Studio Shutters: Worst Large Format Invention Ever?

[BarryS]

Is anything worse than a Studio Shutter? They're fragile, unreliable, impossible to find any parts--let alone replacements. Most of them don't work correctly and the few that do are sure to break soon. Wollensak must have found their dumbest designer to create the cursed contrivances and jammed their thumb in the eye of large format history by selling so many of the damn things. I'm going to build a time machine just so I can travel back in time and punch the inventor in the nose. Can you come up with a worse LF product?

[DanK]

Is anything worse than a Studio Shutter?

I don't mind the studio shutter, I just don't like not being able to find a cable release with a long enough throw to open it up completely...

Dan

[Ernest Purdum]

Regrettably, there have been few shutters large enough for the old brass cannon lenses. A Benster is probably a better shutter, but try to find one. Many portrait workers have been pleased to have a Studio instead of no shutter at all.

[jnantz]

i have two studio shutters,
and with a degroff piston i am
able to get them to work perfectly

[goamules]

You are just using them wrong. They make handy:

- Christmas ornaments
- Dog water bowl "splash guards"
- Decorator items (look at my cool old shutter)
- "Worst case" shutter to train new repairpersons
- Central lens flange, just glue the shutter to your lensboard
...etc

[Jay DeFehr]

I have one on my 11.5" Verito that used to stick, but since Flitot's rebuilt it, it works perfectly . There's nothing inside a Studio shutter that can't be easily fabricated.

[BarryS]

Ha--how about a rat collar? Maybe I've been unlucky, but most of the Studio Shutters I've gotten on lenses have has some issue. My latest lens came in a #3 SS described as "needing lubrication", so of course it's a gamble, but it basically doesn't work and I can't even figure out how to get it apart (anyone know?). I've got a nice 18" Verito in #5 and the shutter would work fine, but it's missing the cable release block--and the chances of finding one are exactly zero. How often do you find any SS for sale--let alone parts? Basically never, so there's little hope of repair. If you having a nice working one, consider yourself lucky.

[GSX4]

Mine is working fine on my 12" Wollensak Velostigmat series II lens, but am missing the block on my Wollensak series A petzval SS.... It would work well if I had that as everything else is moving freely. I guess I need to make one out of a block of brass or something. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

[BarryS]

... I guess I need to make one out of a block of brass or something. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

Well, if you do, please let me know and I'll pay you to make one for me too.

[John Kasaian]

I'll take any and all Studio Shutters off your hands for you. I won't even charge you a hazardous materials fee to do this.
Get rid of it before it infects your good shutters!
I'll make certain it won't bother you ever again.