Take a look at this cool toy on eBay

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Look at this on eBay:

Camera shutter tester for shutter speed up to 1/4000th

http://bit.ly/zV9V2P

 

[Jeff Kubach]

Looks interesting.

Jeff

 

[MattKing]

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Thanks for the apug link. Looks like some one already ordered one.

Cheers!

 

[benjiboy]

It seems to me to be a device to make one unhappy, if I suspect my shutter speeds are inaccurate I have a camera technician test them because he knows how to adjust them if necessary, I don't.

 

[ic-racer]

It seems to me to be a device to make one unhappy, if I suspect my shutter speeds are inaccurate I have a camera technician test them because he knows how to adjust them if necessary, I don't.

In real-life one might calculate how many stops away from the indicated speed and if it is less than one-third, no exposure adjustment is needed. If it is greater than one-third, adjust the exposure accordingly when using that speed.

 

[benjiboy]

In real-life one might calculate how many stops away from the indicated speed and if it is less than one-third, no exposure adjustment is needed. If it is greater than one-third, adjust the exposure accordingly when using that speed.

Not very practical with TTL metering especially matrix metering.

 

[wally]

It looks very much like mine, except mine's battery powered and fits in your hand:

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?60421-Shutter-speed-tester/page5

My shutter tester first appears in post 44, with a pic of the finished board (not in it's case) in post 67.

His price is less than what I sold mine for. Mine were $135.


// Wally

 

[wally]

Not very practical with TTL metering especially matrix metering.

Not supposed to be. You figure out what exposure you want, then select your lens, set it for the speed and aperture you want.
Test the lens' shutter. If it's too fast, open the aperture a bit to compensate. If it's too slow, stop down.
They aren't making LF lenses anymore so as the mechanical shutter in them gets old, it gets a bit sloppy. Use the tester to set exposure right, and you won't waste a sheet of film.


// Wally

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

^ The point about shutter speeds and evaluative/matrix/multipattern metering is that in so many cameras with such metering the Tv and Av values are stepless, and so a rudimentary testing device could potentially give a false result. Of course with older medium- and large format cameras it could be useful — but it will still depend on having a grasp of technical knowledge to know by how much is too much or too little. Modern cameras are best tested/calibrated by technicians, not gizzmos found on eBay.

 

[wally]

If you are trying to shoot LF with old lenses (and therefore old shutters), you'd have to hope that the shutter behaves the same where you're shooting as it did on the tech's shutter tester.

Having a shutter tester you can take into the field will tell you how far off that 1/30th second setting is, telling you whether you need to adjust aperture to compensate.

I'll also tell you whether the shutter needs a CLA - if you trip the shutter five times and the reading varies by more than a half a stop, then it's hard to predict what exposure you'll actually get when the lens is used to take the exposure. When you see that, it's time to have the shutter serviced.

And no, you do not need any special 'technical knowledge' to do this, or at least, any more technical expertise than it does to operate an LF camera. If it's off by more than a third of a stop, and you're using transparency film, you're gonna get an incorrectly exposed shot and you start to question your sanity and your ability to wate $3.50 per sheet (just for processing!!) on these incorrectly exposed shots. If they're for a client, you might need to do a reshoot.