If you are into photography, you know how incredibly expensive most camera equipment can be. Once the word “professional” gets thrown into the mix, the prices go up another order of magnitude. Well, this incredibly well-made film camera tester is well within the budget of the hobbyist photographer, and gives you access to a tool usually only found in large, professional photo labs.
What does this kind of tester do? It helps you identify and potentially calibrate your film camera’s important settings, such as exposure, shutter time, delay between shutter and flash, and more. This can help diagnose issues with the shutter movement, such as uneven travel speed. It can also accurately measure exposure, which can be compared with the camera settings to see how well the camera is metering light.
For the exposure tests, you will need to provide or assemble your own calibrated light source, though the seller is working on building one (keep an eye on their store). However, the timing-based measurements can use any light source that is sufficiently bright.
The best part: it’s fully open source! This system could be expanded to perform any other camera tests you need. The documentation is great, and the fact it uses off-the-shelf components means hacking and/or repair is possible. The system is built around the Arduino Nano footprint, so both official Arduino boards and clones should work. This kit is a great addition to any film photo lab, big or small!
