Found out most shutter speeds are off by 10 percent

I was testing a Pentax K1000 I got off Craigslist last month and ran it through a shutter tester app on my phone. Turns out the 1/1000 speed was actually firing at 1/900, which is way more than I expected. I looked it up on a repair blog and apparently old mechanical shutters drift that much over 20 years. Anyone else find big differences on vintage gear?

2 comments

2 Comments

dixon.iris1mo ago

Yeah the 1/1000 on my Nikon FE is actually 1/800. Annoying.

gavinb971mo ago

Man tell me about it, I've got a couple old cameras and it drives me nuts how off the shutter speeds are. Mine are all slow by like a third of a stop too, seems like they all drift that way over time. At least it's consistent though, right? Once you know it's 1/800 you can just adjust your exposure a little and it's fine. Still kinda stings when you think you've got a perfect shot and realize later the camera was lying to you the whole time.