Reveni Labs Camera Tester

Reveni Labs are back and with something really cool, the Reveni Labs Camera Tester. I cannot overstate how useful this is for the film camera community. They have put their incredible minds together to come up with a small and easy to use camera tester. Something that I am sure many enthusiasts and repair people will greatly appreciate. I know that I want one. Check it out.

Reveni Labs Camera Tester is a professional-grade testing machine to analyze many functions of cameras and LF lenses/shutters. It is capable of advanced testing of the shutter curtains, leaf shutter, lens aperture, light meters, and more.

Our favourite film cameras aren’t getting any younger. Just like any machine, they need care and maintenance to keep them working. However, the repair shops of the golden age of film are no longer in business, and many of the skilled technicians have passed away, taking their knowledge and experience with them. The tradition of passing down the trade to the next generation has broken.

The issue is understood, and lots of people are re-learning the craft of camera repair, but there are important tools needed for the trade which are also getting old and hard to find. Professional-grade test equipment can cost many thousands of dollars and is so old that they themselves are no longer reliable. It is difficult to start a camera repair business if you can’t rely on the equipment you need to do your job.

The Reveni Labs Camera Tester hopes to address this issue by providing a modern device capable of advanced camera system analysis, while using modern components and parts to reduce cost and size.

The Reveni Labs Camera Tester can be operated in a vertical or horizontal configuration, with or without a sensor holding jig, providing flexibility for different workflows, preferences, and camera types.

The Camera Tester is targeting professional and amateur camera repair technicians, as well as camera stores, film labs (to offer testing as a service to clientele/help debug issues with development results), eBay vendors, and serious collectors who wish to judge their cameras with a technical eye to determine when a CLA is necessary.

Key Features

  • Three-sensor horizontal and vertical curtain analysis
  • Curtain-velocity compensated timing for maximum accuracy
  • Single-sensor shutter efficiency and leaf shutter analysis
  • Aperture and lens transmission
  • Automatic exposure testing
  • Multi-sample averaging
  • Vertical or horizontal operating positions
  • Continuous shooting framerate
  • Flash sync input
  • Powder-coated aluminum housing
  • 3”x3” (75mm x 75mm) LED light panel
  • Multi-detector sensor heads
  • Stainless steel sensor jig rods
  • Backlight LCD graphical display
  • USB software update

DEVICE SPECIFICATIONS

  • Weight (with sensor jig) – 2 lb (900g)
  • Dimensions (main body) – 6” x  7“ x 3” (150mm x  180mm x 75mm) width x depth x height
  • Display – 3.5” (89mm) 240×160 pixel backlit graphical LCD
  • User Input Interface – Five momentary pushbuttons
  • Power Requirements – 12V DC 1A minimum pin-positive barrel jack wall adapter (included)

LIGHT SOURCE

  • Brightness Range – EV 17 to EV7
  • Variation Across Surface – <0.1EV at EV 17
  • Colour Temperature – 2800°K TYPICAL

FOCAL PLANE SHUTTER ANALYSIS

  • Speed Range –30s to 1/12000s
  • Sensor Placement –Top left, middle, bottom right detectors
  • Accuracy – Better than 50us in most conditions (<5us in ideal conditions)
  • Precision – 1 microsecond
  • Additional Readouts – EV error, Curtain open/close time, curtain velocity, flash sync time

LEAF SHUTTER ANALYSIS

  • Speed Range – 1s – 1/2000s
  • Sensor Placement – Single central detector
  • Accuracy – Better than 50us in most conditions (<5us in ideal conditions)
  • Precision – 1 microsecond
  • Additional Readouts – Leaf opening/closing time, wide open time, total time, computed effective shutter speed, graphical shutter plot

APERTURE TESTING 

  • Aperture Range – f1.4 to f32
  • Accuracy – < 0.1 EV
  • Precision – 0.1f

AUTOMATIC EXPOSURE TESTING

  • Shutter Speed Range – As above, leaf shutter mode (leaf shutter mode is used for all shutter types in AE mode)
  • Aperture Range – As above
  • Additional Readouts – Aperture size, effective shutter speed, EV error for each, combined EV error

The Camera Tester has been launched on Kickstarter and is already close to its goal. And no wonder, it is a pretty fantastic product for a very fair price. It will be shipping in Spring 2024 for a price of $524 Canadian ($384 USD equivalent as of 2023-10-11) and will be shipping worldwide. Check out the Kickstarter link here.

Check out @revenilabs on Instagram as well. And their website https://www.reveni-labs.com/

Congratulations to Matt Bechberger, founder of Reveni Labs for this fantastic product. I hope there are many more wonders to come.

JCH