For at least a couple of years now, I have had a 3 1/2" No.8 Packard shutter sitting in the box I purchased it in. It was supposed to be living inside the front standard of my 8x10 Burke and James Grover, but the metal housing of the shutter measures 6 1/2", while the inside of the bellows is something under 6". While I waited for inspiration to make a workable solution to this problem, I spent some time learning the workings of these elegantly simple shutters. I got a lot of guidance from Douglas A. Kerr's excellent Packard Shutter page. From this page, I recently learned that someone had bodged my shutter up pretty badly and that it was only working at all because of the nearly foolproof engineering of the Packard. Following Kerr's excellent step by step instructions, I soon had the shutter leafs properly installed and ready to attach to my camera.
I wouldn't need the Packard shutter at all, except for the fact that I tend to experiment with process lenses and orphaned bits of glass instead of proper large format lenses. Most of these things just don't fit into traditional shutters, including my current favourite, a $0.99 magnifying glass set in a lens board. I think I must look like someone doing an odd dance, trying to open and close my lenses whilst juggling dark slides in and out of film holders. I was fine doing this for long exposures, but my guess work for shorter times was pretty inconsistent. Time for a real shutter.
Today, with the help of a bit of left over carpentry trim, some black acrylic craft paint, $0.28 in hardware, (two sets of decorative brass hinges, on sale at 90% off) and a steady hand on the mitre saw, I put together a simple mount that will fit over the lens at the front of the camera.
This worked much better than I had any reason to hope, as I have very little skill with any sort of woodworking tools. To accommodate a couple of larger process lenses, I made a second layer to the box that I can add when needed. A layer of black felt provides a good light-proof seal between the camera and the two nested layers of the housing. The whole thing attaches to the front of the camera with a couple of sturdy elastics.
With a practiced squeeze on the pneumatic bulb, the Packard can deliver a fairly consistent 1/30" exposure or can stay open for time exposures. This particular model has a simple circuit for flash sync... a little bit of powder, and I'll be taking pictures just like they did in the old movies. That sounds like fun.
Now... to add a filter slot to the front of the Packard. :)
I wouldn't need the Packard shutter at all, except for the fact that I tend to experiment with process lenses and orphaned bits of glass instead of proper large format lenses. Most of these things just don't fit into traditional shutters, including my current favourite, a $0.99 magnifying glass set in a lens board. I think I must look like someone doing an odd dance, trying to open and close my lenses whilst juggling dark slides in and out of film holders. I was fine doing this for long exposures, but my guess work for shorter times was pretty inconsistent. Time for a real shutter.
Today, with the help of a bit of left over carpentry trim, some black acrylic craft paint, $0.28 in hardware, (two sets of decorative brass hinges, on sale at 90% off) and a steady hand on the mitre saw, I put together a simple mount that will fit over the lens at the front of the camera.
This worked much better than I had any reason to hope, as I have very little skill with any sort of woodworking tools. To accommodate a couple of larger process lenses, I made a second layer to the box that I can add when needed. A layer of black felt provides a good light-proof seal between the camera and the two nested layers of the housing. The whole thing attaches to the front of the camera with a couple of sturdy elastics.
With a practiced squeeze on the pneumatic bulb, the Packard can deliver a fairly consistent 1/30" exposure or can stay open for time exposures. This particular model has a simple circuit for flash sync... a little bit of powder, and I'll be taking pictures just like they did in the old movies. That sounds like fun.
Now... to add a filter slot to the front of the Packard. :)