I scanned the book for my Burke & James the other night. A fun little read, but the most interesting part is the few pages of endorsments given by Weegee.

<a href="http://www.six-something.org/pphlogger/dlcount.php?id=zeropoint&url=http://zeropoint.six-something.org/v04/bj45press_manual.zip">B&J 4x5 Press Manual</a>

Thanks for that. Didn't even know a manual might exist.

Yes thanks a lot for all that scanning and uploading of the B&J press manual.
Just got one off ebay. Could not make the Graflex prices! So many features I was not aware of that were 'locked-up', due to un-use?

What features are you having problems with? Depending on how you intend to use the camera you might find the B&J a better choice. I just wish it had a different back and rear movements. That would make it pretty close to perfect.

Rear movements would be nice. Other then that, I have no issues with the back, except I wish I could figure out a reasonable way to make the pop-up hood easily detachable.

The spring back is fine but it would be nice if the camera could use some of the roll film backs designed for the graflock. That hood is too small.

Quote:

That hood is too small.

Last night I cut out a hood like The Graflex-Style Focusing Hood described on this site. I haven't painted it yet, but already it feels like a major improvement over the stock hood. Just pop open the stock hood and slide the new one into it. The old ones holds it together nice so I don't even think that I'll have to bother joining the ends when I want to use it.

I'll report back later when I get it finished and do a field test.