Graflex.org

[Lobalobo]

Just purchased a Crown Graphic and found online a general users' manual for Pacemaker cameras. The manual and trial and error helped me get basic functions down: I can set the arpeture and shutterspeed, of course, can open the shutter to focus using the ground glass, then set and snap the shutter, using either the shutter on top of the lens or a cable. So far, so good. There are, however, a number of mechanisms on the camera that I cannot figure out and I'm hoping for some help here. I'll do my best to describe the mechanisms (the first two of the most interest to me):

1. On the right hand side (from the back) of the outside body of the camera is a silver lever. When the lever is depressed a cable on the back right-hand side (again from the back) of the lens board moves down. I had assumed that this would be a shutter release, but it does not release the shutter. Is it broken? Does it do something else, something I don't understand?

2. In the lower right quarter (from the back) of the Ilex lens is a lever that can be cocked; next to the lever is a series of of printed terms: "23 Yelw; 20 Blu; 5 Wh; 0 Red; and just under this print is a dial with a series of four dots, yellow, blue, white, and red. The lever, when cocked, fires with the shutter, but I have no idea what this does or what the dial does or what the label means. Anyone know?

3. Does not seem to be anyplace to attach a flash (not that I have one), but it seems that there should be. There are some holes in the right side (from the back) of the camera, but I can't see how to attach a trigger for the flash to any part of the camera. (The manual was not specific enough to this camera for me to figure this out.) Just curious. Anyone know?

4. On the right (from the back) of the right rail near the front of the bed is a small silver piece of metal screwed into the bed by a single screw. The metal rotates, but seems to do nothing at all. What is it doing there?

5. Finally, and this has nothing to do with function, does anyone know if there is a way for me tell when this model was manufactured? I understand that it could be any time from 1947 to 1973, but I would be curious to know when. The body just says Crown Graphic. There is a serial number, but it means nothing to me.

Thanks in advance.

[Les]

[Lobalobo]

Perfect, complete answer. Thanks so much.

[Lobalobo]

After reading the useful post above, I examined the Ilex lens again and of course found the bi posts on the lens. I then discovered that with the camera I bought came a household-to-bi-post cord. Can't for the life of me figure out how one would use such a thing. Adorama advertises the cord as a sync cord, but the "household" is for a plug into an electrical outlet. Quite a mystery, at least to me. More generally, how would one find a flash unit with a bi-post attachment?

[Les]

Take a good look at the flash unit, you'll find several slots near the bulb end that will take the household plug nicely.

Don't know why that standarized on the household plug, maybe because the flash sync industry was born from tinkerers and that's what was lying around.
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"In order to invent, you need a good imagination and a lot of junk" Thomas Edison

[Lobalobo]

Thanks again, Les, for another entirely informative response. The question then is where to find a flash unit that will connect through a bi-post. (Don't have one yet.) In my initial search online there was something about George Lucas buying them up for his ******** movies, leaving few for the market I suppose I could find a modern electric flash with a converter but I don't suppose that would mount on the camera. (Plus a bulb flash would be more fun in some ways.) Anyway, my purpose in buying the camera was not flash photography anywyay, but an attempt to expand my b&w 4x5 landscape shots beyond pinhole; it will do nicely for that and thanks again.

[Lobalobo]

In my prior post, the term "********" (the movie that George Lucas made with Harrison Ford as Han Solo) appears as asterisks. That is strange. Some trademark problem? Let's see if it reappears in this post.

[Les]

There are people out there that believe old flash units are valueless and useless unless modified to look like a prop in a certain movie series.

and we don't get along with most of them.

Those people made life a living hell on this board a few years ago, so certain words, mostly 4 letter, and the homonymn of "four sail" and that Lucas trilogy will also show up as asterisks
_________________
"In order to invent, you need a good imagination and a lot of junk" Thomas Edison

[alecj]

If you don't find a flash with household plug imputs, you can choose another flash and have Paramount Cords http://tinyurl.com/34lqas make a cord for you with bi-posts connection on one end and the proper plug for your flash on the other. Look at their site under Custom Cords.

[Lobalobo]

Thanks again so much, Les (and Alec), for taking the time to answer my questions. When I was a teenager, I had a dark room, then put it all away for many years. Just recently, I thought it would be fun to take and develop pinhole pictures with my kids (7 and 5); we develop 4x5 then contact print. (No enlarger.) The kids like it, but I have enjoyed it more than they have. The infinite depth of field in the pinhole allows for some really nice images (e.g., putting the camera on the ground near the top of a sloping hill and getting the blades of grass in the foreground in focus along with the shed at the bottom of the hill). Nothing is in sharp focus, though, in part because I have to use slow film (or a neutral density filter) so that I can have exposures long enough to control light accurately; the long exposures lead to blur. The Crown Graphic will let me do more and eventually I may get a view camera. (The Fuji S5 or Canon 5D will have to wait.)

So I'm about to stop bugging you and get to taking pictures (with Efke 25, by the way), but one question for now, as I've become interested in the camera I bought even beyond its functionality. It has a spring back (which I like because I can use the same 4x5 holders I use for the pinhole), and no rangefinder (top or right). It does have an optical viewfinder atttached to the top right (along, of course, with the metall circle that can be rotated up from the center of the back and the telescoping frame over the lens). Best I can tell, this camera was manufactured between 1947 and 1949, this because it lacks a range finder and because it has a spring back. Does this sound right?

Thanks again.

[Les]

Well, any Graphic could be ordered without a rangefinder, obviously the early models are more common without them, but even Pacemaker's could be ordered without any RF.
I think the Graphic Back is the key as the Graflok back succeeded the Graphic Back in 1950.
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"In order to invent, you need a good imagination and a lot of junk" Thomas Edison

[45PSS]