Joaquín de prada in Opensx70 2minutes

SX-70 shutters, R configuration

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FIGURE 1.

You might remember it, it was the biggest story from April 2010, a kid, Brian Hogan had found an iPhone4 in a bar in Redwood City California. Problem is the iPhone4 didn’t yet exist as such yet: it was a prototype.

Brian said he called Apple trying to report the phone, true or not, the fact is that he sold the phone to Gizmodo for 5000 dollars.

Now let’s look back to September 8th 1975. (You can see the original bullentin at the end)

PRODUCT ALERT

FROM: Ted Liszewski

TO: All Center Services Managers

SUBJECT: SX-70 SHUTTERS, R CONFIGURATION

If a customer returns an SX-70 camera which has a shutter marked with an R configuration label, do the following to be sure it is, in fact, an R configuration shutter:

  1. Check to see if it has a solenoid 2 assembly, If it does, it is not an R configuration shutter.
  2. If it doesn’t have a solenoid 2 assembly, observe the blade opening. An R configuration shutter has blades that look like part A of Figure 1, while other shutter blades lock like part B of Figure 1.
  3. If the R shutter is not confirmed by steps 1 & 2, the shutter configuration was marked wrong.
  4. Then,determine if the shutter is hybrid or non-hybrid by using the bright light test with a flashbar inserted. Under a bright light the flash will not fire if the shutter is hybrid and will fire if the shutter is non-hybrid.
  5. Use appropriate test specifications for the shutter

If it is found to be an R shutter, good or bad, replace it with a Q shutter.

Record the customer’s name, address and telephone number and forward this information to me along with the shutter.

Specifications for the R shutter differ from all other SX-70 shutters.

But I’ve already shown you how the shutter works. The inefficient shutter, as was called, had a changing aperture, and was the work of the late Dr.Baker and Dr. Plummer. It has the characteristic teardrop shape in one way or another…

So the question is: what is this “R configuration” and why do they want the R configuration shutters back so badly?

Aside from asking Ted Liszewski we can only speculate, but I think they must be lost prototypes, probably given to employees.

So here’s my plea, if you have any information about the R Configuration or have a camera with that configuration, please contact me. Also, any related documentation would be very welcome.

Here’s the original document:

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