How to open the shutter on a 65mm SA F8

[Dave Tolcher]

Second dumb question of the day... sorry. I cant work out how to open the shutte r for viewing and composing in the above lens. Do I have to use B and a locking remote cable with this lens ?

Thanks

Dave

[Pete Andrews]

This depends on the shutter, not the lens.Copals and newer Compurs have a substantial little plastic tipped lever, positioned opposite the main release, that toggles the leaves open or closed. Older Compurs had a nasty little serrated thumb-cutter that performed the same function. Press shutters, and some really ancient Compurs, have no preview lever at all, and you must use the B or T setting.There's a slight difference in the way the preview works on Compurs and Copals as well. On the Compurs, the shutter can be operated with the preview left open, and this can mean an undetected mistake at the time of exposure. The Copals lock the shutter release if you've left the preview open. A much better design, IMHO.

[Dave Tolcher]

OK, thanks - the shutter is a 00 synchro compur of late 60's vintage. It doesnt have the little sliding tab that other synchro compurs have (that I own) which enable you to set the speed to 1/5th and lock the shutter open.

[Louis Jensen]

If it has a 00 shutter, the only way to keep the shutter open is to use a shutter release cable with a lock. Open the shutter and then use the lock on the cable to keep it open while composing the picture.

[Stuart Whatling]

Don't worry Dave - took me ages to work out too. There must have been an awful lot of those old 00 fitting SA 65/8 lenses around - since buying mine I've seen several others for sale. Or maybe there's the same number around as other lenses but everybody who buys one soon ends up trying to get rid of theirs... ;-)

Although there's no preview lever on the 00 shutters, they do at least have the dubious benefit of a self-timer! (or at least mine does) Cock the shutter first then move the X/M flash synch selector to 'V' - when you fire the release you get about 8 seconds delay before exposure. Whoopee!

As for centre grad filters, I found that the coverage is barely enough for 5x4 and this lens vignettes so much that you'd probably need at least +2ND in the middle to compensate for the edges. (I'm sure it would be a great lens on 6x7cm format though.) My eventual solution was to buy a s/h Fujinon 65/5.6 instead. The old SA makes a nice paperweight...