What is the Prontor shutter all about?
Doug, Thank you for your second reply, but I have already decided that I DO want the (Schneider Apo) Artar as a portrait lens, precisely because of its extra degree of sharpness: I WANT the portraits to look clinical and merciless in their registering of detail. That said, the thrust of my question really centered around the TYPE OF SHUTTER to accept with this lens--a lens, I should emphasize, that would be used mostly in the field--and whether a Prontor Professional 3 shutter, specifically, would be a sound choice, given my shooting needs, or whether I should wait to find the same lens in a COPAL or COMPUR SHUTTER. Any further thoughts? I.e., what would you do if you were in my position: buy the lens in a Prontor Professional 3 shutter, or wait to find the same lens in a Copal or Compur 3?
What is the Prontor shutter all about?
The Prontor Professional is considered by some as better than Copal Press shutters. I've heard that the internal mechanisms are very good. Contrary to other posts, the expensive control box is not required to use this shutter, however the control box makes it's use easier. The control box lets you do things from the cable release box which all of us normally do by reaching around and manually adjusting a more pedestrian shutter such as a Copal Press (e.g. - activating the preview lever, and I believe also previewing at the selected aperture which is a cool feature for a press shutter). The force required for tripping a Prontor shutter is much greater than a Copal Press shutter. The control box cable release handles this nicely, but you can also use any good industrial strength cable release. You will struggle with wimpy cable releases with this shutter. Needless to say, it's near impossible to trip a Prontor Professional with any kind of low-pressure pneumatic cable release currently known to the world.
What is the Prontor shutter all about?
"The Prontor Professional is considered by some as better than Copal Press shutt ers."
A Copal Press shutter is no where near as good, as versatile, as reliable, as vi bration free as a Prontor Professional.
Prontor's equivelent to the Copal Press was the Prontor Press. A far inferior sh utter to the Prontor Professional.
Also the Copal and Prontor Press shutters are hundreds of dollars less then a Pr ontor professional 01s, 1s or 3s.
Unfortunately they will most lokely cease to exist some time next year due to a 1000% price increase by Zeiss for all shutters from prontor Werke including Prontor and Comp ur designs.
This also led Copal to raise their prices to the lens manufacturers starting nex t year so lens prices will rise some next year after the current crop of shutters are used up b y the factories.
What is the Prontor shutter all about?
I have one Prontor, and I cannot really recommend it.
The Copal (like most shutters) have one on/off switch on the barrel to close and open the lens at the set aperture. The Prontor uses a second cable release to do this operation. This release has three positions: lens closed, lens open at set aperture, lens wide open. Sometimes, this is convenient, when you want to keep your settings and switch often from viewing to taking configurations. I find this second cable release to be a nuisance in the field. If your other lenses are in Copal, it's easy to get confused.
The Prontor is bulkier, but being made mostly of plastic, it is about the same weight as the copal (at least in #1).
The Prontor has no T position, so you need a reliable locking cable release to do the same function using its B position. When your cable release wears down, sometimes you won't trigger the shutter while you think you had.
The prontor requires more force to release, and I suspect it causes more vibration for this reason.
Be sure to check the article on the main page about shutters.
What is the Prontor shutter all about?
Tuan Luong,
Thank you very much for your practical, concrete advice--you have led me to conclude that the Prontor Professional shutter would probably NOT be appropriate for my shooting needs, and, moreover, may actually be a hindrance.
Larry Huppert,
Thank you, too.
I continue to regard this forum as one of the finest places anywhere to get information. Thank you, thank you, thank you.