What's the deal with Prontors???

[Christopher Barrett]

Ok, I've been shooting view cameras since '94. I currently own a dozen different LF lenses... but they're all in Copal shutters and I have no experience at all with the Prontors. Some of the glass I've been shopping for on eBay, though, is mounted in the Prontors. What do I need to know? Is it true you need a 2nd cable to open the lens for composing?

ie...

Thanks!
CB

[Kirk Gittings]

I have a few of them left over from my "multiple pop" strobe days with film. You can use two CRs or shift the shutter speed to bulb use a strong single locking cable release and lock it open-which what I do.

[VictoriaPerelet]

I have all my lenses in prontor pro shutters. Late model self cocking prontor pro shutter and grafmatic holder give me about 1 4x5 sheet per second, which is what you need when you do fashion or model editorials. About as fast as my Speedotrons can recharge. I also go over several packs of fujiroids.

They use 2 cables - one to operate aperture for focusing and preview another for release. You can transfer from focusing to shooting in a click. 2 cable operation lets me mount ring flash around LF lenses and I do not have to reach shutter to change settings.

Another need feature - they are very adjustable and very easy to adjust for new focal lenghts with couple of externally accessable screws. To do same on copal you have to take it apart etc.

Minuses are - they are not built anymore, are rare to find, much more expensive. They are larger and cable mounts interfere with arca 6x9 front stand. They have less aperture blades than Copals.

[EdSawyer]

The 5-bladed straight-sided apertures of these suck. It results in harsh bokeh, crummy looking pentagonal highlights, etc. why didn't they use a nice multiblade aperture like a Compur? Ugh. That, and no T mode and/or the 2nd cable release requirement. That's super annoying. I don't think the build quality is all that special, at least not any better than a modern copal or compur, from my experience. The cable release mount seems more robust, but that's about it.

[Bob Salomon]

The 5-bladed straight-sided apertures of these suck. It results in harsh bokeh, crummy looking pentagonal highlights, etc. why didn't they use a nice multiblade aperture like a Compur? Ugh. That, and no T mode and/or the 2nd cable release requirement. That's super annoying. I don't think the build quality is all that special, at least not any better than a modern copal or compur, from my experience. The cable release mount seems more robust, but that's about it.

The PP shutters were made to work with the PP Controller which accepted both cable releases and had a large control knob with 3 settings:
1: shutter closed and at taking aperture, ready to fire.
2: shutter and aperture fully opened for focusing and composing.
3: shutter open aperture at taking aperture to check DOF,

So, there was no need or reason for a T setting. It was built into the controller.

Aperture selectors mounted to the side of the shutter to allow setting apertures from behind the camera.
A shutter speed selector mounted to the shutter and the aperture selector to allow setting shutter speeds from behind the camera.

One big benefit to the PP, besides being self-cocking, was that it had the least amount of internal vibration of any leaf shutter making it ideal for shooters doing multiple pops with flash.

There were also some custom variations of the PP shutter.

Linhof had a pp TK version with a side mounted wheel to set shutter speed, visible and settable from behind or in front of the camera. This wheel was in a small housing with a lift-up 3 position lever that performed steps 1 to 3 detailed above.

Another special version was made for Schmactenburg and his 120 and 150mm Rodenstock Imagon lenses in mounts for medium format Rollei 6XXX and Hasselblad 5XX system cameras to automate the lens.

[Richard Johnson]

I used to use them and they are similar good build quality to the same era Compurs, I think they were the same manufacturer?

Downsides are that they lack one stop of the highest speeds, i.e. no 1/500th on the smaller shutters, no 1/250th on the larger ones.

I also had one of the fancy twin cable release controls and it broke and was SOL, tossed a $200 release into the trash.

As for the five-bladed apertures, the Copals and Compurs made at the same time also were pentagonal. The best were the few late-model Compurs with more blades but they are rare.

The Prontors may not vibrate much but the shutter release requires more pressure from your hand closing the cable release than other shutters. Not a big deal but I do like the lighter trigger pressure of other shutters.

Frankly I just went to Copals since most places have parts and can work on them, even though the late black Compurs and Prontors are higher quality shutters they are also like German cars and you do need to maintain them... more moving parts, tighter tolerances.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Downsides are that they lack one stop of the highest speeds, i.e. no 1/500th on the smaller shutters, no 1/250th on the larger ones.

Which might be why they don't easily destroy themselves.

[Kirk Gittings]

These are perfectly good shutters-more robust than the Copal Press shutters. When I was shooting film for architecture an integral part of my technique was doing multiple pops for building flash power-usually 4 but oftentimes up to 16 pops. Early on I used Copal Press shutters but under my intensive use they wouldn't hold up. So I switched to Prontors and they worked great until they stopped making them and the number of shops repairing them shrunk. So then I went back to the Copal Press. But I had to carry spares.

I still have one in my usual field kit on my 90mm Super Angulon. As I rarely do multiple pops anymore I think it will probably last the rest of my working career.

As I said above you absolutely do not have to use two cable releases-just one heavy duty lockable one. Just as you have to open up the aperture to compose and focus, you just move the shutter setting to bulb at the same time and when you are ready to shoot set the proper aperture and shutter speed. No sweat.

Bokeh is not important to me and the highlights always look fine. I never use the higher shutter speeds ever. One wouldn't stop me from buying a lens because it had one.

[Bob Salomon]

I used to use them and they are similar good build quality to the same era Compurs, I think they were the same manufacturer?

Downsides are that they lack one stop of the highest speeds, i.e. no 1/500th on the smaller shutters, no 1/250th on the larger ones.

I also had one of the fancy twin cable release controls and it broke and was SOL, tossed a $200 release into the trash.

As for the five-bladed apertures, the Copals and Compurs made at the same time also were pentagonal. The best were the few late-model Compurs with more blades but they are rare.

The Prontors may not vibrate much but the shutter release requires more pressure from your hand closing the cable release than other shutters. Not a big deal but I do like the lighter trigger pressure of other shutters.

Frankly I just went to Copals since most places have parts and can work on them, even though the late black Compurs and Prontors are higher quality shutters they are also like German cars and you do need to maintain them... more moving parts, tighter tolerances.

They were self-cocking shutters. Self-cocking shutters are always slower at the high speed end then manual cocking shutters.. The smaller pp shutters, 01 and 1 were superseded with a later model, the 01 S and 1S. These did top out at 1/250 but the 3 size stayed at 1/125.

[Christopher Barrett]

Well the Copal 3 on my Rodie 210 tops out at 125th anyway, so... but my Ebony cables are not locking, drag.