203mm Ektar Shutter Help Needed

[John Kasaian]

Send it in for a CLA.
Flutot's is as good as they come and it's a very busy shop, so you'll need to be patient.
Carol has always provided a piece of paper with the speeds my shutters actually fires after a CLA.

[KingTigerII]

I found a cheap Geronar 210 for ~$120, and swapped the shutter for my 203 lens elements. Fortunately 210 is close enough 203 that I can use the aperture scale as is. I may send the old compur in for service, but for now, the black ring copal 1 is accurate enough. (FYI, don't go looking for a shutter by itself--for some reason they almost always cost more than an boring lens with the same shutter.)

Noticed that as well, I figure that the people selling the shutters by themselves know what they have and charge for it.

Doesn’t your camera shop have a repair capability, in-house or via contract?

We do. I've used our contracted repair place for a CLA on an Optar and a Pacemaker body (as well as a Hasselblad 501cm and a few Leica M series for gear purchased for resale) with good results. I was just trying to be cheap - and after some clarity the cheapest route is, in fact, repair/CLA since a replacement shutter would still need a CLA.

[KingTigerII]

Send it in for a CLA.
Flutot's is as good as they come and it's a very busy shop, so you'll need to be patient.
Carol has always provided a piece of paper with the speeds my shutters actually fires after a CLA.

Noted, thank you!

[BrianShaw]

Not “cheap”; you are trying to be THRIFTY. Commendable, as is knowing how to decide which option is really the thriftiest option! You will enjoy that lens when the shutter is overhauled.

[Joseph Kashi]

Send it in for a CLA.
Flutot's is as good as they come and it's a very busy shop, so you'll need to be patient.
Carol has always provided a piece of paper with the speeds my shutters actually fires after a CLA.

Carol at Flutot has done a great job for me doing CLA on two different 203 Ektars in various shutters. OP, That's probably your best bet, as you would retain the original mounting.

[Doremus Scudder]

The Ektar 203mm is a great little lens. It may be worth sending the shutter out for repair. Yes, you'd have a bit more invested in the lens, but then you'd also have a great lens in a newly-refurbished shutter.

Doremus

[paulbarden]

Hey everyone. I recently picked up a 203mm f/7.7 Ektar on Facebook marketplace. It turns out got the short end of the deal. The biggest deal is the shutter. It's the Graphic Synchro-Compur, and the speeds are completely FUBAR. Naptha bath didn't help it, and it needs to go out for repair.

Here's the issue I'm having: It appears to be far more cost effective to replace the lens with a shutter that has PC Sync built in. I just cannot find a shutter. From what I can tell it can take a Prontor 1, Copal 1, or Compur 1. Are there any other possibilities that I'm not aware of?

Any help or advice is welcome, I'm just frustrated beyond belief. I've scoured the search feature on the forums too.

Thanks!

I work on Compur shutters almost exclusively. Can you show me a photo of the front plate of the shutter? Its likely I can get that serviced for you pretty quickly. If its one of these, I am very familiar with these and can definitely get it done for you:https://www.photrio.com/forum/attach...r1-jpg.180209/

[linhofbiker]

I work on Compur shutters almost exclusively. Can you show me a photo of the front plate of the shutter? Its likely I can get that serviced for you pretty quickly. If its one of these, I am very familiar with these and can definitely get it done for you:https://www.photrio.com/forum/attach...r1-jpg.180209/

There is one Compur shutter that is never mentioned. It never needs a CLA and works forever until it doesn't. This the Compur Electronic #1 from the 1960's. It is a mechanical shutter that will operate at its highest speed usually 1/200 or 1/500 without a battery. With the battery (4.5 volt) installed the shutter is electronically timed down to 30 secs. No timing gears to foul up that require CLA, just a bunch of resistors/capacitors (from the 1960's) that either work or don't.

I have 5 of these shutters (#1 and #3) that still work. When they don't it is usually because of corrosion in the battery holder - any easy fix, just scrape away the corrosion and make sure you use a fresh battery from 3v to 6v, since the original 4.5v battery is hard to find.

[paulbarden]

There is one Compur shutter that is never mentioned. It never needs a CLA and works forever until it doesn't. This the Compur Electronic #1 from the 1960's. It is a mechanical shutter that will operate at its highest speed usually 1/200 or 1/500 without a battery. With the battery (4.5 volt) installed the shutter is electronically timed down to 30 secs. No timing gears to foul up that require CLA, just a bunch of resistors/capacitors (from the 1960's) that either work or don't.

I have 5 of these shutters (#1 and #3) that still work. When they don't it is usually because of corrosion in the battery holder - any easy fix, just scrape away the corrosion and make sure you use a fresh battery from 3v to 6v, since the original 4.5v battery is hard to find.

Personally, I dislike shutters that have electronics in them and require electricity to operate, and wouldn't seek one out. Resistors and capacitors WILL FAIL in time, whereas the all mechanical Compurs are likely to work for another hundred years, if cared for.

[Jim Andrada]

I have a few lenses in crap shutters - I just call them "neo-barrel" mounted lenses. It should be possible to front mount the whole thing onto a larger shutter with an adapter of some sort. I have a Shanel #5 shutter that's designed to be used with barrel mounted lenses with their own aperture so it's purely a shutter, with no aperture of its own. I found the Shanel on ebay with a nice Fujinar 210 lens for about what a shutter CLA would run.

I also have both the 203 and the 100mm wide field Ektar - really quite nice. The 203 is usually on my Technika. I really like the lens.