Hello everyone, I've been using my speedgraphic for a bit now, to shoot vintage auto races. Now that I've added the stroboflash to the setup, it's noticably heavy! I can deal with it, but if there's anything I can do to reduce the weight, I want to give that a try.

My first thought, is to swap the speed for a crown that doesn't have focal plane shutter, since I'm not using the focalplane shutter for this setup. is the weight reduction noticeable on the crown graphic of the same year? How much does a crown versus a speed weigh? (mind is a 1950 speed 4x5)

After that, I'm thinking about removing the top viewfinder tube (since I only use the wire-frame sports finder) but that doesn't seem like it would be a noticable difference in the weight.

Thanks for any advice!

Oh, and here's some photos from this weekend's vintage race, still have a few more batches to develop:

http://www.buckshotsblog.com/?p=519

my top finder crown weight 5# 6 oz with a 162 Optar in a Graphex shutter

The RF doesn't weigh enough to bother with. If you have Grafmatic holders, you can pull the ground glass and hold the Grafmatics with the sliders.

Granted it's a minor amount, but changing the brass battery case for a plastic dummy tube saves a few ounces.

I don't find the weight difference to make me want to change. I use Anniversary Graphic and a Super Graphic. Some folks feel the Crown has aweight advantage... maybe they know better. In practice I find two things to help: 1. monopod, and 2. lifting weights.

BrianShaw wrote:

I don't find the weight difference to make me want to change. I use Anniversary Graphic and a Super Graphic. Some folks feel the Crown has aweight advantage... maybe they know better. In practice I find two things to help: 1. monopod, and 2. lifting weights.

Looks like it's not gonna be worth it to try and shead a little bit of weight off the camera, so lifting weights, that's probably what it's gonna end up being! hah!

My hand and arm were sore the next day from carrying the camera around all day. I may think about getting a strap on it that I could throw around my shoulder, or neck when I'm not actively using it. A monopod, that wouldn't be a bad idea, but that wouldn't really do much good when I'm walking around with the camera.

I think most people think there's a significant weight savings with the Crown because the case is not as deep. The difference is actually pretty small. The focal plane shutter parts weigh but little. If you want a lighter camera, a pre - Anniversary Speed would be the lightest. Considerably lighter than the Anny.

My pre Ann with a tubular Kalart rangefinder weighs 4 # 14 with a WA Dagor. it might be an ounce or two more with a tessar.

So a Pre-Ann Speed weighs less than a Pacemaker Crown, by about 6 oz.

Les wrote:

My pre Ann with a tubular Kalart rangefinder weighs 4 # 14 with a WA Dagor. it might be an ounce or two more with a tessar. So a Pre-Ann Speed weighs less than a Pacemaker Crown, by about 6 oz.

hm... 6 ounces is probably not going to be noticable I think.

Well, I guess I'll just have to start working out my arms with some weights, haha!

If you're really worried about weight get a 9x12 Patent Etui, neg size is just a fraction smaller 5x4 is 12.7 x10cm.

Here's mine alongside on of my Crown Graphics, the weight is around 812gms, both Crown & Etui have 135mm f4,5 Tessar lenses



and



Ian

Thanks for the suggestion, I'd rather stick to 4x5 film though, but thanks