Electronic shutter

[WhiteWolf09]

I'm planning on buying a Phase One + ALPA FPS or Pentax 645z for timelapse photography and was curious whether a 100% electronic shutter solution exists for either of them? As in: no moving parts at all.
Taking a few thousand pictures a day wears out the shutter rather quickly.

What about the Schneider and Rodenstock Eshutters?

[Paul2660]

The 645z will always be tied to the focal plane shutter within the body.  Currently I don't know of any LS lenses that would work on the 645z, and even if they did not sure if the focal plane could be disabled like the way the Phase One DF+ works, as with a LS lens on, you still fire the focal plane shutter in the body and the LS lens. 

The Phase One solution with an FPS, is also going to be tied to the focal plane shutter of the FPS. 

A Phase One back on a tech camera, could possible work as you could have one of the Schneider e-shutters installed.  I can't remember if Rodenstock makes a similar device.  Currently you are pretty limited with the e shutters on the market in regards to shutter speeds, and I believe all of the ones sold right now require a PC to work the shutter.  Newer e shutters are supposedly coming soon, maybe by Sept. Photokina.  There has been talk of a new design on the medium format digital forum on this site that will still have a dongle, but will most likley use a iPad or iPhone to control the shutter.   Still not available and when shipping estimated cost is 2K just for the shutter. 

One other thing, not sure about shutter speeds you will be using, but all Phase One backs, will shoot a manditory dark frame on all exposures 1" or longer.  So if you are going to be doing say 30" series of images, you will have a 30" gap in between which may be a bit of trouble. 

I do a lot of night photography, in stacks, which could easily be turned into timelaspe.  For me work, I only use 35mm digital, Canon and Nikon as they are much easier to work with.

One other idea, Sony's A7 and A7r both have a iPad iPhone soluiton called timelaspe.  You still have a focal place of types in both cameras, but the app is very nice.  However you are limited to 30" for the longest exposure.  Sony currently does not market a intervalometer. 

Paul

[Dave Gurtcheff]

The 645z will always be tied to the focal plane shutter within the body.  Currently I don't know of any LS lenses that would work on the 645z, and even if they did not sure if the focal plane could be disabled like the way the Phase One DF+ works, as with a LS lens on, you still fire the focal plane shutter in the body and the LS lens. 

Hi all: pentax made two  manual focus leaf shutter lenses for the 645: the 75mm f2.8, and 135 mm f4, and two for the 67 that work with a 645-67 adapter: the 90mm f2.8, and 165 f4. I have many Pentax 645 manual focus lenses, which work perfectly with my 645D, so I see no reason they would not work on the new 645Z. It seems there WOULD be six LS lenses that would work on the 645Z, and should be readily available on the used market at attractive prices.
Dave in NJ

[Doug Peterson]

In our experience (which is fairly extensive) Schneider Electronic Shutters used on large format lenses will last 1-2 million exposures. We use them with many clients in our Cultural Heritage Division. The aperture remains stopped down between frames, which reduces wear and tear and greatly reduces exposure jitter (something I'm sure you're well aware of).

The Phase One IQ250 has an optional IIQ-S file compression which does very-slightly-lossy compression which reduces file size in most images to around 60% of their original. This helps a lot once you start talking "tens of thousands" of 50mp images .

[Paul2660]

Doug,

With the current Schneiders, what is the shutter speed range?  And how are they controlled?  The last time I checked which was over a year ago, the shutter was controlled by a USB port on a PC/MAC, and not very useable in the field.  I know "new" designs are "right" around the corner all the time, but curious on the current Schneiders. 

Thanks
Paul

[zView]

Is there any possibility to combine the two: use Schneider shutter with on 645z?

[michael]

In a word - no.

Michael