Remote switching with old-style cable release!
Apr 3, 2024 11:06:01 GMT
on Apr 3, 2024 11:06:01 GMT
Posted: Apr 3, 2024 11:06:01 GMT
An unexpected question has been asked on a Facebook Contax-Yashica Group in which a Contax 139Q user had fired its shutter using a conventional cable release and was worried that she might damage the camera that way.
It has never occurred to me to try such an operation but as an empiricist, an old Zeiss Ikon cable release from 1929 was attached to a 139 and lo, it worked. Trying the Contax cable release from the Auto Bellows (not the electronic connector cable), it did not work. I tried about half a dozen other old cable releases and some worked and others did not. I then tried out the same trick on a FX-D - the cable which worked on the Contax 139 could not fire the Yashica's shutter and nor would any of the others. I repeated the process with a Contax RX - again, nothing.
We all know that the S-series remote switches are screw-in types, replacing the PC-Sync types for the RTS/FR models, and so the shutter is activated by simply closing a circuit through the action of the cable release's plunger touching the contact at the base of the socket. So, in effect the S switches are acting just like the original types of cable release; all that has changed is that direct pressure has been replaced by electrical contact.
Now, I habitually carry a Contax R6SJ Adapter Cord in my wallet (don't ask) so I decided to try the reverse process: could I attach the cable release which worked in the 139 to the adapter cord and fire a Yashica FR shutter that way - the answer is yes....well, most of the time.
I can't yet explain why this procedure works on the 139 but, as of now, not other Contax/Yashica models which use the same type of socket. I suspect it may have something to do with the diameter of the cable's plunger and perhaps the tolerances of the 139's socket but I need to carry out a much more comprehensive test on every Contax or Yashica camera that uses the S-type connector, using a wider selection of cable releases. Only then might one be able to offer a meaningful explanation as to why the 139 can be fired this way. That should also apply to the reverse procedure for the older PC-Sync socket via the R6SJ cord.
Who would have thought that 40 years on, we'd still be learning about the quirks to be found in the C/Y system...? Marvellous!
It has never occurred to me to try such an operation but as an empiricist, an old Zeiss Ikon cable release from 1929 was attached to a 139 and lo, it worked. Trying the Contax cable release from the Auto Bellows (not the electronic connector cable), it did not work. I tried about half a dozen other old cable releases and some worked and others did not. I then tried out the same trick on a FX-D - the cable which worked on the Contax 139 could not fire the Yashica's shutter and nor would any of the others. I repeated the process with a Contax RX - again, nothing.
We all know that the S-series remote switches are screw-in types, replacing the PC-Sync types for the RTS/FR models, and so the shutter is activated by simply closing a circuit through the action of the cable release's plunger touching the contact at the base of the socket. So, in effect the S switches are acting just like the original types of cable release; all that has changed is that direct pressure has been replaced by electrical contact.
Now, I habitually carry a Contax R6SJ Adapter Cord in my wallet (don't ask) so I decided to try the reverse process: could I attach the cable release which worked in the 139 to the adapter cord and fire a Yashica FR shutter that way - the answer is yes....well, most of the time.
I can't yet explain why this procedure works on the 139 but, as of now, not other Contax/Yashica models which use the same type of socket. I suspect it may have something to do with the diameter of the cable's plunger and perhaps the tolerances of the 139's socket but I need to carry out a much more comprehensive test on every Contax or Yashica camera that uses the S-type connector, using a wider selection of cable releases. Only then might one be able to offer a meaningful explanation as to why the 139 can be fired this way. That should also apply to the reverse procedure for the older PC-Sync socket via the R6SJ cord.
Who would have thought that 40 years on, we'd still be learning about the quirks to be found in the C/Y system...? Marvellous!
