Copal Shutter Repair

[JoeKitchen]

So today on a shoot, my go to lens's shutter broke.  I cocked it and felt something snap, and thought, "shit!" 

It did not work after that, and the leafs of the shutter feel out of place.  (I always thought that this shutter never felt right, but thought nothing of it.  The way it felt when changing shutter speeds was just not quite like what other shutters.)   

Luckily, I was able to remove the shutter from my 90mm and mount it to the 35mm, use my Kapture Group Multi Shot and finished the shoot.  One thing though, the recessed lens board of my 35mm requires that the PC outlet on the shutter to be angled outwards, otherwise you can not attached a sync cord (I finished the shoot using just the Kapture Group adapter, which was a pain with strobes). 

I have extra shutters from my film days (on my films lenses) and would prefer to just switch one of these onto my 35mm. 

My question is how hard would it be to take the siding of the shutter from my 35mm, which has an angled PC outlet and the correctly scaled aperture, and replace it on a spare Copal shutter? 

Would I be able to do this, or should I just send it to Precision Camera?  (I am pretty mechanically inclined, but have never dealt with very fine details.) 

[Doug Peterson]

I'd also throw The Camera Doctor into the mix since you could drop off and pick up in NYC.

http://www.cameradoctornyc.com

[Paul2660]

I would send it to Precision Camera, they have worked on 2 of my Copals, both were starting to stick.  They are quick and actually the Copals were more accurate on set shutter speed after they were returned, i.e. 1/30 really shoots 1/30 etc.

Paul C

[Harold Clark]

You have to be careful of the cell group spacing, critical for LF wide angle lenses, but no doubt even more so for shorter digital lenses. Shutters can vary a small amount in thickness, and the spacing is adjusted with thin shims if required. Even if spacing is correct, you will need an aperture scale matched to the focal length of the newly mounted lens. You can measure the overall length of the lens in the existing shutter with a micrometer as reference for the new shutter.

[Paul2660]

It's always been my understanding, if you replace a Copal, the lens company needs to re-colimate the lens to the new shutter.  Precision won't do a replacement I asked them last year.  But they can open an existing shutter, and clean, re-lube it and attempt to repair a broken part.  It seems than many new lenses shipping now have Copals that were sitting a shelf for a while, thus the internal lube has thickened and the shutters will stick or are hard to adjust. 

Paul C

[JoeKitchen]

Thank you for the advice and suggestions. 

Unfortunately I do not have the time to send the lens I use most often for paid shoots to Germany to be reset into a new shutter.  Plus, I have taken a few lenses off of a shutter and have never seen shims being used, including on both of these.  (Although both the 90mm and 35mm had shims in the Arca Swiss R mount, so I guess there is truth to that marketing speech.) 

This morning I have tested a shutter from a film lens to make sure it syncs properly with the digital back.  It does. 

Now it is time to remount my 90mm back onto its shutter and lens board, and test the focus of my 35mm on this older shutter.  If all is well, it is just a matter of adding a modified sync port and magnet mount to the cable socket.  Maybe having a correct aperture scale added too. 

I have to say that the shutter on my 35mm never felt like any of the other shutters I have used.  The ring had this fluid movement with some indentations at the speeds, whereas every other shutter I have used had this clicking movement.  I use to think it was just the way that batch was made, maybe it was not.  Also, due to how I work and use multiple exposures, I am sure there was 100,000+ actuations on that shutter. 

There are brass filings showing, so I have to think something had been grinding there for a while. 

I also ordered another new shutter and a spanner wrench so I have a backup in the future. 

[JoeKitchen]

New shutter and the lens is still pretty damn sharp.  I see no difference in optical performance. 

[JoeKitchen]

So at the end of the day, I decided I did have the tools or know how to swap out a normal PC outlet with a modified one and sent the damaged shutter to Precision to be repaired. 

I also sent them the old shutter to be modified to work on a recessed lens board with the Arca Swiss adapters, and to have the aperture scale replaced with a blank one. 

I will be carrying this with me as a backup, along with a spanner wrench. 

I should have both back by Wednesday for a shoot on Thursday. 

Been meaning to get a backup Copal for a while; I should have moved sooner on it.