Shutter Tester

Just a quick update that may be of interest on shutter testers. The original I bought from Vasile was one that converts light into a sound wave which is then analysed with a piece of software like Audacity, and you convert the resulting frequency into a shutter speed using your calculator (I set up a little spreadsheet to do the dirty work for me). I bought my most recent just over a year ago, but only now have had occasion to use it. It's the earlier model than the one in the Ebay listing above, but my comments will, I'm sure, carry over. The newest model tests shutters to 1/8000, mine does up to 1/4000, which is still perfect for me. It can also test for shutter curtain irregularities, but I've not tried that yet. However, I've got some cameras I intend to sell on Ebay, so wanted to give them a good testing first.

The tester comes with an LED light source and a photocell, both on a cable, though there's also a built in photocell in the tester housing. I used a laboratory retort stand and clamp to hold the light source in place in front of the lens mount, and a similar rig to hold the photocell behind the shutter or rear lens. Then it's just switch on the tester (I used a 9v adapter), adjust the LED light intensity from the knob on the tester, then fire the shutter. There's no need to connect through software like Audacity now, it's all calculated and displayed on board. In most cases, the readout is in camera format as a reciprocal, e.g. for a nominal speed of 250, you might get a readout of 1/247. Shutter speeds of about a second or more are given as decimals, e.g. for 1, you might get 1.0048.

It's a whole lot faster and easier than using the early 'Audacity' version, and you can rocket through the tests quickly and easily. For my electronic SLRs, like my Yashica AF230, it gave me (starting at 4s) 3.98, 1.994, 0.9965, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/63, 1/98, 1/126, 1/243, 1/506, 1/1096, and 1/2155. The 1/98, incidentally, is for a nominal 1/100, which I think is a flash sync speed. That's incredibly accurate, but not unexpected for an electronic shuttered camera.

What was also interesting was that my manual FX3-Super had very similar results, 0.986, 1/2, 1/4, 1/7, 1/15, 1/30, 1/57, 1/110, 1/262, 1/504, 1/1096. That mirrors my experience with my original FX3, which also has accurate shutter speeds, and other early Yashica rangefinders, like the Ministers, which again all had accurate shutter speeds until the top speed of 500, which tended to run slow at 350-ish. The accuracy of the Yashica R/Fs, however, was generally better than that of the same era's Olympus 35RC, or the Ricoh 500 series. (That, of course, reflects only my limited experience and inventory!)

My Zeiss folders show, predictably, slow-running speeds, especially at the top end, where a nominal 400 is nearer 190-200. However, the tester shows that, even if not accurate, they are precise, that is, repeatable over many firings, so aperture correction for exposures is easy and just normal photography.

Considering one can easily spend at least the cost of the tester on a good exposure meter, it makes sense to know what the shutter speeds you're really getting are, so that the accuracy of the exposure meter isn't going to waste.