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Ernest Purdum
25-Jun-2008, 09:56
Does anyone know the name of the maker of "Prestor" shutters? (Not Prontor.)

Emmanuel BIGLER
25-Jun-2008, 10:09
Quoting from memory, I think that they were made in Eastern Germany at the time of Zeiss Jena lenses.
To be confirmed and may be more details by a look at the German list of manufacturers published by Hartmut Thiele (do not have it handy now)

Neil Purling
25-Jun-2008, 10:12
I have seen such a shutter on a East German Werra, but not with a large format lens.

Bob Salomon
25-Jun-2008, 10:59
Does anyone know the name of the maker of "Prestor" shutters? (Not Prontor.)

Linhof offered the Linhof/Prestor shutter for their Kardan 45, 57 and 810 cameras in their 1994 Product Listing Catalog. In the 1995 Linhof distributor price list it was still being offered. The price then, in 2008 $ would have been about $8500.00 list for the basic shutter.

A plug-in aperture indicator was available as an accessory and the shutter required special Kardan lensboards with a built-in iris diaphragm and aperture selector module.

The shutter had speeds to 1/250.

The shutter was to be mounted between the back of the front standard and the bellows (the bellows attached to the shutter directly). It was self-cocking and could use the auto back version of the Kardan rear standard if the user added that option.

If anyone would like to see the system on a 4x5 Linhof Kardan Master GTL-AMS camera I would be happy to scan it and email it to them.

Since this system was introduced I had seen and played with it at the factory and at Photokina but have never had anyone order one. So there probably not too many out there.

Emmanuel BIGLER
25-Jun-2008, 11:25
Since the Linhof/Prestor shutter appeared in 1994, does it mean the the East-German (probably made by Pentacon in Dresden ??) brand name for a shutter was bougth by Linhof after the German re-unification in 1990 ?

The use of the brand "prestor" as mentioned by Neil is clearly attested on East-German Werra 35 mm cameras, but we should check if this brand existed before WW-II....

Bob Salomon
25-Jun-2008, 11:38
Since the Linhof/Prestor shutter appeared in 1994, does it mean the the East-German (probably made by Pentacon in Dresden ??) brand name for a shutter was bougth by Linhof after the German re-unification in 1990 ?



No idea. If it was made in Dresden then it was no longer an East German product in 1994. That was well after reunification.

We never had any indication that it was owned by Linhof. It is far more likely that it was a product from Noble - who no longer is in business. It doesn't seem to have been a product owned by Mandermann as Schneider did not seem to have offered it. But Noble and Mandermann are the two most likely owners, especially if it was a product from Dresden.

Emmanuel BIGLER
25-Jun-2008, 11:50
Thanks Bob for information about the prestor story !
meanwhile I have found on an Austrian e-bay listing stored in the google memory a reference to a large format prestor shutter :
"Carl Zeiss APO-Tessar 9/375 Prestor Verschluß Großbild"

http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:Awidftz4eFAJ:stores.ebay.at/East-Shop_Optik-Fotografie_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ7905348QQftidZ2QQtZkm+%22Carl+Zeiss+APO-Tessar+9/375+Prestor+Verschlu%C3%9F+Gro%C3%9Fbild%22&hl=fr&ct=clnk&cd=1

Bob Salomon
25-Jun-2008, 12:59
Thanks Bob for information about the prestor story !
meanwhile I have found on an Austrian e-bay listing stored in the google memory a reference to a large format prestor shutter :
"Carl Zeiss APO-Tessar 9/375 Prestor Verschluß Großbild"

http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:Awidftz4eFAJ:stores.ebay.at/East-Shop_Optik-Fotografie_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ7905348QQftidZ2QQtZkm+%22Carl+Zeiss+APO-Tessar+9/375+Prestor+Verschlu%C3%9F+Gro%C3%9Fbild%22&hl=fr&ct=clnk&cd=1

That looks like an incorrect description. The shutter was mounted onto the camera body and was not mounted to the lens.

The lens was mounted on special lens boards with a controller mounted to it. But the lens would not be supplied with a Prestor shutter.

Emmanuel BIGLER
25-Jun-2008, 23:33
Bob : I have checked in Hartmut Thiele's book "Deutsche Photooptik von A - Z" and I can confirm that the Prestor shutter, I mean the real communist one ;) was manufactured in the sixties to fit large format lenses up to size#5 ; max speeds were modest but the the LF prestor shutter actually existed although the most common prestor shutters that can be found today are size#00 fitting 35 mm cameras, there have been at least two versions including a fast one up to 1/750 s for the Werra already mentioned.
So to the best of my reading, there is little connection between VEB Foto-Kino Prestors and with the (short-lived ?) Linhof-Prestor. H. Thiele mentions briefly the continuation of Prestor products by Noble as you mentioned.

So to answer the initial question, the manufacturer was by VEB Foto-Kino, the state-own company that had merged almost everything (including VEB Carl Zeiss Jena) into a single company until the end of the GDR. I have no more details on where the prestor shutter was made, in Jena or in Dresden or elsewhere.
As far as I have read, Prestor shutter appears at the end of the fifites, H.T does not mention any use of this brand earlier.

Ernest Purdum
27-Jun-2008, 07:35
"If anyone would like to see the system on a 4x5 Linhof Kardan Master GTL-AMS camera I would be happy to scan it and email it to them."

Bob, this sounds very interesting. I would indeed appreciate your emailing it.

Ernest Purdum
ernestpurdum@aol.com

Arne Croell
28-Jun-2008, 09:53
Emmanuel has already stated most of the facts. To note, the Prestor shutter for the "Werra" 35mm camera was quite a different beast than the other ones for LF lenses as it used an unusual rotating blade system, to achieve the 1/750s. The other ones were regular leaf shutters made by VEB Pentacon in the GDR, but were in production only for a few years in the 1960s (1963-66). They came in sizes 1, 3, and 5. Note that the the Prestor shutter sizes are not compatible with the standardized Western ones. As an example, the Prestor 1 uses the same front thread as a current Copal/Compur 1 (M40x0.75), but instead of the standard M36x0.75 back cell thread it used M40x0.75 again. In addition, the cell spacing of the Prestor 1 is 23.5mm, 3.5mm more than the standard 20mm of the Copal/Compur/ 1. All Prestors do have T, B, 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30s; the size 3 also has 1/60, and the size 1 adds 1/125 and 1/250. Note that there is no preview lever (you have to use T or B) and that T and B are followed by the shortest time on the scale, which makes use a bit awkward.
They were mostly used for Zeiss Jena Tessars (e.g. the 4.5/300mm came in a Prestor 5, the Tessar 4.5/210mm in a size 3) or Apo-Tessars. Btw, the production stop of the Prestor shutters was the main reason that the new Zeiss Jena line of LF lenses for the "Grandina" camera (a 65mm and a 90mm Lamegon, a 135mm and a 210mm Biometar, and a 270mm Tessar) in the mid-sixties never made it to the market.

Ernest Purdum
28-Jun-2008, 15:06
Thanks to all for the very interesting information.