Graflex Expert(s)

venchka said:
Hey guys, would one of the convertibles work on a Graphic?
QUOTE]

It will depend upon the convertible lens. I have only one convertible lens a Wollensak Voltas and it is 12.5" with both elements, 20" with rear element only, and 28.5" with front element only. It will cover 8x10 negative (it came with an 8x10 Camera) it is uncoated and gets a little soft in the corners but is fine for contact prints.

Even with both elements at the 12.5" length it is too long to focus with the graphics. I would do my homework and look for a convertible lens that is in the range of 165mm combined and maybe 240mm with one element for use on a 4x5 graphic, sorry I can't name any off of the top of my head right now.

You may find this link interesting:

http://www.cameraeccentric.com/html/info/wollensakcath/p26.html

Wayne
Click to expand...
 
I'm thinking I'll be ok with the standard lens to begin with, then maybe something a bit wider with more room for movements.

I do want the press camera though. I may often use it on a tripod, but I'm not willing to give up at least the possibility of handholding.
 
Steve, if you think you might want to play with funky vintage lenses sometime in the future that typically and more economically don't come with their own shutter, consider buying a speed graphic with a focal plane shutter exactly for this reason. That's what I did.
 
The speed graphic is a the top of my list at the moment.
Right now I'm trying to figure out if there is a difference between a Super Speed Graphic and a Super Graphic.

I desperately need books. Reading on the internet in the mean time.
 
dazedgonebye said:
The speed graphic is a the top of my list at the moment.
Right now I'm trying to figure out if there is a difference between a Super Speed Graphic and a Super Graphic.

I desperately need books. Reading on the internet in the mean time.
Click to expand...


The Super Speed Graphic is really not a Speed Graphic as it does not have a focal plane shutter in the body, so it would not work well with barrel lenses. The Super Speed Graphic is simply a Super Graphic with a lens mounted in a leaf shutter on the lens board and this shutter has a top speed of 1/1000 second.

For books I reccomend "Using the View Camera" by Steve Simmons and "Graphic Graflex Photography" by Morgan & Lester. The later one try to get a 10th edition or later if possible.

Wayne
 
As far as the Speed vs. Crown issue goes (and they're inexpensive enough that you could eventually get both) -- if you want to be able to use barrel lenses or long lenses that are usually in large shutters that don't have high shutter speeds, get a Speed for the focal plane shutter. If you want to do lots of handheld photography, mainly with one lens and the rangefinder, the Crown is lighter in weight.

The Kalart side-mounted rangefinder is easy to adjust, but you can only adjust it to one lens at a time, and it would be impractical to recalibrate it when you change lenses, so you would calibrate it for one lens that you plan to use for rangefinder focusing and use groundglass focus for other lenses.

There is a lot more equipment available for 4x5" than for 6x9 view and press cameras, and you can always put a rollfilm back on a 4x5" if you like rollfilm.
 
David Goldfarb said:
As far as the Speed vs. Crown issue goes (and they're inexpensive enough that you could eventually get both) -- if you want to be able to use barrel lenses or long lenses that are usually in large shutters that don't have high shutter speeds, get a Speed for the focal plane shutter. If you want to do lots of handheld photography, mainly with one lens and the rangefinder, the Crown is lighter in weight.

The Kalart side-mounted rangefinder is easy to adjust, but you can only adjust it to one lens at a time, and it would be impractical to recalibrate it when you change lenses, so you would calibrate it for one lens that you plan to use for rangefinder focusing and use groundglass focus for other lenses.

There is a lot more equipment available for 4x5" than for 6x9 view and press cameras, and you can always put a rollfilm back on a 4x5" if you like rollfilm.
Click to expand...

I don't think I'll be going to all that many different lens types, so I could do without the focal plane shutter.
In 35mm, I load 400 iso film all the time and rely on higher shutter speeds when the light is very bright. I suppose that's not a big problem here though, because I can always keep a couple of 100 iso films loaded.
 
Heh Steve, you caught the bug did you ? 😀

You can learn all you need to know by reading the net. There is ample information there.

Crown vs speed :
Crown is lighter, has no focal plane shutter (explains the lighter too) so you can't use barell lens. Otherwise it's mostly the same
The Kalart RF can be recalibrated without extra hardware cam. In practice I only use the 135 handheld, because it's also the fastest I have at f4.7
Lens are everywhere. Optar 90mm is a great deal, and has less copy variation than the Angulons. The Ektar 203mm is also reputed, and the copy I have is splendid.

If you want to use wide and movement, 100mm is great. My Wide Field Ekrar is my new favourite wide. You don't even have to drop the bed to use it, so you can raise/fall;tilt and use a little shift.

I think you rnumbers converter for focales are slightly wrong tho, the 135mm is suposed to be the "standard" lens, at sligntly more than 40mm equivalent,
 
Buze said:
Heh Steve, you caught the bug did you ? 😀

You can learn all you need to know by reading the net. There is ample information there.

Crown vs speed :
Crown is lighter, has no focal plane shutter (explains the lighter too) so you can't use barell lens. Otherwise it's mostly the same
The Kalart RF can be recalibrated without extra hardware cam. In practice I only use the 135 handheld, because it's also the fastest I have at f4.7
Lens are everywhere. Optar 90mm is a great deal, and has less copy variation than the Angulons. The Ektar 203mm is also reputed, and the copy I have is splendid.

If you want to use wide and movement, 100mm is great. My Wide Field Ekrar is my new favourite wide. You don't even have to drop the bed to use it, so you can raise/fall;tilt and use a little shift.

I think you rnumbers converter for focales are slightly wrong tho, the 135mm is suposed to be the "standard" lens, at sligntly more than 40mm equivalent,
Click to expand...

Well, I've been interested for awhile...largely your fault there....

I'm not going to buy anything soon though. I know I'd have to develop my own and I've just got too many irons in the fire to take that on right now.

I'm thinking the Ektar 100, plus the standard lens and the 203 will be good choices. The only other thing that looks really interesting is a telephoto 250 I've seen.

My conversions were estimations based on equivalent diagonal FOVs. Of course, with different aspect ratios, those aren't very accurate, but they get me close enough for my purposes.
 
dazedgonebye said:
I don't think I'll be going to all that many different lens types, so I could do without the focal plane shutter.
In 35mm, I load 400 iso film all the time and rely on higher shutter speeds when the light is very bright. I suppose that's not a big problem here though, because I can always keep a couple of 100 iso films loaded.
Click to expand...

Steve,

Don't forget that barrel lenses sell for much cheaper than lenses in shutter (like $100-200 difference per lens). Even if you don't plan to acquire many lenses, barrel lenses will save you a lot of money.

400 ISO film is even more useful in 4x5 than in 35mm because you can forget about grain issues. I shoot quite a lot at 1/1000 in order to get shallow depth of field with higher ISO film.

Speed Graphics don't sell for more than Crown Graphics and they are much more versatile IMHO. Weight wise, the difference is not very significative (200g/7oz). I wouldn't buy a Crown, except to use with super wide angle lenses.

One more link (Tim Takahashi's Speed Graphic review): http://www.photo.net/photo/speed-graphic.html

Cheers,

Abbazz
 
I just wanted to comment that I have stepped up to the brink several times regarding a Speed or Crown Graphic with almost the exact same goal as Steve -- would love to have one for a National Parks Trip this summer.

2 things:

1) As Steve commented, this seems to be one of these subjects where the more you read the less you "know" :bang: . My guess is that once you have one in-hand things start to make a little more sense. Or so I hope...

2) This thread was one of the most informative (without nonsense) thread on the subject that I have seen anywhere.


Oh well -- back to searching for my first 4x5 . Luckily I'm about to make a decent sale of a piece of audio equipment on the auction site, maybe I can keep the ~300 in a 4x5 Paypal purchase fund ! Have to see if I can talk my better half into it...

Thanks again,

JT
 
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