Removal of graphite from aperture blades

[Havoc]

One day, they will be worn so far that a simple clean will not restore them. You might need to build up metal on the surface (and maybe resurface) to get within working spec.

[paulbarden]

One day, they will be worn so far that a simple clean will not restore them. You might need to build up metal on the surface (and maybe resurface) to get within working spec.

That day may very well be 80 years from now, and neither you nor I will care.

[grat]

I imagine electronic activated glass with adjustable aperture and shutter speeds, any size

We are almost there

Steve Lloyd of Chroma Cameras was working on an LCD-based LF shutter. Last I heard, the prototype was working, although I think it took 1 stop off the exposure.

I have serviced scores of Compur shutters on Kodak Retina cameras that date back to the 1930s. That makes many of them 75 year old or older. I have yet to encounter an 80 year old Compur shutter that could not be restored by proper cleaning, unless the shutter was damaged by misuse/abuse. Its not unreasonable to expect that most of these 1930s Compurs have at least another 80 years in them. They were well built and designed to function for many, many years.

I recently had a 107 year old Compur shutter serviced. It had been well cared for, and the only quirk is that you have to switch to "B" from the "T" (well, "Z") side of the dial instead of the "M" or it won't stay open. The guy working on it said he could possibly fix it by refiling a notch, but the part was so small he was afraid of breaking it. I'd rather have quirky than broken.

[Bill Burk]

All mechanical leaf shutters will fail some decade

We need a new plan

Maybe not me, but younger will

I imagine electronic activated glass with adjustable aperture and shutter speeds, any size

We are almost there

Just don't use those orange capacitors that Nakamichi used in their cassette decks. Use the capacitors that EG&G used in their sensitometers.

[Havoc]

Steve Lloyd of Chroma Cameras was working on an LCD-based LF shutter. Last I heard, the prototype was working, although I think it took 1 stop off the exposure.

Looks normal to me. This type of shutter works with polarisation so you loose always about half the light. Same for Kerr cells. Might also be difficult to make it 100% opaque.

[chris73]

That day may very well be 80 years from now, and neither you nor I will care.

+1

Also, from what i have seen (maybe more than 50 compur shutters from the 30s) 80 years from now sounds like the ablosute minimun