Using a Speed Graphic hand held - doable?

[Sirius Glass]

Thank you

Weegee did not seem to have a problem shooting hand held.

 

[toolbox]

I have a late model Crown Graphic that I've put quite a few miles on, and the only thing I've ever used the tripod socket for was attaching a handle mount flash to it. I've mostly used it for portraits and just general photography. The rangefinder is spot on with the stock 135mm Xenar, which makes it possible to shoot wide open if you're quick enough. Zone focusing would be a lot easier, but I don't always want everything from my nose to Mars in focus. For subjects that are relatively static, it's just like using any old camera with separate viewfinder and rangefinders. I've even used it to chase my kids around, which is a challenge for any manual focus camera...you have to be really quick with operating the camera, but it's definitely doable. It's a great way to learn about timing in photography LOL. I've also got a 3x4 Speed Graphic in nice shape, but I haven't used it much. It's not *that* much smaller than the 4x5, and I've got a Graflex RB if I really want to shoot a barrel lens. Anyway, I love my Crown Graphic. The best use for it (for me anyway) has always been pretty much what it was designed for--handheld documentary and general photography. I'd like to get a flash for it, but the Star Wars fan boyz have driven up the price of Graflex handles by turning them into light sabres .

 

[BrianShaw]

Thank you

Weegee did not seem to have a problem shooting hand held.

Nor did the thousands of other, less-known, press photographers.

Your welcome.

 

[Steve Smith]

Your welcome.

My welcome what?


Steve.

 

[BrianShaw]

You are always welcome, Steve... but that welcome was for the other Steve.

 

[lxdude]

Yeah, but what about his welcome?

 

[Railfan]

The 4x5 Speed Graphic is my favorite camera for shooting black & white. It allows me to continue using my favorite film, Tri-X 320 (now discontinued in rollfilm sizes). Typical exposure is 1/250 @ f11 with yellow filter. Prints are grainless with beautiful tones. The Speed Graphic has a vertically traveling focal plane shutter which, when shooting a fast moving object, will make the object lean in the direction of travel -- the faster the object, the more the lean. in the attached 1978 photo, the train was traveling approx. 80 mph and the image shows it!

Gary

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

It was a cool show, I saw it a few months back at the ICP. They had a recreation of his room as well as a wall of how his first show was setup. Many of his shots were done with a flash.

Flash was definitely part of Weegee's look, but it was also a way to get consistent exposures. One of the techniques he mentions is to practice focusing at two distances, like 10 feet and 6 feet, so that you can focus quickly when you don't have time to use the rangefinder or the groundglass. If you always use a flashbulb as the main light, then you can also determine the exposure for those two distances, and you could learn how to adjust the exposure for a small room, an auditorium or outdoors, and a #5 bulb outdoors at 10 feet, EI 100, 1/100 sec. should give you about f:16 according to the table from GE (http://graflex.org/flash/ge-5.html)--or the same amount of light as sunlight, and with a 127mm Optar, everything will be in focus from about 8 to 14-1/2 feet. So you get to the scene, tip up your fedora, stand 10 feet from the subject, set the focus and exposure for that distance, point the camera at the dead guy and shoot. Simple!

 

[Sirius Glass]

One of the reasons that many of Weegee's photographs were taken with flash is because he had a police radio that he listened to at night so he could rush to a crime scene.

 

[E. von Hoegh]

One of the reasons that many of Weegee's photographs were taken with flash is because he had a police radio that he listened to at night so he could rush to a crime scene.

At one time, the Police band was just above the AM broadcast band, right next to the 160m Amateur band. Many small table radios covered it.

 

[removed account4]

if you watch the movie private eye, with joe pesci you might get an idea what arthur fellig was like ...
he was often at the scene before the police, and he sometimes "adjusted"
the scene so it looked good compositionally

(morey amsterdam was the human joke machine
arthur fellig the human ouja board )

 

[Photo Engineer]

Yukka puck!

 

[mhcfires]

If you can hand hold a medium format camera or a 35mm camera then you can do the same with a Speed Graphic. In the same lighting conditions with the same speed film you can use the same shutter speed and aperture.

The advantage you have is its bulk. i.e. its inertia means you are less likely to get camera shake (unless you have puny muscles which will shake due to its weight!).


Steve.

My big problem with my Pacemaker is that between the weight of the camera body and the weight of the Kodak Aero-Ektar 178mm/2.5 lens, my arthritic wrists just can't hold it steady. It weighs just over 10 lb.! I gotta use the tripod for that one. I can still hand hold my Pre-Anny Speed without too much problem.

 

[TimFox]

When people tell me a 4x5 is too complicated for them, I remind them that Jimmy Olsen used a Graphic on Superman, and he wasn't the brightest bulb in the case.

 

[Ian Grant]

If you can hand hold a medium format camera or a 35mm camera then you can do the same with a Speed Graphic. In the same lighting conditions with the same speed film you can use the same shutter speed and aperture.

The advantage you have is its bulk. i.e. its inertia means you are less likely to get camera shake (unless you have puny muscles which will shake due to its weight!).

Steve.

I missed this but only partially agree. The problem is that with LF and 5x4 often you need to use smaller apertures to get similar sharpness/DOF etc, so it's a slightly different mindset.

On the other hand perehaps we start with too great an expectation. maybe it's time I used LF and my Speed graphic for some action images, maybe a visit to the local race track

Ian

 

[pentaxuser]

On the other hand perehaps we start with too great an expectation. maybe it's time I used LF and my Speed graphic for some action images, maybe a visit to the local race track

Ian

Wasn't it Speed Graphics that were used at all the 1940s and early 50s championship boxing matches. They seemed to catch a lot of the action at the Lamotta/ Robinson fights where action could be swift

pentaxuser

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

One of the reasons that many of Weegee's photographs were taken with flash is because he had a police radio that he listened to at night so he could rush to a crime scene.

In the recreation of his single room, he had strung up his radio with a makeshift antenna cable that stretched across the top of his wall.

Oh also the room recreation was based on a photo of his room.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Last year I took my Pacemaker Speed Graphic to the Armed Forces Air Show and only shot hand held. Many more photographs were taken of me using the camera than I took.

 

[Prof_Pixel]

My big problem with my Pacemaker is that between the weight of the camera body and the weight of the Kodak Aero-Ektar 178mm/2.5 lens, my arthritic wrists just can't hold it steady. It weighs just over 10 lb.!

I can remember using a Graflex Stroboflash IV with a Speed Graphic in the late '50s as a photographer for the U of M Michigan Daily paper. The battery pack for the Stroboflash IV was 9.5 pounds and we all walked around stoop-shouldered.

 

[aleksmiesak]

I hate to kidnap this thread but this discussion has been incredibly valuable and informative. I'm just getting into LF (love my 4x5 pinhole and find myself wanting more) and was looking into getting a Crown or Super Speed Graphic to get me started. Mainly this idea begun with a project of self portraits I've been planning for a while but I also see myself doing a lot of landscape work (my primary interest) with it down the road. Any recommendations as to Crown vs. Super Speed, or any other choice out there? Appears that the FPS is the major difference but would that matter that much for my purposes?

Thanks for all the help and keeping this discussion going

 

[jp498]

I use one handheld sometimes (and other times with a tiltall; another quality anachronism, and other times with a contemporary monopod) I focus on the groundglass and use the hoop to aim when handheld. Put some 400 speed film and have fun. Don't be afraid to listen or interact with people, because it's such an integral part of cultural history, many people are reminded of stories upon seeing one again.

Dead Link Removed

I like speed graphic rather than crown/super because I like to use non-shuttered lenses for some things. It's an options you don't get with most otherwise more capable view cameras.

A pacemaker will have some tilting abilities on the front standard and will have a graflock back (so you can use instant film backs or change more easily to roll film if you wish). I like graflock so I can use instant film, and it's just a nice solid way of doing camera backs. This would be slightly too new for a WWII event, but most 21st century people don't have the camera-nerd skills to establish the exact vintage of a speed graphic.

A pre-anniversary or anniversary will be a little lighter weight and have shutter speeds between 1/10 and 1/1000 sec, where the pacemaker will only go 1/30 to 1/1000 sec in fewer steps. I have a pre-anniversary I use for non-shuttered lenses and like the range of shutter speeds available to me. No X-sync with non-shuttered lenses though; gotta use old school non-strobe lighting. As far as movements, this has rise and that's it.

Shutter equipped lenses can go on either and will have their own sync options. You'll also find people have mixed and matched parts from different cameras too. People will swap rails/front standards or add a graflock back to make their camera to their liking.

 

[aleksmiesak]

I like speed graphic rather than crown/super because I like to use non-shuttered lenses for some things. It's an options you don't get with most otherwise more capable view cameras.

So what would be a benefit or reason for a non-shuttered lens? Pardon, if that sounds ignorant but I'm totally new to this

 

[mopar_guy]

Wasn't it Speed Graphics that were used at all the 1940s and early 50s championship boxing matches. They seemed to catch a lot of the action at the Lamotta/ Robinson fights where action could be swift

pentaxuser

Graflex made a special model called the Ringside camera. These were built with a basic 4x5 Speed Graphic body without a bellows and a special focusing cone for the owner supplied lens (something like a f1.8 or f 2.9 with a fairly wide angle of view). My copy of Graflex Graphic Photography Ninth Edition Revised Morgan and Lester 1952 Shows a picture of on on Page 381. These were reportedly a special order item and you had to supply your own lens. They are extremely rare and sell for a lot of money these days.

 

[removed account4]

Graflex made a special model called the Ringside camera. These were built with a basic 4x5 Speed Graphic body without a bellows and a special focusing cone for the owner supplied lens (something like a f1.8 or f 2.9 with a fairly wide angle of view). My copy of Graflex Graphic Photography Ninth Edition Revised Morgan and Lester 1952 Shows a picture of on on Page 381. These were reportedly a special order item and you had to supply your own lens. They are extremely rare and sell for a lot of money these days.

that is pretty interesting ...
a few years ago, steve grimes and i talked about a modification for my pacemaker which consisted
of two sliding metal rectangular boxes .. one on the front standard and the other inside
the camera box ... i had plans on doing handheld 4x5 documentary photography out of a helicopter and it was to keep
my bellows from pushing IN from the downdraft ... i guess if i had a ringside
i would have been home free !

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

So what would be a benefit or reason for a non-shuttered lens? Pardon, if that sounds ignorant but I'm totally new to this

A number of reasons. Nineteenth-century lenses often don't have shutters, because exposures were long, and shutters weren't necessary, and then there were roller-blind shutters that fit behind the lens. In the modern day, Sinar has made a few behind-the-lens shutter systems for use with lenses that have their DB system that does fancy things like letting you focus with the lens wide open, and then stopping it down to the shooting aperture automatically when the filmholder is inserted in the camera.

For lenses of the Speed Graphic era, you wouldn't need a separate shutter for each lens, if you had a focal plane shutter. That means not having the cost and weight of a shutter for each lens, and you can put a larger (faster or longer) lens on the lensboard without a shutter. The focal plane shutter will have higher speeds than most leaf shutters, and one shutter means more consistent exposures across lenses. Leaf shutters, however, sync with flash at all speeds. So if you want to experiment with old brass lenses or have a really fast lens like an Aero-Ektar, a Speed (not Super Speed, which is a leaf shutter lens camera) Graphic it what you would want.