One more thought and then I'll shut up. The statement that the military bought every camera they could get is certainly true. I have seen lots of 35mm and other cameras on the market that were ex-military gear. Among them, there were some really crappy ones. I mean crappy when new.
Laughably crappy.

About that Black Supermatic. I have seen these on Aniversarry models and also a while back onma Combat Graphic If I remember correctly I just didn't buy it because someone had painted over the Green and I am looking for the original olive drab color.
There is an Aniversarry on you know where right now that has the Black Supermatic.

Quote:

On 2006-01-12 10:54, glennfromwy wrote: I have a black Supermatic Shutter. I have seen a couple of others *******. Les, I have seen several O.D. Speed Graphics on the market, includind two complete original outfits with O.D. case, tripod, etc. I have only seen one navy camera. It had gray covering, proper nomeclature plate and gray painted trim.

Okay, The OD Speed Graphic cameras in the Haliburton case with a metal tripod and other accessories is a Pacemaker rather than an Anny. Actually it's the only military Pacemaker that was modified for MIL spec. The eliminated the body release and after 1950 eliminated the slide locks on the Graflokk back I thinks this is called the KS(4) set used by Signal corp GIs with very large bicepts.

Black Supermatics run from 1942 through at least the Korean war. The Combat Graphic 45 used a black Supermatic with a special flash sync and helical mounted uncoated Kodak Anastigmat. By the way there was only one batch of lenses made, all of the cameras from the earliest through the civilian versions have the 1944 (EE) in the serial number.

Black Supers have a slightly different shutter ring compared to their pre war versions. The square notches on the very outer edge remain, but on the pre war version the radius from the notches to the front of the ring was decorated with filigree engraving. The war put a stop to that, the radius is smooth.

The only navy/grey Speed I saw was on ebay a few years ago and from the photos and discussion I had with the seller at the time we both concluded that some seaman had nothing better to do that recover his Speed. It was one of those, "It looks good on the computer, but high res photos show a decidedly non professional fit and finish.

Tim Holden and even "Graflex at war" booklet says they also sold Speeds to Canada, Belgium, Britain and others. I wonder what a Speed from the Belgium army looks like?

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Les on 2006-01-15 20:21 ]</font>

I used to work with David Lomasney, a British Cockney freelancer who became a German POW, escaped or released, then went to the Pacific to cover Douglas MacArthur, where he was captured and held for the duration by the Japanese (Bataan?).

David told me he'd custom built his Graflex with, among other things, an aluminum body he'd had cast somewhere. MacArthur usually had three or four photographers in his troupe, one of whom helped with makup.

David knew Sekei Mamiya personally (Seiko, Sekosha, Mamiya) (perhaps from the occupation), worked for Adolph Gasser in San Francisco (Gasser was, same time frame as Joseph Ehrenreich of EPOI, one of the only two serious importers of Nikon SLRs..Adolph was reportedly hospitalized last week, age 94).