Reveni Labs, the Canadian photography accessories brand which has launched a range of light meters, has launched a new Kickstarter campaign for a camera shutter speed tester.
The campaign, which is due to run until 22 November, reached the £19,000 target within 24 hours of launching.
The shutter-speed tester is aimed at repairers, camera shop owners and collectors who need accurate measurements of camera shutter speeds.
“Our favourite film cameras aren’t getting any younger,” the Kickstarter campaign says. “Just like any machine, they need care and maintenance to keep them working. However, the repair shops of the golden age of film are no longer in business, and many of the skilled technicians have passed away, taking their knowledge and experience with them. The tradition of passing down the trade to the next generation has broken.
“The issue is understood, and lots of people are re-learning the craft of camera repair, but there are important tools needed for the trade which are also getting old and hard to find. Professional-grade test equipment can cost many thousands of dollars and is so old that they themselves are no longer reliable. It is difficult to start a camera repair business if you can’t rely on the equipment you need to do your job.”
Reveni Labs founder Matt Bechberger said he wanted the new device to be an affordable device for a new generation of repairers and camera sellers.
The tester can be used either horizontally or vertically according to the space allowed, and can be used to either test camera shutter curtains or leaf shutters inside lenses. It can also test the automatic exposure settings on aperture-priority or shutter-priority modes, as well as continuous shooting modes.
Bechberger says the camera can test shutter speeds as fast as 1/12000 and as slow as one second, and apertures from f/1.4 to f/32. Leaf shutters can be tested from 1s to 1/2000.
A full list of the tester’s capabilities can be seen on the Kickstarter page.
The tester costs CAN$499 (£298) and Bechberger expects the units to start shipping in April 2024 after construction and testing. The parts come from a variety of sources – China, Canada, the US and the UK – and every shipped tester will be tested and calibrated by Bechberger himself.
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
