Shutter, speed and angle

[shwagomatic]

I have a Russian made Zenit Quarz Super camera (featured here: http://www.athens.net/~macjava/super8page.html). I've been told the shutter speed of this camera, at 24fps, is 1/20th of a second. Can anyone cofirm this? Also, does anyone know what the angle of the shutter is?

I don't really trust the built in light meter and I'd like to use a handheld meter, but I can't unless I'm able to figure out the above.

Thanks for the help,
Shwag

[mattias]

let's see: if the film advances 24 times per second, how long does each frame stay in the gate? 1/24th of a second at the most. what is the longest exposure time possible then? tada. you don't need a math degree to realize that 1/20 would be impossible. ;-)

anyway, most likely it's close to 1/60 (150 degrees)...

/matt

[Matt Pacini]

I'm always amazed that anyone would want to buy a wind-up camera.
It's bad enough having batteries wear down...

Matt Pacini

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[rollemfilm]

as a bolex & filmo user i take great pride in the fact that i can go out and shoot all day a never plug in or use batteries. it gives you a freedom that is unmatched. i use motorized cameras when i need to do sound. in fact, hold on to something; with the filmo cameras i use, yes you guessed it, a handcrank! and i love it too!! try it sometime...

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[shwagomatic]

I don't believe it's that easy, Matt. Is the frame rate the same as shutter speed? It can't be.

I found the following comments describing a diagram of a 180 degree shutter. "The black square in left is the film gate, which is now exposed to light. When the shutter rotates, it covers the gate for half of the rotating time, so the exposure time with 18 fps film speed is 1/36 seconds. With 24 fps speed it would be 1/48 seconds, and with 9 fps 1/18 s." This information does me no good, since it's not describing my camera, but it does lead me to believe there is a difference between frame rate and shutter speed.

As to why anyone would want to use a wind up camera, maybe it's just for novelty sake. Why would anyone shoot super8 in the digital age? Maybe the same logic could be applied.

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[mattias]

> I don't believe it's that easy, Matt. Is the frame rate the same as shutter speed?

of course not, did i say something to suggest that it was? it is the theoretical limit though, since it's obviously impossible to expose a frame for any longer than it can stay in the gate.

anyway, very few super-8 cameras have 180 degree shutters, even though it's usually close to that. i would guess it's 150 degrees, and since you've found the formula now, you can do the math. i'm not going to give you the answer since i already did and you obviously didn't listen...

/matt