Super speed graphic and electronic flash

Augenblick

Augenblick

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I have one of the last Super Speed graphic 4x5 cameras. Assuming a proprietary flash cable could be found, is it possible to use a modern electronic flash gun with the superspeed? Will the electronic shutter button on the camera trip the flash at the right time (rather than too early, which I believe was necessary with earlier type flash units, in order for the bulb to build up intensity)?
 
Unless you have a broken (or rare M-only syncing) shutter, that will work perfectly fine.

Prefiring sync for flash bulbs was a very transitory development. It came too late before electronic flash, timed bulbs could not compete with plain long-burning flash bulbs in power, and there was rather a mess of competing timings, so that basic delay-less X sync (as used by electronic flashes nowadays, and in B or long time setting with untimed bulbs back then) never got replaced. On all shutters I am aware of, delay flash triggers (M/F) are only present as a switch option besides X, if at all.

However, purely X-sync shutters were sometimes modified in the peak years of M and F bulbs, to make them more bulb compatible - if you have such a beast, you'd have to get it readjusted to normal operation.

As Graflex advocated solenoid triggering (where the delaying is at flash side), the likelyhood of encountering M/F modified or capable shutters on a Speed is rather low, at any rate unless it was for European export, where direct M/F triggers were more common.

Sevo
 
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GOOGLE can find the company that makes flash cords to connect Graphic shutters to PC flash. Paramount rings a bell. What type of flash connection is on the shutter? Two posts or PC?

Once connected, it's easy to tell if the flash is firing correctly. Look through the groundglass and press the shutter release. you'll know if the flash fired at the right time.
 
Rather than having a focal plane shutter in the body to get 1/1000 second the lens had a special high speed between the lens leaf shutter. Like most between the lens shutters the higher speeds (125th and faster) were sometimes quite a bit off, but they would X-synch up to their top speed. The focal plane shutter in Speed Graphics couldn't X-synch faster than maybe 1/20 second if they even had X-synch. Special "long peak" flash bulbs, #26, were made so you could use "FP" synch at higher speeds with the rear focal plane shutter.

The super Speed was made from the late 60's through the early 70's, but came along too late. Rollieflexes had pretty much replaced 4x5 for both news and wedding photography. In a MAJOR dumb move by Graflex, the Super Speed used different rangefinder cams than the regular Speed Graphic so you couldn't interchange them between models. That all happened about the time that Singer, the sewing machine company, bought Graflex, and the corporate name became Singer-Graflex. A few years earlier Graflexd had bought out Cirroflex, a U.S. made basic twin lens reflex, and started marketing it as the Graflex 22. It was a piece of junk with red window winding, seperate shutter cocking, and competing with the lowest price Yashica TLR but at double the price and a worse quality lens.

Several companies used to make bi-post to PC adapters. Some photographers would buy a PC to PC extension cord, cut off one end and solder the wires to the bi-posts.
 
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According to a photo and caption on the Graflex.org web page, the Super had a 3 prong cord that attached to the lower right side of the body.
 
Speed graphic flash

Speed graphic flash

Many thanks for your detailed replies. My camera has the three way female receptor plug in the side of the body, and Paramount do indeed still make a cord for it.
 
I just took a gander at the Rapax shutter with a 3 1/2" (90mm) f/6.8 Wide Angle Raptar lens. The bi-post snch has a PC do-hicky soldered in place, but I can't find the least sign of any synch on the focal plane shutter. The Graflex flash unit, from the battery case to the 7 inch reflector is bright chrome, and there's a thumb button for use with a solonoid shutter release, but the lensboard isn't equipped for one. The Hugo Meyer rangefinder still seems fairly bright.
 
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