You already own a shutter tester

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For shutter speeds above 1/60 second, your TV screen or CRT computer monitor makes a very serviceable shutter tester. Not only is it quick and easy, it also provides an instant check for shutter fade with focal-plane shutters, something that many "real" testers don't do as well.

For just checking speeds, it works with both focal plane and leaf type shutters. The quickest way to do it is to remove the lens and look at the screen through the camera as you fire the shutter; for cameras with fixed lenses you can put a piece of groundglass in the film plane and look at that.

In either case, here's what you can expect to see:



Here's a photo of what the TV screen looks like, through an old mechanical shutter at 1/250 second:

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