That old shutter tester called me out on my messing around yesterday

I was testing a beat up Nikon FM2 from the 80s, had the shutter tester running and some old timer walks up. He says "you know, we used to just use our ears on these, no screen needed." I thought about it and he's right, I spend more time looking at graphs than actually listening to the camera. Made me wonder how much skill I am losing by relying on these digital readouts. Anyone else find themselves going back to the old ways on certain jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

hollyg5915d ago

My dad had a Yashica Mat from the 60s he used for weddings, and the shutter sounded different on each speed. He used to say the 1/60th had a little hiccup in the middle of the sound. I was messing with that same shutter tester on an old Kiev 88 last month and the graph looked fine, but when I held it up to my ear the mirror slap was way off. There is something about the rhythm of the camera that the screen just can't pick up. It's like learning to read engine sounds on a car versus just plugging in a diagnostic tool. The feel and the sound tell you about the internal tension and lubrication that a number on a graph misses completely. Maybe we are losing some of that instinct that comes from just paying attention.

wrenh6515d ago

Read this thing the other day in a vintage camera blog about how repair shops used to train apprentices by blindfolding them and having them cycle through shutter speeds on different cameras. They had to learn to hear the difference between a 1/500 and a 1/1000 just by the pitch and duration of the click. That kind of training builds a whole other level of awareness. The digital readouts are great for catching a stuck blade or a slow curtain, but they don't tell you if the camera feels tired or if the damping is acting up. I mean, a graph can show you a clean 1/125th but your ear can tell you the spring is getting weak because the sound is just a little flatter. It's like listening to a musician tune by ear versus using a tuner app, you lose that muscle memory for what's actually right.