Strange 70mm RF by Graflex

what format film is that ? the guy who's selling is talking about 70mm film... what is that ?
 
jorisbens said:
I'm not sure about the film format, but I think he means 6X7 negatives.

Joris
Click to expand...


I think it means 70mm width cinema film. It was used in the 70's I believe for combination shots without loosing to much quality for example in the star wars special effects shots. But I dont think you can buy it any more, and even if you can I dont know how youd load it in a camera...
 
A German camera designer who had developed a number of key designs was brought to the US after the Second World War, and I think he perfected the design and supervised the build of these Graflex rangefinders.

Excerpt from http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/combat70.htm :

The Combat Graphic camera was built from 1954 till about 1957 by Graflex Inc. it is designated the KE-4 (1) Still Picture Camera by the American Military. It began life as a design by one John Maurer who specialised in designing motor-driven cameras for the Air-Force and was put into production by Graflex where it was productionised by Hubert Nerwin who had been part of the design team at Zeiss-Ikon who produced the Contax 35mm cameras, total production about 1500 units.
 
Information I recall from the writeup in one of the Schneider books:

The KE-4 uses sprocketed 70mm film, which you have to respool into metal cassettes that look like overgrown 35mm ones. (There were bulk backs for various medium-format cameras, such as Hasselblads, which took the same film.) It feeds cartridge-to-cartridge, so you can cut off and unload the film at any time. I believe the format was closer to 6x9 than 6x7.

Film advance is via a spring-wound motor, not surprising given Maurer's aerial-camera background.

A complete outfit includes wide and tele lenses, for which the folding frame finder on top of the camera is adjustable.

Among the camera's other interesting features is an internal numbered rotating disc that optically prints a frame number on each frame of film as you expose it.

A working KE-4 would be an interesting beast indeed, although I don't know how long most people would be willing to put up with the inconvenience of darkroom-loading lengths of 70mm film!
 
70mm cassettets were easily obtained by camera stores in the 70s. Linhoff used them a lot.

I had a Graflex XL with 80 Planar, various rollfilm backs, polaroid back, and a 70 back, along with 70 film and developing reel, stolen in Vietnam, sold to me to help pay for a helicopter pilot's Corvette Stingray engine's blueprinting..

Browse for Graflex XL...incredibly nice bright frame viewfinder, 6X9 or 7 or 6...sheet film, macro, ground glass back...pistol grip...wonderful camera. Cheap but risky on Ebay.
 
I wonder if there was more than one model of the military camera. I was stationed in Viet Nam in 1969/70' and the photo lab I was assigned to had one very much like the one pictured. But as I recall the one we had around the lab had a thumb film advance lever just like a big 35mm.

I almost used it once.

I had an assigment to do some shots from a helicopter and they wanted a bigger neg than they normally used which was 35mm. I looked the camera over and loaded some film and showed up to do the shots. But the flight was scrubbed for some reason and so I never shot a single frame with it. But I am sure the one I used had a normal thumb lever film advance.
 
Hello. I am new here. I have a KE-4. The KE-4 came also in a kit with aluminum case, three lenses, filters, strap, and bulb flash and was called the KE-6. It has a spring motor drive. It never had a lever wind. (remrf - i predate you in the war and never saw one) They were surplused before 1961 or so.

KE-4 uses cassettes like the Hasselblad and Linhof. It also has an inboard film slicer so that one can cut the film in-camera and change in the middle of a roll.

70mm film is still available, but becoming harder to get, and except for some color surplus film, the good stuff is very expensive. If someone is looking for 70mm B&W he had best buy as much as he thinks he will ever need as soon as possible. Look to aerial photography labs for supplies... after I get all I need. (smiling)
 
Hmmmmm? I wonder why we had one in 1969/70. I am going on memory here of using or almost using a camera once over 30 years ago. Perhaps it is a good thing I did not have to use the camera. It sounds like I would not have gotten far with it. Thanks for the further info on this camera. I wish I had paid more attention at the time.
 
remrf - actually, you might have seen one or two. I did find some references to the ks-6 (which is the right name for the kit) in a USAF recon mission document. The lever is on the bottom, and winds the motor. I'd say it was easy to see it as a regular lever.

Other cool things about it - the rangefinder window changes to accomodate the normal and long lens; it actually zooms in, it doesn't just change the frame lines. And there's a red indicator in the finder if the film is not wound. Hard to make a mistake.

It's 6x7. Speeds up to 1/500. The body is titanium, but it still weights a ton. Beautiful black hard-annodized aluminum on the lenses, flash. Uses standard 70mm cassettes. You can change film mid-roll. (And it's quiet!)
 
iggers said:
A German camera designer who had developed a number of key designs was brought to the US after the Second World War, and I think he perfected the design and supervised the build of these Graflex rangefinders.

Excerpt from http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/combat70.htm :

The Combat Graphic camera was built from 1954 till about 1957 by Graflex Inc. it is designated the KE-4 (1) Still Picture Camera by the American Military. It began life as a design by one John Maurer who specialised in designing motor-driven cameras for the Air-Force and was put into production by Graflex where it was productionised by Hubert Nerwin who had been part of the design team at Zeiss-Ikon who produced the Contax 35mm cameras, total production about 1500 units.
Click to expand...

Hubert Nerwin was the guy, and he was the von Braun of camera design for Zeiss, but the Combat Graphic didn't make it, unfortunately. Nerwin was a very interesting fellow.

Here's some info on him:

http://www.zeisshistorica.org/Nerwin.html

I wish I could have known him.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Look for Kodak 70mm aerial films with type II perforations - this is what the Hasselblad, Rollei, Linhof, and Graphic 70mm backs take. Type 2424 is black and while infrared, FYI.
Tom
 
bmattock said:
Hubert Nerwin was the guy, and he was the von Braun of camera design for Zeiss, but the Combat Graphic didn't make it, unfortunately. Nerwin was a very interesting fellow.

Here's some info on him:

http://www.zeisshistorica.org/Nerwin.html

I wish I could have known him.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
Click to expand...

Many thanks for the excellent link, Bill. It is the first I've read that helps establish the difficulties of the period.


Oh, as far as the Combat Graphic not making it, well who in the world (besides a couple of us crazies) would even try to handle that monster of a camera? It is so large that at first I took it to be one of those oversized store display mockups. 😱
 
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