Hi there,
I've got a speed graphic in excellent condition and I'm trying to get it to a point where I comfortable taking it on commercial jobs.

I've got it mostly working fine but I'm having a problem with tripping electronic flashes via the flash port on the side of the body. I had a two pin cord made from Paramount and it was previously working great. Lately, it's been tripping the flash only part of the time - it used to be pretty reliable. I'm using a manual cable release and the flash sync is set to F-M.

One thing that is strange: I'll trip the shutter and the strobe won't fire yet if I hit the button that releases the shutter via the solenoid (solenoids are about 6 months old) the strobe fires. Sometimes, after I trip the solenoid shutter release, if I manually trip the shutter just after, the flash fires. Sometimes not. Is the solenoid in the body related to firing an external flash? Has anyone ever seen this before?

any help would be greatly appreciated!

thanks
Howard Pyle

I don't understand your question. If you are using the front shutter, it sounds like the sync contact inside the shutter is only working intermittantly. If that's the case, the shutter needs to be serviced. Check all connections and make sure they are bright and clean.

If you are trying to use an old flash bulb sychronizer to fire an electronic flash unit, you're not likely to be successful. In the days of the flash bulb, the contacts closed before the shutter was open in order to allow time for the flash bulb burn to reach full intensity. Electronic flash is instantaneous, and is over before the shutter can open.

The f4.5 Zeiss Tessar in a Compur shutter on my Anniversary Speed Graphic had an extra set of X-sync contacts added back in the 1950s to allow for the use of the new fangled "strobe light." Those contacts still fire my Vivitar 285 reliably today.

Are you using a Super or a Pacemaker? If you are using a Super, Check the contacts on the back of the board and the corresponding ones on the front standard.
Charles