amy975•1d agoMost Upvoted

Took me 5 tries to get this shutter timing right

Been working on this old Pentax Spotmatic since last Tuesday. The shutter speeds were all over the place. 1/1000 was actually at 1/250. Spent 3 hours with a shutter tester trying to dial it in. Finally got it within 10% across all speeds. That felt good. The calibration screw is so tiny I almost dropped it twice. Anyone else use a specific method for old Copal shutters?

2 comments

2 Comments

jesse_craig2614h ago

Man that calibration screw is the worst. On my old Copal shutter in a Minolta Hi-Matic 9 I had to use a jeweler's screwdriver and hold my breath to keep from bumping it. I ended up clamping the whole camera body in a small vise so I could use both hands steady. 10% is solid though. I usually target 15% because getting better than that on 50+ year old springs feels like chasing ghosts.

leow907h ago

Chasing ghosts" is exactly right man. I spent a whole Sunday afternoon once trying to get a Copal shutter on a Konica Auto S2 to hit 1/500 dead on. Ended up breathing so shallow I almost passed out, had my face like two inches from the lens board. Still ended up with 18% error and just called it good. Embarrassing thing is I'm pretty sure I spent more time calibrating that one screw than I have actually taking pictures with the camera since.