Make Your Own Shutter Tester

Use your personal computer and this simple circuit to test your shutter
At the time of this writing, we cannot find an affordable shutter-speed
tester available on the market. After investigating a number of alternatives,
however, we can report on an elegant and simple solution to make your
own.
Before diving in, it is worth noting that this method relies upon the
shutter working regardless whether the camera body is open or closed.
Obviously, this excludes all digital cameras and some modern film
cameras, which restrict shutter operation while the film back is open or
removed. All other roll-film cameras and large-format lenses can have
their shutters measured with this useful self-made device.
The concept is deceptively simple. A light-detecting sensor is placed
behind the camera body or lens, facing a light source placed in front of it.
A convenient source of light is a battery-powered torch or an ordinary
desk lamp. The circuit in fig.1 produces a small voltage pulse when the
light, falling on the sensor, changes abruptly. This voltage pulse is
recorded through the microphone or line-in socket of a personal computer
with the aid of an audio-capture program. The program must be able to
record a high-frequency signal and display the ‘audio’ waveform on a
timeline. Most PC sound cards are supplied with such software, and an
internet search finds several freeware or shareware audio-capture
programs.
fig.1 The circuit for the self-made shutter tester contains only simple electronic components. Either a photo diode or a
phototransistor can be used as a light sensor. A capacitor is included to protect highly sensitive microphone input circuitry. If
the shutter tester is used with a less sensitive line-in socket, the capacitor may be bypassed to give a stronger signal.

Light Sensor
The circuit in fig.1 relies on a reverse biased photo diode or transistor as a
light sensor, which change their resistance corresponding to a change in
incident light. Compared to traditional light-dependent resistors, photo
diodes and transistors react virtually instantaneously. The voltage at the
junction of the sensor and resistor changes with light level, and the change
is transmitted via the capacitor to the microphone input. The capacitor
blocks any DC voltages and lets just the transients pass. A positive pulse
occurs when the light level increases and a negative pulse when the light is
reduced. The component values are not overly critical and are easily
obtained from a hobby electronics store. To make the assembly more
robust, it is mounted in a small plastic box, preferably black, with the
sensor mounted behind a small hole (fig.2).
Setup
Conducting the test with a camera body, the self-made shutter tester is
carefully positioned, facing the film rails but without touching the delicate
shutter blades. A few rubber bands or some tape will safely hold the tester
in place. Depending on whether one is checking a leaf or a focal-plane
shutter, the lens is attached, and set to a working aperture, or removed
from the camera body altogether. The light source is placed in front of the
camera, facing lens or lens opening (fig.3). The camera or lens shutter is
wound, and the 3.5 mm jack of the shutter tester is connected to the
microphone or line-in socket of the computer.
fig.3 Depending on the type of shutter to be tested, the shutter tester is positioned behind camera or lens, and a light
source is placed in front of the camera.

Run the capture software and start a new ‘recording’. Immediately press
the shutter and stop the recording after the shutter closes. Several seconds
of recording will have occurred, so you must use the editing tools in the
software to find and extract the two pulses. Now, expand the timeline to
see them clearly and use the selection cursors to measure the time between
the pulses, halfway up the positive pulse and halfway down the negative
pulse, as shown in fig.4.

fig.4 Audio-capture software is used to measure the number of samples between two light pulses, which, in turn, equates
to the effective shutter speed.
 A little experimentation may follow where it could be necessary to alter
the ‘microphone’ gain or the light intensity to get the signal within the
range of the audio hardware. If there is no signal, it may be that the photo
diode or transistor is connected the wrong way around. Note that the line-
in socket of a sound card is less sensitive than the microphone socket, and
therefore, it may require a stronger illumination of the light sensor. To
protect your computer hardware, always start with a low setting and
slowly increase illumination, as required, to get a stronger signal.
For the example shown in fig.4, the freeware audio-capture program
‘Audacity’ was used on an Apple Macintosh. The screen shots show the
different waveforms recorded by a microphone and a line-in socket for a
1/500-second shutter setting. In this test, the audio sample frequency was
44.1 kHz, and 78 samples were captured between the leading edge of the
two pulses. This equates to an effective shutter speed of 78/44,100 or
1/565 second, which causes a slight underexposure but is still a good result
for a mechanical shutter.
Make a separate recording for each shutter setting, calculate all effective
shutter speeds and record them in a list. Optionally, also calculate the
shutter-speed deviations and chart the resulting f/stop errors for the entire
range (fig.5). As underexposure is more harmful to negative film than
overexposure, slow shutters are better than fast shutters. This explains why
the recommended acceptance criteria are more stringent towards fast
shutter speeds. For all calculations, remember that the shutter speed
markings on a camera or lens are rounded approximations. The true
sequence is 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, 1/128, 1/256, 1/512 and
1/1024 of a second.
film than overexposure (slow shutter), the acceptance criteria are more stringent towards fast shutter speeds.