Sinar Shutter

[neil poulsen]

I've recently put together a Sinar Norma/F hybrid camera, and I'm wondering about the Sinar shutter. I'd like to know more about these shutters and their use. I checked the archives, but didn't find anything directly related. (Too many hits.)

> How accurate are the speeds?

> Can they be used with super wides?

> Are they heavy?

> Of course, they can't be inserted between front and rear groups. Does this cause a problem?

> Aren't there a couple of versions? If so, what are differences?

Will the Sinar shutter fit on a Norma front standard?

[Peter De Smidt]

There are various versions from the Norma on. There is an f/4 max and an f/5.6 max shutter. The times are as accurate as a copal shutter, ime. I can weigh mine sometime soon. The shutter sits behind the front standard. This adds about 1 cm to the minimum distance between the standards, and the lens has to be moved a bit forward so that the rear element doesn't hit the shutter blades. How much you must move the lens forward will depend on the lens. You needed the dedicated shutter release. There are some work-a-rounds, but none, ime, is as good as the real shutter release. The shutter vibration is fairly soft on the 'B' setting, but there's more wiz-bang on other settings. Some people think this doesn't have an effect on sharpness. Others disagree. People seem to get very upset discussing this, and so I won't say any more about it. Yes, the shutters will fit on the Norma standard. You might as well get a Norma-era one.

[Alan Gales]

If you buy one then make sure you at least get the Sinar shutter release cable with it. They are hard to find and very expensive by themselves.

There is also another cable that recocks the shutter when you insert a film holder. You don't have to have this cable but it's pretty slick recocking the shutter from behind the camera. I saw a video of a photographer taking portraits of quite a few people using this set-up with studio lights. He didn't need to change lens aperture or shutter speed so he just stood behind the camera loading film holders and snapping the shots.

[neil poulsen]

Thanks for the heads up on the shutter release cables.

What's the largest lens rear diameter that this shutter can handle?

[RSalles]

Neil, 74mm per my measure, to the 5.6 Copal shutter version. 630g without the cables.

Cheers,

Renato

[Fr. Mark]

I used a stop watch and shutter tester on mine. Then I used a marker to indicate the real speeds. Mine runs slow of markings at all settings. Fastest indicated setting is 1/60 longest setting is 8 sec. Mine goes to ten (eleven would be funnier see movie This Spinal Tap). One of the cooler features is you can have a depth of field preview w/o leaving the ground glass. It does not vignette at 150 f5.6 on 5x7 when mounted on DB board. I'm probably buying a 90, if so will post here.

[Steven Tribe]

The original shutter made for the Norma weighed around 500g. It is without the DB iris module on the side.

A comparison is shown. Note this particular (green) Norma version has different speeds from the usual (later?) type.

[Greg]

History of Sinar shutters at: http://www.galerie-photo.com/manuels...ter-system.pdf

Have used Sinar shutters since the early 1980s. Some of my observations....

I have never found vibration to be a problem. Most of the time use a custom made for W..Eugene Smith by Life magazine totally all metal rail clamp (long story) or a Norma rail clamp on Sinar's (tilt) tripod head. Most of the time all on a Linhof Heavy Duty tripod.

The shutter is quite loud.

Sinar's proprietary shutter release cord (very, very long throw) is very hard to find. I once bought a broken Sinar shutter cause it came with an OEM Sinar shutter cord. The threads are like on a common bolt and not conical like on common shutter release cords.

KEH will repair a broken Sinar Copal shutter for a fixed price of $150.00. Recently bought 2 broken Sinar shutters for very little money and sent them to KEH for repair. One they repaired, the other was fire damaged and beyond repair... in the end I was still ahead of the game.

Using a bunch of home made adapters, have adapted a Sinar shutter for use on my Chamonix cameras, you just have to fabricate a spacer to get the shutter about 3/4" in front of the standard's side rails.

[Kevin J. Kolosky]

I have one with a maximum aperture of f4. really nice. But remember, you will need to use DB lens boards for the lenses you use on them. And sometimes it can be a pain tracking down the proper DB lensboard.

The real beauty of them is using one on a Sinar P2 camera!!

[Armin Seeholzer]

I have one with a maximum aperture of f4. really nice. But remember, you will need to use DB lens boards for the lenses you use on them.

This is not true you can use them also with just a normal Sinar board but you do then not have the auto f stop closing! I for an example have a 480mm f 4.5 Xenar which was mounted on a normal Sinar board from Sinar company some years ago because the lens has just about 135mm diameter it was front mounted on the board I just have to close after fokusing the lens to the f stop which I like and then shoot!

Cheers Armin from Sinar land!