Hello Everyone,

Just getting into the Graflex community and it is defintely exciting! I am working on a film project and needed to confirm the date of this beauty.

Camera Body:
From my research I have a 4x5 Top Handle Speed Graphic. The SN under the top plate next to the button is 31840, two sources say either made in 1912-1914 or 1912-1927???

The body of the camera I believe is the short and fat one based on the configuration of the shutter device and the unit measuring 6.5” across, 6 3/4 tall and 4 1/8 deep. The bellows are 5 1/8 at the back and taper to 2 3/4 at the front with the length of 9 3/4.

Lens:
Carl Zeiss Jena Nr. 590326 Tessar 1:4,5 f=18cm (Dated 1923?).

Shutter:
The shutter has two numbers, one that is close to the lens and says:
DRP No.258646 D.R.G.M which is the patent number?
Then there is the Compur side aperture No.575476 (Dated 1923/24???)

Questions for the experts:
1) What is the date of the Camera
2) What is the date of the Lens
3) What is the date of the Shutter
4) Do you think this is the original lens/shutter for the camera?

Thanks for any insight you can provide!

Phishing post.

45PSS wrote:

Phishing post.

Umm no, not a phishing post, I have never posted on a blog before and thought you could link photos to google drive... I just made a flicker account so you can now view three photos.

Here is the link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/130627950@N02/

Thanks 45PSS for your original post that for some reason you took down?

That's how Phishing works, they ask you to sign in to google drive or similar service, collect your email address and password, infect your machine with Trojan(s) or viruses, overload your email with spam and use your email to spread their scam to all your contacts.

Ugh, well thanks for the heads up!

My ground glass measures 4 & 13/16 by 3 & 7/8... but I'm not sure how that link you sent me compares to those measurements...

My Camera is 4x5 if that helps?
I'm pretty new to all this..

repost:
1) What is the date of the Camera : serial numbers were not recorded prior to 1905-1907, date information was not recorded until mid year 1922. The recorded serial number info was lost for the years prior to sometime in 1915.
The best guess for your camera is 1913-1914.
2) What is the date of the Lens: you are correct at 1923-1924.
4) Do you think this is the original lens/shutter for the camera? No. Serial number range for Zeiss lens of that era is 208xxx, 1912, to 252xxx,1915.

Measure the ground glass to get the format size. The gg will be slightly smaller than the stated format.
http://graflex.org/graflex-products-list.html
Its a 3 1/4 x 5 1/2 or a 4x5 with 3 1/4 square lens board.

Awesome thanks for the information, very helpful!
The lens board is 3 1/4 lens board!