I was reading about the Kalart range finder, and it says the side mounted version was only produced until 1955. Gandalf told me that my serial number places my Crown Graphics as being produced in 1962. could somebody have placed a different serial number tag on my camera or changed the bed or something? just wondering. my serial number is 966405

These cameras are unique in that they are easily built from spare parts. The camera may have been damaged and repaired at some point in time, also. It's the ultimate tinkerer's camera, so forget the date and go out and make some beautiful photographs with it. And most of all, enjoy it.

And I have a side rf speed with a '56 date and after a few years of playing with it I discovered a tale tale clue that the bed had been changed. The basic body/bed is the same with the rangefinder holes and manifacturer of the rangefinder changed from the pre to post'55.
Charles

More possibilities: Maybe the owner thought as much of those top rangefinders as I do and had it removed / replaced with a Kalart. Could have been a special order, too. Graflex was good about giving customers just about anything they wanted.

Kalart didn't dissappear in '55. Remember they were still supplying RFs to the Pacemaker 23 Crown and Speed along with the Century Pacemaker.

Also Graflex never got rid of the mounting holes for the Kalart on the 4x5 body, so even top rangefinder camera could be fitted with a a Kalart finder. (I've seen one on ebay and heard of another camera with both RFs)

Now in the 50s Graflex was always trying to tap into the high end amature market, they were forever stripping the camera down to lower the price. The promotional camera in '56 was a body that normally would have had a top RF but instead they added a Kalart RF, removed the Ektalite field screen and made the tubular finder an option.

For those that wanted a lightweight field camera, Graflex offered a Crown without any Rangefinder at all. I have one of these-- No viewfinder, rangefinder or field screen.

It's possible this camera started out "stripped" but somewhere along the line a Kalart RF was added as this was the easiest RF to add.