Graflex Crown Graphic Camera - Finished! At least for now!

So the Crown Graphic that I have been working on is done. Thanks in no small part due to the rotten winter weather we have had. Being stuck indoors has indirectly encouraged me to spend time in the shop working on this an other projects. When I purchased this camera on EBay the seller had somewhat misrepresented the condition. More omission than commission. They did not say that it likely had been in a flood. They had mentioned that the bellows leaked. The camera has now been cleaned, the leather stripped and the wood refinished, the bellows patched both with cloth tape and with flexible black silicone sealant, the bellows treated to help preserve future flexibility and last but not least the leather handle has been replaced. Some of the metal parts have been repainted. But I opted not to dissasemble the entire door/focusing bed and have not repated the camera interior parts. Now that she is finished I have taken a few with it shots using Fuji instant film and some of my lens/shutter combinations and it seems to be working well. The bellows are for now light tight and should remain so with reasonable care. The lens and shutter that came with the camera have a ton of fungus and wiping scratches. The shutter also sticks and should I decide to keep her I will make an attempt at cleaning and lubrication. The lens on the other hand shows lots of fungus and wiping scratches. The shots I took with it are very soft. They sharpen a bit when stopped down in the middle F stop range. But when I use my other glass the images improve greatly. In short the body of this camera is back but the glass and shutter are still not what I would consider using.

Side View

Front View

Top View

Back View/Film Holder

Front Lens and bellows - Note patching at bellows points

Bellows Patch Details

Focusing Screen Success - Cant wait to start taking photos

So the Cambo/Calumet ground glass focusing screen arrived and it works perfectly. It mounts without any additional modification to the revolving section of the Graflex Super Graphic camera back. I shot a couple of instant film images and the Fuji 405 instant film back insets and seats without issue. Something that it will not do with my Sinar F. So I am very happy about that. The Polaroid 4x5 film also inserts and seats without issue but since I am down to my last pack of Fuji FC100c45 film I won't matter. Well unless either the Impossible Project or New 55 starts to make film again that is actually 4x5.  Here are the photos of the new camera. I can't wait to load up some film holders and take it out into the field and take some photos. I will also be posting some photos of the beater Graflex Crown Graphic that I have. I am trying to decide if I am going to restore it or put it up on E-bay and unload it.

On another related front the older Soligor 1 degree Spot meter that I picked on E-bay for $15 is working and appears to be correct when tested against my digital cameras. It took a little creativity to solve the missing battery cover issue. But a little Yankee ingenuity to make a retainer spring clip to hold the hearing aid batteries in place and viola "success". My transportable, low cost (cheap!!!) 4x5 film, field camera set up is almost all together.

Front View Graflex Super Graphic Camera

Side View

View of Cambo Ground Glass focusing back with extra deep spring clips. Mounts perfectly where the missing Graflex back should normally mount.

Front View with camera bellows sliding back ready to be closed up.

All closed up. This makes a nice tidy package compared to my Sinar F. Much easier to put into a back pack.

The Cambo/Calumet focusing back easily mounts and removes without needing to modify the slide clips or other parts of the camera. It has enough depth to accept instant film backs and seems to work perfectly. The Super Graphic has more movements than older versions of the Graflex press camera with a sturdy aluminum box. Not all the bells and whistles that some field cameras have but also not the cost.

New55 Film: New55 and 20x24 demonstrate instant color 8x10 wit...

New55 Film: New55 and 20x24 demonstrate instant color 8x10 wit...

So I was googling around the Internet and found this link. It seems these guys are working on a totally new form of instant photographic film material. It produces positive images and negatives at the same time with little or no waist. Wow! Link to Flicker slide show of images

I will be doing more research into this. This would be a fantastic thing for those of us who would like to find a more logistically feasible analog photographic process that allows us to use our large format cameras!!

The decline of analog photograpy- The Dissapearance of Darkness

As many of you know I have had an interest in photography since I was a kid. I had my first darkroom in the basement of my parents house when I was in 7th or 8th grade and continued to do film photography well through architecture school. Along with another prized possession, my Bach Stradivarius trumpet, my Nikon F and a bunch of lenses I had accumulated were stolen from my first house and for at least a time put an end to my photography hobby. Photography in the intervening years transformed and shortly after we started Oculus Inc., the architecture firm I own with my wife Lisa in 1994, digital camera's such as the Sony Mavica came onto the scene. For pure practicality and utility digital imaging was the way to go as we could immediately share and use the images for work. Photography for me had become both utilitarian and snapshots. Quick captures of project information or kids, family and events. Not seriously working to capture crafted artistic images. While I had been given a replacement film camera it was already pragmatically obsolete as it was much easier to use, even the sluggish, point and shoot digitals for taking work and family photographs. In the intervening decade film sales plummeted. Mirroring the decline of their analog devices/techniques such as hand drafting, typewriting, vinyl records and such, the analog photo industry almost evaporated over night. The speed of its transformation/decline has really been unprecedented in the history of technology. Today while there are very likely more images than ever being taken/captured film for most part is technically obsolete. Yesterday I downloaded and App on my Iphone which is Kodak's limp attempt to promote its very few remaining of analog film products. What was so immediately apparent was just how irrelevant to the society and economy this product has become. The last significant "volume" of film use/manufacture is for the movie industry which will likely be essentially film free for commercial purposes by 2015. Certainly there are a hand full of users who will continue to use film as their chosen media. Film is still capable of creating some of the best, most powerful images. It for the most part has not changed, unless it is no longer manufactured, but the world, technology and the society around it has. I have been seriously considering purchasing a Graflex "Speed Graphic" as a more convenient large format 4x5 camera to my Sinar F. I find the Sinar very difficult to use in the field where most of my artistic photography takes place. In the course of researching the Speed Graphic camera it has become even more apparent that film is still declining. I was researching less expensive black and white films to  use for example and I discovered that Photokemika or Efke had recently, August 2012, stopped production. I had assumed, wrongly it appears, that smaller offbeat companies like this would be able to remain alive serving a boutique market. It appears there is not enough profit for them to repair ancient film coating equipment and it was easier to just close up shop. With both movies and medicine making their last moves away from silver based analog film will there be enough product manufactured available for the dedicated art photographers to continue to practice their art form?

Today I came upon a serious photographer/writer who has been working on a project for that last few years regarding the decline of analog film photography industry. His name is Walter Burley. He has just had a book published about the project "The Disappearance of Darkness". I hope anyone who reads this does not think I am trying to predict the end of film or that I am supporting it. Quite the contrary. I am saddened by this the way I would be saddened by hearing of the passing of an old friend. But my sadness can't change reality. I am wondering however if I should make a continued effort to pursue film as a viable media. Should I invest more in one more camera that I may not use or which film may not be available for? I have a bunch of gear based around the use of film which would all become moot should the materials become too limiting. Already my preferred film choice E100G has been discontinued by Kodak and Fuji will base the continued manufacture of product on financial/commercial viability. We might be artists but they are a company who's purpose is to make money not art.

 

In any case look at Mr. Burley's site and his book. It is serious work about a subject that I value very much. Walter Burley - The Dissapearance of Darkness

Riverfront in Spring Iphoneography

Just an example of what you can do with an Iphone and Photoshop Elements. The real image is quite large and I plan on printing it on our large format plotter. The way you compensate for a small sensor is to take multiple images and stitch them together. This image was taken with the camera/Iphone held vertically to maximize the amount of data in each shot. 6 shots were taken, downloaded to my PC and stitched together in Photoshop Elements. I have attached a how to link to just one of many  Youtube video instruction- creating panorama in Photoshop Elements.