage the spring, much like a watch or clock. (You cannot damage a clock spring by overwinding.)

Excercise imay keep them operating better until they break, but I must say that for 20 years I have just used them when I use them and that's it. No problems. It is the least of my worries. If I excercised them, they'll wear out faster. Just like people.

This is like the question a few years back, how often/how tight/how fast should the clocks in the collection at the Huntington Museum be wound?

Donald Qualls
5-Dec-2006, 14:20
This is like the question a few years back, how often/how tight/how fast should the clocks in the collection at the Huntington Museum be wound?

As often as the movement type dictates, tight enough to run until the next winding with some reserve, and fast enough you don't get hungry while winding... ;)

Or you can let 'em all run down and just dust them periodically, treat 'em as sculpture instead of clocks.

It clearly does depend on the shutter whether you harm anything by leaving it cocked, but with large format shutters (unlike those in common 35 mm cameras), there's no pressing reason to cock the shutter before storing it (with a modern 35 mm, it cocks when you advance the film, and I *always* advance immediately after exposure).

Also, you make a valid point that you generally aren't storing your shutters for forty years between uses. If you use a shutter even a couple times a year, it's no big deal to leave it cocked, I think -- but it certainly hurts nothing to leave it untensioned, either.

GPS
5-Dec-2006, 14:58
The best setting for lens storage is - its common use. Much more important than any other setting...

andy bessette
6-Dec-2006, 23:04
YO,

just dipping my oar in here with a bit of reflection.

We see lenses stored in every conceivable position, waiting for customers to buy them, and no one seems to care up to that point.

Perhaps we can seek guidance from how industry leaders have designed a host of "automatic" lenses, used on single-lens-reflex cameras. Typically, spring tension holds the diaphragm open for full-aperture (bright) viewfinding, and the camera stops it down only at the moment of exposure.

This demands that every automatic lens diaphragm spend its' entire life in the open position (closing ONLY during each eposure). Could we say, conservatively, that there must be MILLIONS of these lenses around, all happily living out their lives with only the hope of a quick f8, or, with luck, an f32 once in awhile.

As a previous poster postulated, the aperture blades seem to like company for storage, and lend each other support in the open position, protecting each other from being damaged by a sharp jolt.

The question of storage position seems superficial at first, however it is known that aperture blades have been coated with oil which migrated while the lens was stored on its' side, possibly in the hot trunk of a car. Presumably it would have been less likely to happen had the lens been stored the way God designed them to be stored: typically big heavy element down, both caps in place, retracted for zoom and focus where applicable. Many exceptions can be justified.

best, andy

Frank Petronio
6-Dec-2006, 23:10
The Sinar tech says. "Wide open and relaxed."

Or maybe he was talking about his girlfriend? I can't remember.

bruce terry
7-Dec-2006, 16:56
Frank ... you really are a Dirty Old Man. ;•)