Compur

Early dial-set Compur shutter on Contessa Nettel Cocarette image by Kimmo Kulovesi (Image rights)

Compur Rapid EX/CR00 image by Hans Kerensky (Image rights)

Compur is a long-lived series of leaf shutters that were made by the German company F. Deckel, based in München (Munich), Germany. The Compur appeared in 1912 and was based on the Compound, but was equipped with a geared slow speed governor instead of a piston and cylinder device.

The first Compur shutters were dial set. This means that the speed setting is by way a rotating dial at the top of the shutter plate. The later models were rim set, with a speed setting rim around the shutter housing. Some Compur shutters were equipped with a self-timer beginning from 1928. Compur shutters have a set of speeds like T,B, 1, 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, 1/20, 1/50, 1/100, 1/250 with some having 1/300 instead of 1/250

The Compur-Rapid is a model released in 1935, attaining 1/500 in #00 size and 1/400 in #0 size. Some of the late model shutters had a flash terminal but this is for bulbs (M flash sync).

After the war, the Synchro-Compur added a flash sync swith for M or X and flash is connected using a the PC (Prontor-Compur) socket—the "German" style connector, which eventually became the global standard. At some point in the 1950s the speeds were changed to the modern set of speeds: B, 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8,1/15,1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500

Several variations of the Synchro-Compur can be found with suffxes such as Mx, MXV, with V indicating self time.

During WWII the Japanese shutter maker Bikōdō probably made Compur variants named Tokyo Compur and Rapid Compur for the Rollekonter TLR cameras.

Synchro-Compur image by Rainer Marx (Image rights)

details of shutter mechanics image by Warren Yee (Image rights)

Compur-Rapid shutter, circa 1937 image by Voxphoto (Image rights)

Synchro-Compur P, circa 1959 image by Voxphoto (Image rights)

Bibliography

• Kamera no mekanizumu sono I: "Hai! Chīzu" Shunkan o torae-tsuzukeru shattā-ten (カメラのメカニズム・そのⅠ・「ハイ！チーズ」瞬間をとらえ続けるシャッター展, Camera mechanism, part 1 "Cheese!" Exhibition of instant taking shutters). Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 2002. (Exhibition catalogue, no ISBN number)

Links

• Compur serial numbers
• Up and Down with Compur (here the German version) by Klaus-Eckard Riess in his camera site
• A discussion of the postwar Compur-Rapid and Synchro-Compur models in a page by Andrew Yue about the Agfa Isolette
• Repair notes of a rimset Compur and of a Compur-Rapid at Daniel Mitchell's camera site
• Synchro-Compur servicing at Roland and Caroline's website
• Compur shutters at S.K. Grimes
• Compur shutter service manual and Synchro-Compur service manualat Learn Camera Repair