That 'freeze test' for shutter speeds I laughed at actually works

Saw a guy on YouTube claim you can check slow shutter speeds by filming the curtain with your phone and counting frames. Thought it was nonsense. Tried it on a beat up Pentax Spotmatic last month. Counted 1/15th coming out as 1/8th. Grabbed my shutter timer to double check and it was dead on. Now I use it for quick checks before I dive into a full CLA. Anyone else got a trick they dismissed at first that proved useful?

3 comments

3 Comments

luna2612d ago

Used to be one of those guys that said "just buy a shutter timer" every time someone brought that trick up. Bought a beat up Nikon F2 with a sticky slow speeds last year, forgot my timer at home, tried the phone trick out of desperation. Felt like an idiot when it worked perfectly, matched the timer down to the frame. Saves me from dragging my whole toolbox out for a quick check on cameras I'm not sure about. Kinda hate that such a simple thing works better than I gave it credit for, but whatever, it's useful.

abbyf792d ago

Call me out next time you're feeling brave, @luna261. I'm still one of those guys who swears by my beat up old mechanical timer, but I've definitely eaten my words on this one a few times. Used the phone trick on a friend's Canon AE-1 last week when I couldn't find my light meter, and yeah, it worked way better than I wanted to admit. Guess it's time to accept that sometimes the hacky solution gets the job done even if it hurts my pride a little.

abby_fisher2d ago

My father had a battered Sekonic incident meter from the 60s that he'd swear by until the day he died, but @abbyf79 has a point about the phone trick saving time on quick checks. It's not perfect but it's honest work for a backup.