need help calculating exposure w/ packard

[kayakerguy]

I just recently purchased a B&J 5x7 with a Bausch & lomb tessar lens, and a packard shutter. I have never used a packard shutter, and was wanting to know the best method for calculating shutter speed/ exposure. Any advice is greatly appretiated.
Mark

 

[jimgalli]

Start here:

http://www.skgrimes.com/packard/

I was checking an old Packard just last evening. They have a pin that when engaged makes them "semi instantaneous" The one I was playing with last night was very constant. About 1/12th of a second. Very easy to make that work. For slower speeds I take a Nikon FM with me and simply listen to 1/4 or 1/2 second 3 or 4 times, than make the Packard do the same thing. I've had splendid success with them. I have over half a dozen. On one that I use with a big 42cm Heliar I even made a set of contacts to fire a flash. Works fine every time.

There was a fantastic article about these about 2 years ago in View Camera Mag. (Holy Smokes Batman, an Analog Article in View Camera Mag?) Yep.