A Prontor-Compur connection (also known as a PC connector, PC terminal, or PC socket) is a standard electrical connector (as defined in ISO 519ISO 519:1974, ISO 519:1992 (1992-11-25). Photography – Hand-held cameras – Flash-connector dimensions. Geneva: International Organization for Standardization.) used in photography to synchronize the shutter to the flash.
Etymology
"Prontor" has its origins in the Italian word "pronto", meaning ready (and was a leaf shutter made by ).History of the Prontor company. http://www.prontor.de/go/unternehmen-firmengeschichte/english.html "Compur" is derived from the word "compound" (the "" was a long-lived series of leaf shutters made by Friedrich Deckel).
History The term is derived from brands of widely marketed photographic leaf shutters manufactured from the early 1950s by two distinct, but now defunct German companies. (which made the Prontor-S and Prontor SV models, amongst others) and Deckel (the Synchro-Compur model, successor to the Compound model).
Both companies' brands, Prontor (from 1953) and Compur (from 1951), shared a common 1/8"-inch coaxial connector for shutter–flash synchronization. This convergence of design is not as coincidental as it might first appear, as the Zeiss organisation held a significant shareholding in both of these companies prior to the introduction of the shared connector.History of flash photography. https://www.photomemorabilia.co.uk/Ilford/Flash_History.html By the 1950s, Gauthier were manufacturing up to 10,000 Prontor shutters daily.
The Gauthier company's essence lives on as , which is a wholly owned subsidiary of . The Deckel company went bankrupt in 1994.
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