Front Tilt on a Pacemaker Speed Graphic

[Ian Grant]

Pacemaker Speed Graphics are great for what they were designed for: hand held 4"x5" photography with limited movement. If you want to use movements, get a view camera that can share the lenses on the same lens boards.

It wouldn;' have taken much to turn the Speed Graphics into a far more versatile camera, Graflex instead released the Super Graphic ditching the FP shutter, so OK no shutter but by then most lenses were available in a leaf shutter. I have one, while it doesn't have the same range of movements of the Wista 45DX I've used for nearly 35 years in practice it's always had enough for my use, unlike my Speed/Crown Graphics, and is great for hand held work with a range of lenses.

Ian

 

[Donald Qualls]

Sure, but the Speed Graphic had the advantage of being available before and during WWII. And when it came out, there were a LOT of lenses around in barrels, even though the lens sold on the camera was almost always in shutter. The other reason for the focal plane shutter, of course, was higher shutter speed. When shooting in full sun with the faster films of the day (equivalent modern ISO 250-400), it was completely practical to run the shutter to maximum tension and smallest slit for 1/1000 -- which nothing else could do before about 1950.