What's the difference between a white-faced and black-faced Copal 3 shutter

digital_archivist

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I'm not familiar with the white-faced versions; just wondering what makes them different. No PC connector for flash?








 

ic-racer

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No PC connector for flash?
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Both have PC connector but there is a linear aperture scale on the newer, blackface one.

 

ic-racer

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I don't know about the insides of the whiteface one, but you can see the insides of the blacface one here:

Copal #3 Disassembly and Cleaning

I don't see any good resources for opening and cleaning a Copal #3 shutter so I thought I'd share some pictures. My Fujinon 300mm/5.6 is in a Copal 3, and when I went to use it I noticed the slow speeds were off. So I took it to my shutter tester and found 1 second = almost 2 seconds. All...
www.photrio.com
 

eli griggs

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The white face should be easier to read in dim light but more reflective/viewable in reflections captured.

IMO.
 
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digital_archivist

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Thank you all. I don't care about the aperture scale (I'll only be shooting wide open), but I'll need the PC connector.

Thanks again!
 

DREW WILEY

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The black-faced one is the old Copal 3S, different from their latest version 3. The white-faced one is even older than that. 3S shutters have three levers projecting levers instead of 2, as well as older multi-bladed apertures. And they had a slightly different thread diameter than the later Copal 3. But all of them are simply labeled, Copal 3.
 

eli griggs

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If worse comes to worse and you can't find a replacement PC fixture, you can solder in a regular PC flash cable, cut in half, that has a socket that will slip inside your normal PC connector cable.

Just be certain that the soldered cable is fixed to the outside of the shutter, with slight slack, so it won't jerk on the soldered points and all should be well.
 
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digital_archivist

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The "...all of them are simply labeled, Copal 3" part is somewhat frightening. <g> I'll do some more research.

And that's a good idea about the PC cable.

Thanks again!
 
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