copal 1 shutter installment

Hi,
I have an enlarging lens that would like to put in t copal 1 shutter and try it out. Here is the problem. Every shutter I can find has no aperture settings on it. What should I do to get the proper aperture scale installed? I know it needs a copal 1 but how do I know it will have the right iris size? I'm not sure I am explaining this well enough but any feedback will be great.

Eyepix said:

Hi,
I have an enlarging lens that would like to put in t copal 1 shutter and try it out. Here is the problem. Every shutter I can find has no aperture settings on it. What should I do to get the proper aperture scale installed? I know it needs a copal 1 but how do I know it will have the right iris size? I'm not sure I am explaining this well enough but any feedback will be great.

Click to expand...

SK Grimes (Apug business directory) can put the lens into a Copal Shutter and engrave/install the appropriate aperture scale. The Grimes team does great work and I recommend them highly - but this will be a fairly expensive job.

Eyepix said:

Hi,
I have an enlarging lens that would like to put in t copal 1 shutter and try it out. Here is the problem. Every shutter I can find has no aperture settings on it. What should I do to get the proper aperture scale installed? I know it needs a copal 1 but how do I know it will have the right iris size? I'm not sure I am explaining this well enough but any feedback will be great.

Click to expand...

Having a scale engraved is the ideal solution, but surely your enlarging lens has its own aperture scale? Why not use this and just leave the iris diaphragm in the shutter assembly wide open?

Regards,

David

David H. Bebbington said:

Having a scale engraved is the ideal solution, but surely your enlarging lens has its own aperture scale? Why not use this and just leave the iris diaphragm in the shutter assembly wide open?

Click to expand...

Before I read David's reply, I was thinking that the Iris in the shutter would be in the wrong place to work properly with an enlarging lens fitted (I assume) to the front of the shutter. So I would agree with this suggestion.


Steve.

David, front-mounting is in principle a great idea. As you know, I shoot a number of lenses in barrel mounted in front of a #1.

But there are some practical problems whose effect depends on the focal length of the lens used and the camera's minimum extension. For example, I can't focus a lens much shorter than 120 mm in front of a #1 on my 2x3 Speed Graphic to infinity.

If the lens' cells will screw right into a #1, that all that needs be done to make it usable is to have an aperture scale put on the shutter. This may be less expensive than an adapter for front-mounting it.

The last quote I got from SKGrimes for engraving an aperture scale was around $50. Their price for an adapter for front mounting depends on the adapter's size. Asking is cheap. Ask.

If you have a shutter and you just want to try it out, I would suggest the following:
Remove the front or rear lens element and measure the diameter if the iris at each stop setting. Tape a white paper strip over the aperture scale of the shutter and set the iris to the measured sizes and mark the paper scale accordingly. You could do the math but this is easier for a trial.
Jerome