What is your experience with CLAs of current Copal shutters? My trusted repair person just told me, that Copal shutters are very difficult to maintain. In contrast to Compur shutters it takes a lot of working time to disassemble them, because their build quality is pretty mediocre compared to the real stuff.
Some minor CLA work is ok for him, but instead of a complete professional CLA he recommends to simply buy a new shutter.
Do you agree?
"because their build quality is pretty mediocre compared to the real stuff"
I certainly do not agree!! If what your trusted repair person has told you is correct, then Schneider, Rodenstock, Nikon, Fuji, and Cooke have all made the mistake of choosing the current Copal shutters to mount their lenses. Copal shutters are the "real stuff".
Ask for another opinion from different repair person.
Did he tell you what the difference is between a "minor CLA" and a "complete professional CLA?" I thought a CLA was a CLA, I didn't realize there were gradations like this. But what do I know, I just cock 'em, trip 'em, and hope for the best.
Brian Ellis
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you do criticize them you'll be
a mile away and you'll have their shoes.
" have all made the mistake of choosing the current Copal shutters to mount their lenses. Copal shutters are the "real stuff""
They are also the only thing. Prontor Werke stopped production of all shutters a few years ago so they no longer make Compur or Prontor shutters and Seiko makes printers today not shutters, so for a mechanical shutter, Copal is the only game in town.
The other choices are electronic shutters like the Rollei which only comes in 0 and 1 sizes or the Horseman in 0, 1 and 3 sizes but their prices make the cost of the most expensive glass pale by comparison.
Does your "trusted repair person" speak with a heavy german accent? I find Copals far less fussy and far easier to service than the earlier German stuff.
Thought that it is generally agreed that Prontor and Compur shutters have been of better build quality than Copal shutters. It was not my intend to offend anyone by repeating this information.
In the past I saw this discussion more as an issue for equipment fetishists and recognized my Copals always as reliable.
Only yesterday I heard that for example cleaning aperture blades is pretty difficult with a Copal shutter because the blades are riveted and can not be disassembled or that assembly/disassembly in general takes considerably more time than with other shutters.
This information comes indeed from a trusted repair person working for one of the LF lens manufacturers since decades.
Brian,
as I understood it, a complete CLA includes a extensive disassembly before cleaning. Just like it is recommended for your Rolex watch every 5 years.
Hi again Marek,
Copal shutters are comparetively inexpensive. Perhaps your trusted repair person was trying to tell you that it would be less expensive to replace your entire Copal shutter, with a brand new one, than it would be to completely dis-assemble it, do a CLA, and re-assemble it.
It's a good thing that Copal shutters are as reliable as they are and don't need a CLA very often. Perhaps that's one of the contributing factors to the demise of their competetors.
"Perhaps that's one of the contributing factors to the demise of their competetors."
No, the demise of the shutters from Prontor Werke was a price increase of 1000% to the oEM users - that would be people like Linhof, Rodenstock, Schneider, etc. that was announced just prior to a Photokina. Zeiss (Prontor Werke) gave each OEM account the opportunity to place one final order at the older price - as long as stock was available - then the increase would be effective. They sold out their stock of shutters and everyone switched to Copal who did not increase price.
The stated reason for the price increase was that the consumer shutters did not return as much on their investment as their other product lines and the increase was needed so they fell into line with other products like the Prontor Magnetic industrial shutters which are still made.
In other words, Bob, the competition was just un-able to make a shutter as good as the Copal for a price as reasonable as the Copal. Seems like a legitimate reason for them discontinue trying. A few U.S. auto makers gave up making their cars for the same reason.
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