Speed graphic questions

[Bertil]

An Ebay seller, Phenidon (Orfeus), has Very nice mirrors for the Kalart Rangefinder (ask him how to change!) eBay search on Graflex; I put one into my Crown Graphic recently and it is just excellent; has one more for my Speed. A working range finder is really the very essence of a Pacemaker! Welcome to join the social group "Grahics et al"!
//Bertil

 

[BetterSense]

I hastily exposed a negative today and it seems to have turned out fine. I forgot to put my darkslide in flipped, so then I couldn't tell which sheet was exposed and had to develop both of them to find out.

It's fiddly to get the film holder into the back, should I just ram it in there? I'm used to be gentle with cameras...

There is a circular flip-up site on this thing, but without something else to align it with it seems pretty worthless. Is there a "front site" that's missing or something?

Is the rangefinder useful as a framing tool? I need something to aim this thing.

 

[Fotoguy20d]

An Ebay seller, Phenidon (Orfeus), has Very nice mirrors for the Kalart Rangefinder (ask him how to change!) eBay search on Graflex; I put one into my Crown Graphic recently and it is just excellent; has one more for my Speed. A working range finder is really the very essence of a Pacemaker! Welcome to join the social group "Grahics et al"!
//Bertil

He's charging $26 (I just looked). You could probably get an entire Kalart in good condition for less than that.

Dan

 

[Bertil]

Good condition is one thing (where do you get them?), but a really excellent mirror is another thing -as far as I have seen; but OK if everything is good !! (I didn't mind paying some $10 dollar on top of that for shipping these mirrors to Sweden!)
//Bertil

 

[brian d]

There is a circular flip-up site on this thing, but without something else to align it with it seems pretty worthless. Is there a "front site" that's missing or something?

There should be a front finder that telescopes up from the front standard to use with the rear flip up part. Look closely at the picture at the Graphics et al group and you will see it

 

[Anscojohn]

[
It's fiddly to get the film holder into the back, should I just ram it in there? I'm used to be gentle with cameras...
*****
Use your index finger and your thumb to pull up the holder at the open end until you get the holder started in. There are little nubbins there just for that.

There should be an optical viewfinder. If it is missing, use the metal flip up and the front flexible frame as described by other.

 

[Fotoguy20d]

Good condition is one thing (where do you get them?),
//Bertil

I have 3 from 4x5 Pacemakers sitting in my living room at the moment - all nice and contrasty. I have a NOS one for an Anniversary model sitting in its box, and a couple of others (condition unknown due to lack of remembering) floating around somewhere. The 3 all come off of cameras that I couldn't repair (bad bellows or bad rear rails in all 3 cases) so I used a couple of parts and the rest are either in a box waiting for a rainy day (I have another Crown coming that will need a Kalart and a couple of other things to get up and running but rails and bellows are okay I'm told) or on ebay.

 

[BetterSense]

Do any of the FP shutter speeds sync to electronic flash? If so how can I trigger it? I see there's what looks like a plug on the side of the camera.

I wish flashbulbs were still widely available, they are really cool.

 

[Anscojohn]

I think the fp shutter can synch to long peak bulbs. Not sure. I will check my instruction manual when I get home. If you wish, I can copy it and mail it to you. Won't be home till after the holiday. The Graflex.org site is just great. Have you located the frame finder on the front of the camera? And the vernier/semi vernier sliding focus scale is easily adjustable for the focal length of the lens you are using. Of course, if you are doing close-up work, you are using the ground glass anyway, right?
Others have alluded to this next point, Better: I shall be explicit. Speedies are addictive.

 

[brian d]

Speedies are addictive.

 

[EASmithV]

Ugh... Just a shameless plug, but if anyone has a good rangefinder/optical viewfinder they don't want, please PM me. My Pacemaker never had one installed.

 

[BetterSense]

It works. Hurray for resolution (and dust). Scan of a contact print

 

[BradS]

It works. Hurray for resolution (and dust). Scan of a contact print

Well done! Congrats.

 

[Anscojohn]

It works. Hurray for resolution (and dust). Scan of a contact print

You're hooked, Better Sense. What lens, film, shutter speed, and film-developer?

 

[BetterSense]

That 135mm enlarger lens you sold me, very old foma 200 shot at 100ish, my homemade spotmeter, f/8, 125 as I recall, and straight d23. I literally just walked out and snapped it before I had to go to class. I'm surprised it came out sharp; it seemed like it took forever for that FP shutter to cross the image and the camera seemed like it was wobbling all around.

 

[EASmithV]

That 135mm enlarger lens you sold me, very old foma 200 shot at 100ish, my homemade spotmeter, f/8, 125 as I recall, and straight d23. I literally just walked out and snapped it before I had to go to class. I'm surprised it came out sharp; it seemed like it took forever for that FP shutter to cross the image and the camera seemed like it was wobbling all around.

That's the magic of the Speed Graphic Grats!

 

[BetterSense]

I'm starting to realize how slow LF cameras are, especially considering the weak DOF at moderate apertures, plus the fact that there's not Delta 3200 available (wouldn't that be awesome?). Once upon a time, these things used to be used with flashguns and flashbulbs. How were they sync'd up? Did you have to run a separate PC cord from the flash gun up to a PC terminal on the leaf shutter (assuming it had one)?

Also, is there some trick to focusing on the ground glass? I was setting my infinity stops using a simple loupe, and even at f/4.5 it seemed like finding the point of critical focus required a lot of interpolation. I could see the fresnel clearly in the loupe and the ground glass image seemed pretty course and of course, small. If one was blowing up big prints, I can imagine the best possible focus could be important.

 

[Ian Grant]

Earlier this year I finally fitted a fresnel screen to my main Crown Graphic, this improved screen brightness by 2½ stops and makes focusing very much easier, faster etc. (I do NOT recommend the supplier I used !!!). But as you've noticed Loupes & Fresnels don't really go together I find the fresnel means focus snaps in/out easily and accurately.

I use the camera hand-held most of the time (tripods aren't permitted at many places I photograph) and so using a loupe is not an option anyway. I don't have problems with focusing, and there's no problems with lack of sharpness with larger prints 20"x16"+, I use HP5 and normally stop down to at least f16, usually f22 @ 1/100th.

Ian

 

[bdial]

Many of the common Speed Graphic lens shutters are synced for flash. Unless it's a very modern lens it won't have a PC terminal though. Usually it's a bi-post. Others only sync via the solenoid which is actuated from the flash. The focal plane shutter, at least on the ones I'm familiar with, have a bi-post terminal as well, though the focal plane shutter needs a long duration flash bulb.
Some lenses may have an x-sync setting which could be used with electronic flash.

For focusing, are you using a dark-cloth? The focus hood on Graphics works, but a dark-cloth will help. Also you could try a loupe with less magnification.