Re: Misc MF stereo

["Paul A. Lehman" <palehman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bob Clark wrote:
>  The biggest
> obstacle right now seems to be the packard (I think that
> is what it is called) bulb shutter which opens when you
> press the bulb and closes when you let go (i.e. OK for
> long exposures only).  Has anyone ever seen one of these?

The packard shutters came in two main versions (and
several sizes), one as you described, opens and closes
via the air bulb, and the other that added a second
pneumatic tube that provided a 1/25 second exposure.
They were typically added to studio cameras with
shutterless barrel lenses in the old days. They can be
taken apart real easily, they are very simple in
design, and can be cleaned quickly. Later models added
flash sync. Being so simple in design one could change
it from an air driven shutter to a mechanical rod
driven shutter. The trick would then be to figure out a
timing device to fire the shutter at various speeds (a
solenoid type system maybe).

Alternatively, us it for flash exposure pictures
(darken room, open shutter, fire flash, close shutter,
turn on lights). Otherwise it is great for long
exposure studies (1+ seconds).

Or, train yourself to squeeze/release the bulb at known
fractions of a second. ;>)  ;>)

Paul A. Lehman