I finally used my pneumatic packard shutter the other day (on a Dallmeyer 4A, very nice).

I realised I was taking 11x14" photos faster than I'd ever managed in 8x10" or 4x5" because I wasn't farting around cocking or checking shutters.

Just squeeze, load, squeeze - etc...

From a users standpoint a packard works as how I think press shutters do - they cock themselves in the same action as tripping the shutter. Yup, packards work differently, but I refer to the simplicity of a one action er... action.

Why aren't they more popular ?