Help, please! I just bought my first Graflex - a Century that's in very nice shape except for what I fear is a dead shutter. It's a Synchromatic (with the little w in a part-circle) with a Graflex Graftar 103mm f4.5 lens. There's only one lever, so I assume it's meant to be self-cocking (if that's the right term). The problem is, nothing I do makes the iris open.

I can easily move the speed ring to any setting - perhaps too easily, as there's no resistance at all. The lever will stay cocked in the T position, and in all other positions, when I press the lever, I hear something "click" but the shutter never opens. Also, I don't see any way to get the shutter to open so that I can use the ground glass to focus.

Am I doing something wrong, or is this shutter as dead as I think it is? Many thanks!

My Graftar's in a Wolly, but there's no pre-focus lever on it. When I use the gg to focus I open the shutter by means of the T setting. Sounds like yours may be stuck. Try removing the lens elements and squirting Ronsonol into the shutter and exercising the f-stop and shutter levers. If that doesn't do the trick, a longer soak (say an hour, or even overnight) may be necessary.

It's an OK lens for its purpose, which as you surmise is self-cocking. But the circle of coverage is small and doesn't allow for much in the way of movements. Therefore your Kalart (the camera *does* have a rangefinder, I hope) needs to be properly adjusted if you want to use it for "snapshots".

Thanks very much - I'll try that.

BTW, nope, no rangefinder. I'm hoping I can find one on ebay.

What reasonably-priced lens & shutter combination would you suggest for something more than snapshots? My interests are primarily landscapes at the moment. Oh, and I got the Century to start familiarizing myself with movements before trying a 4x5, so that would be a consideration, too.

Joanna

I would suggest the Kodak Ektar 105mm lens in either the f/4.5 or 3.7 versions. An excellent multi purpose lens that covers 2X3 nicely. Not very expensive, either. The lens you have is not a bad one but I have yet to find one in a good shutter, for some reason.

_________________
Glenn

"Where everybody is somebody else's weirdo"

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: glennfromwy on 2005-02-13 12:54 ]</font>

I am very satisfied with my "standard issue" Optar 101/f4.5 in Graphex M-F-X shutter. I'm partial to the Graphex shutters; my brief experience with Synchromatics did not favorably impress me.

One used to be able to find the Optar at reasonable cost. I think I paid $30 for mine from Columbus (Ohio) Camera Group. All my gear was collected before uBuy conquered the world and sent prices kerphlooey, so I don't know what you'd pay for one today. I bought a heck of a lot of stuff at area camera shows. Those seem to have diminished in number and quality in recent years.

I use my Century with 120 rollfilm holders. If you go this route, you may change your mind about moving on to 4x5!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Henry on 2005-02-13 14:25 ]</font>