Need help with Kodak Synchro-Rapid 800 shutter.

[Rolleiflexible]

I just picked up a 101mm Ektar, set in a
Kodak Synchro-Rapid 800 shutter. The
shutter has a B but no T setting. Can
someone explain how to lock the shutter
open for framing and focusing?

Many thanks in advance for guidance.

[BrianShaw]

B with a locking cable release.

[Ian Grant]

I think like some of the Compur Rapid shutters you'll need to use a locking cable release. Often these shutters were used on cameras with no screen so no need for a preview. Some don't have a cable release socket either as that was on the linked shutter button on the camera.

Ian

[BrianShaw]

Good point, Ian. So to extend my suggestion... if no cable release, then use 1 second and compose/focus really fast!

[Ian Grant]

The 101mm f4.5 Ektar is usually in a Kodak Flash Supermatic shutter and my Kodak Reference Hadbook indicates they were usually found on Press cameras, the shutter has a full range of Speeds, B & T, flash synch and a blade arrester (for previewq whatever speed is set).

Later Ektars were in Compur and Epsilon shutters. My 101mm is in the flash Supermatic, my 203mm f7.7 Ektar in an Epsilon (Compur/Copal #0 fit).

Ian

[Rolleiflexible]

The 101mm f4.5 Ektar is usually in a Kodak Flash Supermatic shutter and my Kodak Reference Hadbook indicates they were usually found on Press cameras.

Ian, I bought a really clean Century Graphic
so I could steal the lens for my SL66. Now
that I have the camera in hand, I feel a bit
guilty relieving it of the lens, since the body
is so clean. (But only a bit.) Given that the
lens and shutter are on a press camera, it
surprises me to find no way to lock the
shutter open.

[Dan Fromm]

Sanders, the 101/4.5 Ektar was offered for 2x3 Graphics in the Synchro-Rapid 800. There's a picture of the lens in that shutter in The Bible, 10th ed, that shows no "T" setting and no blade arrestor.

So you're SOL (no relative of LOL). Use a locking cable release. There's one in the picture in The Bible that I mentioned, and that's a hint.

If you're bound and determined to hang a 4"/4.5 tessar type lens in front of your SL66, 101/4.5 Ektars in Flash Supermatic and 101/4.5 Raptars in Graphex/Rapax (same shutter, different engraving) not attached to cameras are fairly easily found and much less expensive than those attached to a camera. Thing is, my tests, both formal and informal, found that the 103/4.5 Graftar in Century shutter is a better lens than the 101 Ektar, so you might want one of them.

[Ian Grant]

At first I wondered if someone changed the shutter at some point because Kodak sold the 101mm f4.5Ektar in a Supermatic shutter, however the Graflex.org site states the Century Graphic has the !01mm f4.5 Ektar in the Synchro-Rapid 800 shutter which is listed as having no T setting, a better 105mm f3.5 Ektar is available in a Supermatic.

Seems Graflex offered 4 lens options for the Century Graphic. My 101mm Ektar is on a Busch Pressman.

I've a nice coated 105mm f4.5 Rodenstock Trinar but the Compur shutter has no T setting or cable release which makes the lens hard to use off the camera it was made for.

Why don't you try using the lens as is on the Century Graphic, I have to admit I've hardly used my Busch Pressman but then I do use a 5x4 Crown Graphic and Super Graphic mainly for hand held 5x4 and they are fun to use. Check out the rangefinder it may be OK. Working with a focused camera and the wire finder is quite liberating

Ian