New article by Ernest Purdum: Shutters - History and Use

[angusparker]

I just wrote a short blog post on the Compound 5 and comparing large shutters for mounting barrel lenses: less history and more of a why and how to. Plus it has pictures! I hope I have the data right. Let me know if you see something incorrect.

http://www.angusparkerphoto.com/blog/2015/6/compound-5

[Dan Fromm]

Gus, there are industrial Compound #5s with no diaphragm. You should mention them so that people who want to put their lenses in shutter will be aware of them. You should also mention front mounting and point out that mounting the shutter in front of the lens can be preferable to mounting the lens in front of the shutter when the lens' barrel is wide enough to obstruct access to the shutter's controls.

[angusparker]

Gus, there are industrial Compound #5s with no diaphragm. You should mention them so that people who want to put their lenses in shutter will be aware of them. You should also mention front mounting and point out that mounting the shutter in front of the lens can be preferable to mounting the lens in front of the shutter when the lens' barrel is wide enough to obstruct access to the shutter's controls.

Great input - will do

[premortho]

The lack of illustrations in most of the articles is frustrating in this day & age, most would be greatly improved with revision to include relevant images - photographs or diagrams.

The shutter article is one where this would help enormously, also it could do with better discussion of focal plane shutters. There's a huge difference between the clumsy Graflex shutters with their long multi slit curtains and the more sophisticated self capping European shutters with two curtains.

Ian

Clumsy Graphlex shutters? What is clumsy about it? It works, and what is more important these days, they work with no attention for at least fifty years. I've owned five Speed Graphics, and one Graflex, and all of their focal plane shutters worked. My oldest Speed Graphic was made in 1919. The focal plane shutter was still working as late as 2007, when some vandals burned my house down,with the Speeder inside. The engineering rule of thumb is that for every step up in sophistication, reliability and/or product useful life decreases as the square of the increase in sophistication. Packard shutters are also "clumsy". Many of them have never seen the inside of a camera repair shop, and some of them are over 100 years old.

[IanG]

Clumsy Graphlex shutters? What is clumsy about it? It works, and what is more important these days, they work with no attention for at least fifty years. I've owned five Speed Graphics, and one Graflex, and all of their focal plane shutters worked. My oldest Speed Graphic was made in 1919. The focal plane shutter was still working as late as 2007, when some vandals burned my house down,with the Speeder inside. The engineering rule of thumb is that for every step up in sophistication, reliability and/or product useful life decreases as the square of the increase in sophistication. Packard shutters are also "clumsy". Many of them have never seen the inside of a camera repair shop, and some of them are over 100 years old.

That doesn't mean the Graflex shutters aren't clumsy in their design, they are and also quite crude compared to the more sophisticated self capping European focal plane shutters of the same era. That simple crudeness does mean they are easy to fix but they are nowhere near as smooth as the Thornton Pickard focal plane shutters in Ruby Reflex cameras where the shutter and mirror box is a complete unit.

I have 2 Speed Graphics (both restored) and also a Graflex Compact Reflex, and have restored 3 or 4 for other people. I've also restored British and German Focal plane shutters so I'm speaking with experience and can make a valid comparison.



This particular shutter was damaged and the curtains torn after the camera had been dropped and someone tried to use it, part of the frame holding the shutter had been shattered it was actually an easy repair



Ian

[linhofbiker]

Were Compur shutters licensed to Japan in the 1930's? I have a Hexar Ser.1 1:4.5 f=13.5cm in a K T I - TIYOKO shutter that is a copy of the Compur shutter. The lens came from a 1937 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 Military Lily with sheet film back. I had it cleaned and it works great.