Shutter Speed Tester

[bergytone]

Hi everyone,
My kickstarter for the handheld shutter speed tester was fully funded in 2 days thanks to supporters like you. It's not too late to back it I've got almost one hundred backing it so far. Check it out:
Dead Link Removed

 

[benjiboy]

What's the point of testing your shutter speeds if you are incapable of adjusting them yourself, and how do you know the allowable margin of error plus or minus ?, I get a professional camera technician to check mine on an oscilloscope if I suspect they are faulty, and adjust them if necessary.

 

[bergytone]

Good point. I've tested many cameras now and I find that some are up to a stop slow. Knowing that, I can compensate by either adjusting the ASA setting or the f/stop. Simpler antique cameras are easy to adjust yourself if you are so inclined. Most can do fine without a tester, but when ever I drag out an old relic, it is sure handy to know if it's at, say 1/25 or 1/60th... it can tell you if you need to tripod it or not. That's what got me started on this project altogether.

 

[carioca]

Nice job! What would be the price of your shutter tester?

 

[Theo Sulphate]

This would be useful to me when checking a potential new camera purchase or if I'm having doubts about a camera I already have.

If I'm unable to adjust the shutter myself, with my limited skills, at least I know it needs to be sent in for a CLA.

 

[AgX]

If I'm unable to adjust the shutter myself, with my limited skills, at least I know it needs to be sent in for a CLA.

And if they all are to the standard, you know that you don't have to do anything.

 

[John Koehrer]

ANSI standards are actually pretty broad.
in round numbers 1/1000 = 1.66-2.5 ms thats about 25% margin. For most purposes that's good.
Slower speeds tend to be around the 20% mark.

 

[bergytone]

Nice job! What would be the price of your shutter tester?

The basic model with a built in sensor is $119. The same unit with an added dual sensor module is $139. The dual sensor module is specifically is used to to more extensive tests on a 35mm camera as it takes reading at two edges of the film plane and measures the curtain times of the shutter. With the kickstarter there is a discount of $10 for each model.

 

[benjiboy]

And if they all are to the standard, you know that you don't have to do anything.

How do you know what the standard is ? , What's the allowable margin of error plus or minus percentage ?.

 

[bergytone]

If the camera is working satisfactory, then there is no point in measuring the shutter speed. But if you are buying or selling one, then maybe it would be nice to know how well it is working. Each time I get a new (old) camera, I immediately check it to see how those intermediate speeds are doing (1/60th, 1/100th, 1/250th) since that's where I know I'll be shooting. I had one little Zeiss baby box tengor that was running 1/25th. Almost too slow to use with modern film outside. So I modified the rotating shutter disc and brought it up to 1/90th. Now I can shoot with it on a sunny day. It's that kind of stuff that makes a shutter tester handy, at least for me.

 

[MattKing]

I you use a camera that has leaf shutter lenses, it makes it much easier to fine tune your exposure across your lens line.

 

[AgX]

How do you know what the standard is ? , What's the allowable margin of error plus or minus percentage ?.

Those Tolerances were standardized for instance in DIN-Standard 19016. They vary over the range of speeds from 19-35%.
Do you need them? You do not test or repair shutters as far as I know.


John already referred to that too:

ANSI standards are actually pretty broad.
in round numbers 1/1000 = 1.66-2.5 ms thats about 25% margin. For most purposes that's good.
Slower speeds tend to be around the 20% mark.

 

[AgX]

Add to that the tolerances for the light meter and (something we never talked about!) the diaphragm.

 

[benjiboy]

To me with modern

Good point. I've tested many cameras now and I find that some are up to a stop slow. Knowing that, I can compensate by either adjusting the ASA setting or the f/stop. Simpler antique cameras are easy to adjust yourself if you are so inclined. Most can do fine without a tester, but when ever I drag out an old relic, it is sure handy to know if it's at, say 1/25 or 1/60th... it can tell you if you need to tripod it or not. That's what got me started on this project altogether.

I don't have any "old relics", with modern S.L.R's in real world shooting situations who has the time to consider on an individual I.S.O setting or f stop for perhaps an individual or several shutter speeds in each individual shot ?. I never considered buying a shutter speed tester because I always considered it a device to make me feel unhappy.

 

[benjiboy]

Those Tolerances were standardized for instance in DIN-Standard 19016. They vary over the range of speeds from 19-35%.
Do you need them? You do not test or repair shutters as far as I know.


John already referred to that too:

No I personally don't need to know the tolerances because I'm not a kitchen table camera repairer, but in order to evaluate shutter performance with a shutter speeds tester or any device the user needs to know the allowable margin of error or the tested readings the machine gives are just numbers.

 

[Leigh B]

ANSI standards are actually pretty broad.
in round numbers 1/1000 = 1.66-2.5 ms...

That's pretty broad indeed, given that the actual duration of 1/1000 second = 1.000 millisecond by definition.

- Leigh

 

[bergytone]

Benjiboy, it sounds like this is not a gadget for you. Your system works well for you. But there are a lot of folks who do shoot with older equipment, and it can help to determine how to compensate for the shutter being off, regardless of the specs. I just tested an Argus camera that had no difference at all between the 1/100 and the 1/50th setting. Should I get it repaired? Of course not. It's not worth it. But now I know not to bother changing the setting while out using it, it will have no difference in the exposure. Is it worth the money to blow on a tester? Only if you have a collection (as I do) that you shoot with and want to know what you are working with. It is actually portable enough to use at a camera store or flea market to see what you are buying too. So I do think there is some value to this gadget. And we all know that us camera people love our gadgets!

 

[benjiboy]

Benjiboy, it sounds like this is not a gadget for you. Your system works well for you. But there are a lot of folks who do shoot with older equipment, and it can help to determine how to compensate for the shutter being off, regardless of the specs. I just tested an Argus camera that had no difference at all between the 1/100 and the 1/50th setting. Should I get it repaired? Of course not. It's not worth it. But now I know not to bother changing the setting while out using it, it will have no difference in the exposure. Is it worth the money to blow on a tester? Only if you have a collection (as I do) that you shoot with and want to know what you are working with. It is actually portable enough to use at a camera store or flea market to see what you are buying too. So I do think there is some value to this gadget. And we all know that us camera people love our gadgets!

Although I wish you every success in your marketing of shutter speed tester which to design and make is a real achievement and to be commended.
I was a photographic store manager for more than twenty years and if a customer brought a shutter speed tester into my shop and started testing my second hand stock I was showing him in front of other customers with it I would throw him out on his ear, that's what would happen in the real world.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

That's what the private booths in camera stores are for: so you can test a camera without being observed by other customers.




Seriously, when I'm at a swap meet or a real camera store, I have the back of the camera open and I'm looking through the body as I run it through all the shutter settings. I've found a few capped shutters that way and even mentioned it. If the camera comes with a lens, I look through the back to ensure that the aperture closes all the way down to minimum at the fastest shutter speed. I point the camera around to test the meter. Other customers can see I'm checking the camera out. If I happened to have a small shutter speed tester, used it, and kept quiet about what reading I got, that may not ruffle any feathers. I would ask first.

Regardless, I would use this device for some of the very old cameras I have at home to determine when a CLA is appropriate.

 

[Born2Late]

Although I wish you every success in your marketing of shutter speed tester which to design and make is a real achievement and to be commended.
I was a photographic store manager for more than twenty years and if a customer brought a shutter speed tester into my shop and started testing my second hand stock I was showing him in front of other customers with it I would throw him out on his ear, that's what would happen in the real world.

Really!

 

[bergytone]

Funny, as I talk to people about this thing, I find quite a few people are quite against it. Quite a waste of money they say. Yeah, I can't see anyone actually using it at a camera shop or swap meet, but i bet they'd whip it out once they got the camera home. It's not for everyone, that's for sure. I use a lot of weird, obscure cameras, for example, for fun I tried out one of those "Hit" cameras. Pretty much a toy camera. But by seeing that the camera has a shutter speed of about 1/90th, I know I can shoot FP4 in it in the sun and have a shot at some decent exposures. I've seen those crappy Calumet testers sell on eBay for over $100, so there must be someone using them.

 

[MattKing]

I find the discussion in this thread interesting. One of the members of my Darkroom Group has a shutter speed tester. A fair few of the Group's members have numbers of different shutters that they use (some in lens, others in camera) and they find it helpful when their fellow Group member brings in his tester and they are able to prepare a list of the actual speeds of those shutters.

 

[benjiboy]

If I was buying a camera that was more than twenty years old I would think it a safe assumption to make that one or several of the shutter speeds were inaccurate and it needed a C.L.A before I used it for any serious work.

 

[LAG]

Hi everyone,
My kickstarter for the handheld shutter speed tester was fully funded in 2 days thanks to supporters like you. It's not too late to back it I've got almost one hundred backing it so far. Check it out:
Dead Link Removed

Excuse me

First of all I want to congratulate you for that tester, however ... for many reasons, it doesn't make much sense to pour the money on it.

Best of luck

 

[Chan Tran]

What's the point of testing your shutter speeds if you are incapable of adjusting them yourself, and how do you know the allowable margin of error plus or minus ?, I get a professional camera technician to check mine on an oscilloscope if I suspect they are faulty, and adjust them if necessary.

If I can measure also the shutter curtain travel time then I can adjust all shutter speed function on my F3 (which is my main camera). That's the first adjustment to be made.