[LargeFormat] Observation...

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Clive Warren" <Clive.Warren@megacycle.co.uk>
To: <largeformat@f32.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 2:53 PM
Subject: Re: [LargeFormat] Observation...


> At 06:05 04/02/2003 -0800, Les Newcomer wrote:
> >Also that $400+ lens was very mint, and in an SVS shutter
with some odd
> >engraving.  It looks like it might have been a special
purpose lens.  Not
> >too long ago I saw a 203 with a date code of '61in a
Sycnro compur. It's
> >possible that the SVS was even later, which makes it that
much more
> >valuable. Not that it will take better pictures....
>
> Les,
>
> The Prontor SVS shuttered versions of the 203mm are fairly
common here in
> the UK. I would imagine that Kodak UK bought in the
shutters from Germany
> and they had a good deal on SVS shutters. Personally I
don't like the
> things - they set my teeth on edge whenever I cock the
shutter. I have had
> two main springs break on me over the years and the slow
speeds are always
> gummed up. The SVS shuttered 203s no longer have serial
numbers so you
> can't date 'em. They also have a different mount for the
lens elements
> front and back. The front cell is marked "MOUNT 370". I
would imagine that
> Europe was supplied with the SVS shuttered version.
>
> Give me a Compur any day....... let me know if you need my
address ;-)
>
> Cheers,
>             Clive
>
>
   My old British Journal Almanacs (c.mid fifties) show ads
for Kodak lenses in "Epsilon" shutters. I have no idea who
made them and they don't look like Supermatics. I can't tell
from the illustrations if the lenses have US type serial
numbers with the date code. Its even possible the lenses
weren't made in the US.
   My impression of Protor shutters is that they were simple
shutters used on cheap cameras. Reliability is something
else, some cheap shutters are very rugged. Better quality
cameras used Compur shutters.
  In the USA at least four companies made shutters for many
years. The best known are Wollensak and Ilex but Bausch &
Lomb also made shutters up to about the late 1930's. These
were mostly copies of Compur and Compound shutters but B&L
had some of its own designs (the Volute for instance). Both
Wollensak and Ilex were founded by former B&L employees.
Wollensak made quite good shutters, better than their
optics. Ilex had the master patent on the clock work speed
regulator, used by virtually all other manufacturers. Rim
set Ilex's are very rugged although not very accurate (avoid
the dial set version).
  Kodak made cheap shutters for decades for their folding
cameras (Kodak Ball Bearing Shutter and others) and began to
make the Supermatic when supplies of Compur shutters dried
up at the beginning of WW-2.
  There were a number of other shutter makers in the early
twentieth century but most of them did not survive beyond
about 1920.
  I don't know of any comprehensive history of shutters and
their makers although a little is in several books. Perhaps
a future project. The shutter with the longest run of
continuous manufacture is the Packard shutter, a simple air
operated shutter, now made by Hub Photo. I don't know the
exact date when Packard started, some time near the end of
the nineteenth century, I think, but the design dates back
nearly to the civil war.


---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@ix.netcom.com