Graflex.org

jnanian · Joined: 22 Jan 2002 Posts: 21 Location: near providence, ri

sorry if this question has been asked before, i searched and couldn't really find what i was looking for ...

i was wondering if the shutter speeds can be tested easily for my series d ... i have a calumet shutter tester, but was told a while back (by someone at calumet) that because a graflex slr has a curtain shutter ( different than a modern curtain shutter ) these testers are kind of useless ... i asked folks at a camera repair shop recently if *they* could test my speeds ( so i have a vague idea what things are ... ) and they thought it might work with their (modern) shutter tester if i had a "jig" so they could stick the probe in there.

i can make a jig with a hole out of foam core or tape my 22-roll back so they can use that to secure their own jig they would use for a regular olde mf camera ...

i guess what i am asking, is this: how did graflex repair people in the past id shutter speeds, and is it possible these days?

thanks in advance for your help!

john

pv17vv · Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2006 6:52 pm Post subject:

John,

I faced the same problem some time ago with a tester for 35 mm cameras I bought at a flea market. To use it with LF cameras I took a piece of plywood from junk and sawed it the size of a 4x5 film holder, then I carefully opened it in the middle just the size of the probe and fastened the probe with a small piece of flat spring from a clock when needed. To make things even better, a friend of mine made two grooves along the narrow sides of the thing to allow attaching it to the back of the camera. It worked very well.

Hope this helps.

Georges

jnanian · Joined: 22 Jan 2002 Posts: 21 Location: near providence, ri

thanks georges !

i ended up going to my friends's place with my "22" rollback taped to the back of my series d. the opening was the right size for his jig, and we tested the speeds on my camera ... it worked perfectly

my low speed ( 1+ 1.5 opening) was 1/15thS, and my high speeds were between 1/250 + 300S .. not bad for someone who has no idea what he is doing

thanks again for your reponse!

-john

[ This Message was edited by: jnanian on 2006-04-09 05:51 ]