Ideas for new shutters 40 years from now when ours are all dead

[Bob Salomon]

Obsolete electronic shutters need not apply.

It should be more than obvious that Randy was talking about Copal/Compur/etc. mechanical shutters.

I highly doubt modern Copal shutters will be a problem in my lifetime, and I'm much younger than most of you.

Not at all obvious. He obviously does not know about them!

[Jac@stafford.net]

My modest accommodation for dealing with inaccurate shutters is to find one or two speeds that match my light meter readings. Stick to those and use f-stops that work or filters that make it work. I use a few large shutters and without such measures none of them work properly. So you could claim that I work backwards from what works, regardless of the shutter dial.

[Corran]

Not at all obvious. He obviously does not know about them!

Nor does anyone else, and I see nothing on Linhof Studio's (terrible) webpage, and my Google searches bring up nothing about 4x5 or larger cameras using anything like it. Not sure what the point of bringing up an arcane, basically unused shutter is when discussing the lifetime of mechanical shutters when likely no one has or will use one, but okay.

[Alan Gales]

I plan to be dead in 40 years. But I'm sure the film in my freezer will be put on ebay, so somebody's going to need a shutter. The Galli shutter only works if you're Italian. The no new lenses thread got me pondering this, but honestly, all the same reasons apply. No reason old shutters should fail in 40 years. But I thought ill of disrupting that thread. Again.

Just teasing you a bit, Jim. You better start shooting that film or someone in the future will waste it on selfies, pictures of their dinner, vacation shots of their toes in the sand or worse........cat pictures!

[Bob Salomon]

Nor does anyone else, and I see nothing on Linhof Studio's (terrible) webpage, and my Google searches bring up nothing about 4x5 or larger cameras using anything like it. Not sure what the point of bringing up an arcane, basically unused shutter is when discussing the lifetime of mechanical shutters when likely no one has or will use one, but okay.

Didn’t really look, did you?

https://www.linhofstudio.com/product...ronic-Shutters

[Corran]

Couldn't find it on their awful site. No information is even given. Is ANYONE here using these for actual LF?

[Bob Salomon]

Couldn't find it on their awful site. No information is even given. Is ANYONE here using these for actual LF?

Yes, as long as a 3 size shutter isn’t required. Why else do you think that Rodenstock, Schneider, Linhof and others sold them?

[Corran]

Are you saying you own and use them for LF photography?

[Oren Grad]

Bryan, documentation for the Rodenstock eShutter, which is a current product in its "250" version, states explicitly that existing lenses intended for analog use can be mounted in it. So the vendor, at least, has entertained that possibility.

Unfortunately, the shutter unit itself and the control box needed to use it untethered in the field each costs well into four figures in dollars, pounds or euro. Even if one could get by with an outfit consisting entirely of lenses in #0 shutter, and even allowing that a single control box can be used with multiple lenses, the cost of a multi-lens kit in eShutter would be prohibitive for most of us.

So the big question is whether anyone can figure out how to do it for substantially less money, despite what under the best of circumstances is going to be a very small market. I'm not assuming the answer is "no"; folks who have been involved in lens design and manufacturing will be far better qualified to address that question than I can be. But there's the challenge.

[Corran]

Thank you Oren for the actual information. Price definitely seems prohibitive in the extreme.