All hail 2x3 Graphics, the Supreme Rulers of Medium Format

It's not only about the camera system. Some people don't have the funds to shoot 4x5 and larger film. It's a matter of staying within a smaller budget. Also, some people prefer to deal with roll film instead of fiddling with sheet film. Lastly, the camera systems are generally smaller/lighter.

Love my baby speed. Modified with graflok back. Use 6x9 backs mostly but use 6x7 on occasion. Use it with a 5 lens kit. Rear shutter is great with barrels. When shooting hand-held, lot's of curious people commenting, specially when I fire off some bulbs. It is always with me.

I had one, very briefly, in the mid 1960s, when I dropped out of boarding school and became a cadet journalist for a provincial daily newspaper. I got it, I think, to copy the work of the staff photographer, who was at the time a Living Legend in New Brunswick, Canada, and who had a 3x4 Crown Graphic, which was stolen from his car. It couldn't be replaced, so he bought my 2x3 Speed. I then got a good secondhand Rollei TLR, which I still have.

As a callow youth I thought the Graphics were iconic, but in actual use I found them more of an acquired taste, to be matched with suits with wide lapels, unattractive hats (as all men conventionally wore then) and a cigarette endlessly dangling from the lower lip, liberally dispensing ash to the winds. The Living Legend photographer smoked 60 unfiltered Camels a day. He made it to 57 or 58 but then had to retire for health reasons, and died a few months later from lung cancer. Iconic indeed... His family offered me the Speed Graphic I had sold him, but their asking price was too high for me. I do wonder what happened to that camera. Likely long lost, or sold to a non-resident. American summer visitors to New Brunswick then had plenty of cash and knew the value of things. Many wonderful cameras were sold and went stateside.


I tried and tried, but I just couldn't bond with the 2x3. The rangefinder didn't suit me, the Kodak lens was too slow for my liking, the focal plane shutters were too noisy, focusing was a pain, and I hated having to load sheet film holders in the darkroom. A roll film back would have been the ideal solution for me, but on my pittance salary of CDN $35 a week I couldn't afford it. The Speed Graphic cost me,I recall, all of CDN $200 and cleaned out my savings. The good old days, ha!


The local photo studios all used the 4x5 Graphics but I thought they were behemoths. An established wedding and reception photo man had a 5x7 portrait Graflex which he used propped up on a small table, no less. The thing was like a load of cement blocks and would have collapsed any tripod. I once got to handle one of the 4x5 Graphics. The focal plane shutter mechanism was daunting and slow to work with. For me the lens shutters were the best way, but no studios had these at the time.


About ten years ago a friend in Australia introduced me to his collection of six Speed and Crown Graphics and kindly let me use one whenever I liked, with a Zeiss Tessar lens, a Graflok? Grafmatic? 6x9 roll film back for 120 (can't remember what these were called) and a ground glass focusing back. I shot many superb images with this combo, and realised how much my photo shooting style had evolved over the decades. Back in 2006-2007 I would have bought one, had I found one in good working order, but alas, Down Under they seem to be as rare as diamonds on the street. A lovely camera but a time warp piece, I reckon. I now occasionally use a Zeiss Nettar 6x9 folding with a Tessar 105mm 3.5, apparently a rare camera which I find somewhat fiddly to use, but it produces negatives ALMOST as good as the Graphic did. I still use the Rollei as well.

Anyway, my Speed Graphic memories.

Small press cameras with roll backs are pretty nifty. My first or second good camera was a small press camera, an FR Reporter (http://www.presscameras.org/cameras/FR_Reporter.html), my next two were small Speed Graphics, and that was before I was 16. Then I shot weddings for a while with a Century, and a few years ago picked up another one just for fun. It's fine if you want a hand camera with just one lens, but mostly that's not what I want.

I remember my very first attempt to develop film, by ripping it out of the holder in my parent's kitchen on a Saturday afternoon, rushing to push it into the bottom of a tray, covering it with my hand so the light wouldn't get to it. For some reason that first attempt was not successful. Then I found out about darkrooms, and what they were for.

Two from the beginning, both when I was around 11 or 12 or so. The first was shot with an FR Reporter and sheet film, the second with a mini-Speeder and 6x9 roll back. The first is of a friend my age who liked to take naps:





And another from more recently, with a 6x7 roll back:

Ian Grant said:

Bit harsh Stone. I used to use my 5x4 Wista with a 6x9 back it was fast as using sheet film and using a 6x9 Graphic with a roll film back wouldn't be much different. No-one's suggesting shooting 6x9 sheet film.

Your looking at it as a 6x7 user with a Mamiya 7, but the Mamiya lenses are no better than modern Schneider, Rodenstock, Nikon etc LF/MF lenses and your Mamiya 7 has no movements. Nor does the RB/RZ series which I contemplated many years ago. My big issue with MF is lack of any movements with SLRs and Rangefinders except the Fuji 6x8 which is of no interest to me.

I think Dan's right in his opening post, the Graflex backs are quite light I have a pair of RH10s (6x7) and they are quite small, plus you can get 6x6 and 6x9 backs as well. Lenses are also relatively small and light so a complete kit would be very small and versatile. I can think of two overseas trips where taking LF wasn't feasible and in hindsight a 6x9 Graphic would have been ideal. I took a 6x17 camera when we went to South America and a TLR to Spain.

Unfortunately I use my 5x4 Speed Graphics or I'd trade with you One's a specially modified WA pre-Anniversary Speed Graphic camera. I'm in North America in the Autumns an hopefully can have a 6x9 Graphic sat waiting for me, with some film.

Ian

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True, totally, I guess I was looking at it more like, well if I want movements I might as well use 4x5, because it's not that much bulkier than any of my 6x7 type cameras and might as well get more detail. The added effort of shooting 2x3 sheet film is how I view it for me, the roll film backs to me are a pain, I got rid of mine for 6x12 for my 4x5 a while back.

But that's the great thing about all of these film formats, you can customize to fit your own particular style and habits.

Don't forget to pick up some 4x5 Velvia50 from my special group buy order before autumn!

My 4x5 is lighter and has far more movements than a Baby Speed, though it does not come in its own case and that speedy set-up. I have to use a slip-in roll back, but it is what I am used to and I like the versatility of being able to shoot 4x5 or 120 film with one camera...more practical for me instead of a dedicated MF view camera.

hi dan

i can see why you like that camera it does what you need it to do.

i've never had a baby speed, but i had a baby graflex with a 23 roll film back.
it was fun enough that i felt guilty that it wasn't as big as the camera i usually use.
the optics were magical the camera perfectly weighted and was ez to use. i imagine
the 23 speedy is the same way. ..

Hi, John. Exactly. I'm not at all in love with the 2x3 RB Ser. B Graflex I had modified to make a Baby Bertha because although it is an SLR (good!) it is much more limited that its press camera cousins.

Dan Fromm said:

Hi, John. Exactly. I'm not at all in love with the 2x3 RB Ser. B Graflex I had modified to make a Baby Bertha because although it is an SLR (good!) it is much more limited that its press camera cousins.

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hey dan

yeah it is wicked limited compared to a press camera,
but that's ok. i've gotten used to the limitations of low angle slr's

baby bertha ?! you must be grimes &co's best customer !

John, Baby Bertha was an expensive catastrophe. You can read about her here: http://www.galerie-photo.com/baby-bertha-6x9-en.html A 6x9 Arca-Swiss or Makiflex/Pecoflex would have been a better starting point than my little RB.
I doubt I'm SKGrimes' best customer. Haven't had them do anything for several years, although I have a small backlog of little things to ask them to do. The last couple of times I went there I saw many lenses, some very exotic, that belonged to the arsonist Fatali in for for adapters and other services.

hi dan,
expensive or catastrophe, that is quite a work of art you assembled.! thanks for the link

i had a feeling they a bunch of your work .. no arsonists' lenses and whatnot on the table when i was there last
the last time i was there was before they moved, and i think i took the elevator to the wrong floor and got disoriented
and earlier adam pointed out some of the stuff ready to be shipped or work on and he mentioned your name

good ol' woonsocket, city on the move !

mdarnton said:

...
Two from the beginning, both when I was around 11 or 12 or so. The first was shot with an FR Reporter and sheet film, the second with a mini-Speeder and 6x9 roll back. The first is of a friend my age who liked to take naps:

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I really, really like those - that's more than good photography for when you were a pre-teen.

Somehow, I think if you slipped them into a collection of some of the well-known street photographers, they wouldn't be out of place.

You can add me to the list of happy miniature 2x3 Graphic users. My main set up is a Kodak 105/3.7 lens and a Angulon 65/6.8. Very versatile camera!
It usually has a Horseman 6X9 back with it. It fits in a very lightweight Ape Case sling bag with viewfinders, filter, meter etc. I also have 6x6 and Grafmatics to use and other lenses - especially a 100/5.6 Apo-Symmar . The only movement I usually care about with 6X9 is front rise and my Crown has enough of that. You can obtain front tilt with the 105 lens by dropping the bed and then using the front tilt. With that you need the ground glass to focus of course.

I have more than one Horseman 980. I like these cameras but they are heavier than the 2x3 Grahics and if movements are desired my 4X5 Bush Pressman or Sinar f2 are more appropriate in my opinion.