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Caught a mistake with shutter speed calibration on my bench today

I was working on a Nikon FE2 this morning in my shop near Austin and noticed something weird. A lot of people online say to just use a phone app to check shutter speeds but those things are way off. My tester showed the 1/1000 was actually 1/750 which is a full stop off. Has anyone else had bad luck with those phone light sensor apps for timing?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavin_clark24d ago

Soldered up a photodiode and arduino setup a few years back for that exact reason... phone apps just don't have the precision for mechanical shutters. Had a Canon AE-1 that was off by nearly a full stop at 1/500. Bought a proper tester off ebay for cheap and it's been night and day difference for dialing in the adjustments. Your FE2 sounds like it just needs a good CLA, those old Copal shutters usually clean up nice.

alex52424d ago

Wait... you put together your own photodiode and arduino setup? That's wild. I can barely get my soldering iron to melt stuff without burning my fingers. Props to you for building your own tester though. Those phone apps really are garbage for anything serious. I tried one on my Minolta SRT once and it told me my 1/500 was actually 1/1000, which would have sent me on a wild goose chase if I hadn't double checked with a real tester. Your rig sounds way more reliable than any app out there.