Pro tip: Found a 1970s repair guide that says to test shutter speeds with a piece of paper

I was digging through a box of old manuals from a closed shop in Cleveland and found a guide for a Pentax Spotmatic. It said to check the slow speeds by listening for the 'paper rustle' as the shutter curtain moved a sheet placed against the film plane. I always thought that was a modern hack, but it's in the original factory literature. Has anyone else seen this method in old guides?

4 comments

4 Comments

elliot_roberts24d ago

Remember reading that exact manual in a library years ago. It was less about being fussy and more about having zero other options in the field. No easy way to test a meter back then either, you just bracketed like crazy and hoped for the best. That paper trick was a real fix for a real problem when you couldn't just run to a lab. Makes total sense it was in the book.

lily_cooper2h ago

Funny how that old fix is basically the same logic as a modern sound-based shutter speed app.

lucasw8424d ago

Honestly, the "paper rustle" method sounds like a neat trick but I doubt it's that serious. Tbh you could probably just use the camera and see if the photos look fine. It feels like one of those overly fussy things from a different time.

oliver_stone1524d ago

Yeah @lucasw84 gets it. That paper trick is for the old guard who shot film. My grandpa swore by it. Checking a shutter by sound and feel. Now you just fire off a test shot, check the screen. Different tools, different rules. No need to make it harder than it is.