Guess what it is

<p>For those who like puzzles - full info and explanatory picture tomorrow:</p><div></div>

<p>I'm guessing it's a flash synchronizer for shutters that have none, but backwards from the ones we usually see. I have a couple of old gadgets made for Leicas and cable releases, in which the shutter release operates the flash contacts. Those were pretty tricky to set up precisely. </p>

<p>My wild guess is that since this presumably does not have a motor and battery in it, it's designed for firing the shutter on some kind of folder in bulb mode, and closing it when the flash has fired. </p>

<p>"Google" says it's used to synchronize carburetors...</p>

<p><em>"Google" says it's used to synchronize carburetors...</em><br>

That's why I need help - I'm getting lousy gas mileage out of my camera right now :-)!<br>

All will be revealed tomorrrow ...</p>

The extension arm might fit properly on an Exakta? Synchro .. made in Germany .. are the letters on the front J/M? or

maybe J/H?

<p>I can guarantee that this one is not the one used to synchronize carburetors. I have one of those, and I even know how to use it. </p>

<p>It occurs to me that one other possiblity here is that it's a very primitive slave trigger. What if that photocell triggered the arm which then operated a pushbutton switch on another flash? </p>

<p>Or, as another alternative, if the arm is actuated by the focusing of a folding camera, could it be used to calculate the needed exposure for a flash? </p>

<p>Thanks for the responses guys.<br>

In an attempt to amuse myself without spending too much money, I have taken to collecting Kodak Retina cameras. My latest purchase arrived two days ago in the form of a shoebox into which somebody had packed his entire Retina outfit. There was a Ia camera and case in very good shape, 3 coloured filters and a Kodablitz bulb flashgun, also good, a slightly battered but working Gossen exposure meter, an "Autoknips" external self timer, sadly broken, and the object in the picture – all with instruction books for £45, very little more than the regular price for the camera alone.<br>

The appearance of the gadget and the presence of the word "synchro" in the name at first led me to suppose it had something to do with flash synchronisation, but it soon became clear that this gadget could be attached to the camera only by pushing the black-painted metal tongue into the camera accessory shoe from the front (it is specially shaped to go over the lug which normally prevents this). Once this had been done, this automatically placed an optical window over the normal camera viewfinder window while leaving the feeler lever to rest on one side of the lens mount.<br>

Correctly positioned in this way, it was obvious that the gadget is a detachable accessory coupled rangefinder - I've seen plenty of non-coupled examples, by Leitz and others, but never a coupled one – a pretty clever design! Although I shall probably never use it seriously, the object seems to work fine. I am posting a clearer picture of the object on its own, the first one was not terribly sharp, plus another of the object fitted to the camera. Thanks again for your interest.</p><div></div>

<p>And the gadget on the camera:</p>

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<p>Wow, Thanks.<br>

Cool, wicked cool, as we old Apple users say (too often).</p>