Copal Press #1 shutter

<p>I have acquired a new example of this shutter and it's got me puzzled. It has a normal-looking aperture control and an opening lever BUT if you open the shutter to focus, the aperture opens fully and needs to be reset after the shutter has been closed again before making an exposure. I can see some logic in making a press shutter that works this way, but is it supposed to do this? If anyone has direct experience of this item, I'd love to hear from them!</p>

http://www.skgrimes.com/products/new-copal-

shutters/pressshutters

 

Description of normal operation. Addresses the

aperture operation. Hope this helps.

<p>Yep!<br>

<em>In order to view thru a selected aperture the shutter must be set to “B” or “T”</em><br>

<em><br /></em>That's what I needed to know - thanks, Brian.</p>

I just learned the difference this evening. Simply put, with a mechanical shutter, one may view depth of field, with the press shutter, you cannot view depth of field. Also, your shutter speed is limited to about 125.

Hmm. The #0 sample of Copal press shutter I have leaves the aperture as set, regardless of shutter speed.<p>

Only difference between it and a standard Copal is the self-cocking mechanism.<p><br>

I could (kind of) see the advantage for press work of automatically springing the aperture wide open to focus, but what pressman sticks their head under a darkcloth? Rangefinder focus was always the weapon of choice on LF press cameras.