show off your home made shutters

**Steve M Hostetter** · 29-Jun-2009, 14:52

Hello,,

Well, as you may know I have a couple new "faster" barrel lenses.. I need ideas on how to get a shutter that will give me fast shutter speeds..

I have an old barndoor shutter without a plunger but the mechanism works without a hose and bulb provided I manually work the lever... Can or does anyone use such a shutter on the front of the lenses as apposed to the intended rear ... ??

I made some waterhouse stops to stop them down since they have the slots but I wanna shoot wide open...

Thank you
Steve

PS... feel free to post pics of your creations!

**Jim Fitzgerald** · 29-Jun-2009, 20:25

Steve, here is the idea that I came up with. It is a front mounted Packard and I built a filter slot in it so one can use the Lee 100mm filters. I built a lens shade/barn door for the front also but I do not have pictures of that. Works like a charm.
Two of the pictures show it mounted to the barrel lens on the 8x20.

Jim

**Ash** · 30-Jun-2009, 01:13

Waaay back 2 years ago I did this to make use of a broken shutter that I now can't remember how I acquired!

I don't have that camera any more, but I still have the shutter and lens (they don't fit on my 5x4 though). Basically I cut off the original motor piece (see the two holes on the left) and attached a spring to snap the shutter open and closed. It uses a long-throw release cable to push open the shutter, and closes by tension. It works and it's ugly from the back.

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ad.php?t=23098 shows a whole thread of how I front-mounted lenses in front of a packard shutter with the cheapest possible tools.

**Ash** · 30-Jun-2009, 01:15

Waaay back 2 years ago I did this to make use of a broken shutter that I now can't remember how I acquired!

I don't have that camera any more, but I still have the shutter and lens (they don't fit on my 5x4 though). Basically I cut off the original motor piece (see the two holes on the left) and attached a spring to snap the shutter open and closed. It uses a long-throw release cable to push open the shutter, and closes by tension. It works and it's ugly from the back.

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ad.php?t=23098 shows a whole thread of how I front-mounted lenses in front of a packard shutter with the cheapest possible tools.

**Emmanuel BIGLER** · 30-Jun-2009, 08:30

This kind of shutter was very popular in France in the XIX-st century... and still is for pinhole photography with a touch of French style

http://www.chapellerie-traclet.com/h...eret-black.jpg

**Daniel_Buck** · 30-Jun-2009, 08:42

I guess this would be considered home made, just rubber banded to the front of my Betax #5. I've posted it here before

Here it is in "action", two 1/50th shutter clicks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke9zehk2sfw

It's not the prettiest (or the sturdiest) mount in the world, but it does seem to work pretty good for trying out smaller lenses without spending much money/time making a better mount each time.

**Ash** · 30-Jun-2009, 09:27

Sorry, mods can you remove my double post please?

**kirkmacatangay** · 30-Jun-2009, 09:46

Ash,

I did something similar with a motor driven 6x6 Packard, but added a PC sync.

On the back I used a Cokin bracket so I can front mount it on multiple lenses. Mostly for barrel lenses for 8x10.

Kirk

**Jason Greenberg Motamedi** · 30-Jun-2009, 10:36

Anybody ever used a shutter of a graphic arts camera? I am going to strip all the usable bits (lenses, bellows, vacuum pump, lights) next week out of a huge (22x26) horizontal graphic arts camera before it goes to the dump, and noticed that the camera included a pretty big AC powered solenoid shutter with controller. While it was designed for exposures ranging in seconds to minutes, it seems to have pretty short times too. I am not exactly sure how I am going to modify it for use, anybody have any experience with this?