An embarrasing discovery with my Crown Graphic!

Keith

Keith

The best camera is one that still works!
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For more than two years I've had this camera and today I discovered that for this entire period the focusing screens have been in back to front with the fresnel at the rear and the ground glass at the front.

This moves the represented focus plane away from the actual film plane by around three and a half millimetres with a corresponding inaccuracy of the rangefinder of course which I had calibrated to match what I was seeing on the screen! It explains a lot about some of the results I've been getting with this camera.

I feel suitably humiliated! 😱
 
Time to start another thread about xxxx mistakes. 😀 😀

Glad you at least discovered it and can now correct it. I presume it came that way?
 
Here's my LF "embarassing story"...

First time out shooting, with my Calumet 4x5 monorail, went to try and capture fall colors...

Got out to the country to find that the frost had hit about two weeks earlier, and most of the leaves were already down !

Decided to go shoot a magnificient concrete-arch rail-road bridge (largest of its kind in the world), known variously as the "Nicholson Bridge "or the "Tunkhannock Viaduct" of the Delaware, Lackwanna & Western RR.

Took me about 1/2 hour to get the shot set-up, between camera placement, camera movements, a dark-cloth that kept blowing-off the camera in the stiff breeze, a much too wimpy tripod that allowed the camera to shake and even vibrate in the wind, waiting for the sun to come-out from behind the clouds... etc.

My dear wife waited in the car...

Wound up making just two exposures, then packing up and calling it quits.

Took my film to the local pro lab for souping, and when I went to pick it up, the lab owner started asking me questions about my shoot: exposure, did I use a light-meter, and so-on...

When I asked him "why all the questions", he took my negs and walked-over to the light-box and put my two negs on it. One neg was almost completely clear, the other one had the faintest ghost of an image...

I was baffled... I explained the weather ( partly-sunny ), time of day ( mid afternoon, November), used a Gossen Luna-Six meter, exposure (1/100 @ f/ 11 on Portra 160 )...

We finally determined that when I loaded my film holders ( in a changing bag ), I had managed to flip the film so that the emulsion was facing AWAY from the lens... so any light from the lens had to get through the film base and any anti-halation backing... 😱:bang:

I've had better luck since... 🙄
 
Frank, you are a brave man with the wife waiting in the car...I would never try that...

I had the same problem as Keith but on a Yashica Mat 124g...I disassembled the viewfinder to clean the parts and didn't get them back in in the right order...
It was that way for some time and I only discovered it when I took a shot of a traffic cone that was dead on focused about 10' from me...when I examined the neg it was not sharp...that got me thinking and I found the problem...been very happy with it since...
 
Mostly had dark-slide accidents, forgot to close the shutter before removing the dark slide or, even better realizing i put the slide back in the same position about 3 seconds after i put the filmholder back in the bag with the other ones .. . but I learn as i go on, so different options now 😀
 
Hello Keith,
Well I'm quite a bit more embarrassed than you, and I apologize for the confusion and problems you had with the camera. I never realized that situation while I owned the Crown, and that is a sad commentary on my powers of perception. Again, I am truly sorry and apologize for selling the camera to you in that condition.
John
 
johnny9fingers said:
Hello Keith,
Well I'm quite a bit more embarrassed than you, and I apologize for the confusion and problems you had with the camera. I never realized that situation while I owned the Crown, and that is a sad commentary on my powers of perception. Again, I am truly sorry and apologize for selling the camera to you in that condition.
John
Click to expand...


No need to apologise at all John ... when I got the camera I dismantled the graflok and cleaned the screens in warm soapy water. I could swear I put everything back the way it came out ... I had it all laid out very carefully because I didn't really have a clue about how it all worked and didn't want to mix them up! It's very possible it was right when I got it and I'm the fool responsible for the reversal! 😛

To be honest you have my eternal gratitude for selling me this camera ... I just adore the thing and have learned to do my own maintainence with it as I've gone along. I've dismantled the lens and cleaned it along with the shutter and discovered that the rangefinder is easy to align ... provided you have the screens in correctly of course! 😱

I even bought a very early (1913) Zeiss Jena 16.5cm lens and Compur shutter from RFFer Mael for it and have mounted it in another lens board I got from Heavystar with a few modifications.

As I said I love the thing and I think it's given me more pleasure than any camera I've ever bought ... so breathe easy!

🙂 🙂
 
I know someone who did a wedding with a partially collapsed 50 mm. It was not me.

He got Summicron Rigids and saved the Elmar for personel use.
 
I can relate to what you say....

I can relate to what you say....

Keith said:
For more than two years I've had this camera and today I discovered that for this entire period the focusing screens have been in back to front with the fresnel at the rear and the ground glass at the front.
I feel suitably humiliated! 😱
Click to expand...

I think it was about two years before I found a tab at the bottom of the front standard on my first Graflex Super that released the front standard for swing and shift movements. This was something the other Graflex Press cameras did not have. It was a shock to push down on that tab and have the front standard rotate and move sideways.

One of the things I have considered is to make sure all my film holders are the same with regard to the film setback on both sides and for all holders.

Then I think it would be an interesting experiment to modify a holder with a ground glass and fresnel screen set at exactly the same dimension setback for the focus surface as the film in ALL the holders.

I would then use the modified holder/ground glass inserted in the same way as all the film holders. Focus on the modified holder, then replace it with a loaded film holder.

That way, if I switched cameras, my focusing surface holder and all of my film holders would work on the next camera without worrying about correct ground glass configuration.
 
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johnny9fingers said:
Whew, Thanks for letting me know that, and I am very happy you enjoy the camera. I think every photographer should shoot with a large format camera once in their lives.....
John
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I'm planning another outing for some street again next week and I have to say once in a lifetime is not enough with LF John!

As long as I have the Graphic I'll be compelled to drag it out every now and then to remind myself to slow down and think about my images ... images which should now be in perfect focus hopefully! 😀
 
kuzano said:
I think it was about two years before I found a tab at the bottom of the front standard on my first Graflex Super that released the front standard for swing and shift movements. This was something the other Graflex Press cameras did not have. It was a shock to push down on that tab and have the front standard rotate and move sideways......
Click to expand...

The Century, Crown & Speed Graphics have a press-down tab release for shift only.

It's an awkward design, to say the least, and I believe the left or rignt movement of the front standard is only about 12mm.

Yep, it is best to slow down when using a folding-bed large format camera, but some folks have other ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl0Pa7UTpuo
 
Solinar said:
The Century, Crown & Speed Graphics have a press-down tab release for shift only.

It's an awkward design, to say the least, and I believe the left or rignt movement of the front standard is only about 12mm.

Yep, it is best to slow down when using a folding-bed large format camera, but some folks have other ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl0Pa7UTpuo
Click to expand...


LOL ... brilliant clip and well worth posting in the next film verses digital thread! 😀

Thanks for the link.
 
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