2011-10-17

Compur Rapid (Zentralverschluss)

As an addendum to the Contaflex II here is the respective Compur Reflex leave shutter, sitting in the center of the Tessar, hence the German name 'Zentralverschluss' (Center Shutter). Anyway, the animation above and also the scheme below actually show nicely how the thing works. The comparison between the English and German names for the two main shutter types is quite interesting: The leaf shutter is named ZENTRALVERSCHLUSS in German, whereas the focal plane shutter is called SCHLITZVERSCHLUSS (Slit Shutter). In each case a mishmash of function and position description.
A leaf shutter is an interesting fine mechanical structure and was invented already in 1904 by Friedrich Deckel and Christian Bruns. They later successfully launched more and more improved versions. From Germany, the two companies Friedrich Deckel in Munich (Compur) and Alfred Gauthier in Calmbach (Prontor) dominated the market, both at the end part of the Carl Zeiss Group. Later, from Japan Copal and Seikosha became on par competitors. Within my cameras having a leaf shutter the Compur dominates (Contaflex II , Agfa Isolette II , Braun Super Colorette , Balda Hapo-24 ), then Seikosha ( Sears SL-9 , 35-V Aires ) and Copal (Yashica Lynx 5000 , Olympus PEN EES 2 ), the other ( Rollei 35 , Seagull ) are probably self-designed or built under license.

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