Graflex.org

hhhhphoto · Joined: 02 Aug 2007 Posts: 3 Location: Wisconsin

I just got a 5x7 rotating back RB Cycle Graphic with a B&L Protar VII triple convertible. The strange thing is that the brass name tag on the front standard reads "Folmer Graflex". Doesn't that mean post 1926? I didn't know these were made then. ANy info?
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45PSS · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 10:26 pm Post subject:

from http://www.graflex.org/graflex-products-list.html we see that the Cycle Graphic was made from pre 1900 to 1926. A Review of Graflex by Richard Paine list the RB Cycle in 5x7 from 1907 to 1922. Open the camera, turn it upside down and look at the bottom side of the camera top. The serial number should be ink stamped there. 5 digit number=pre 1920, 6 digit number=post 1920. You can ballpark date it via a list posted in the serial number savvy section.
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hhhhphoto · Joined: 02 Aug 2007 Posts: 3 Location: Wisconsin

Yup, I know about the serial numbers -this is a 6 digit. It's the name - Folmer Graflex - that confuses me. Other Graphic cameras are post 1926 if they have this name. If the RB Cycle Graphics weren't made after 1926, how can it have this name plate?
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45PSS · Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 11:51 pm Post subject:

Ummmm, same reason I have a RB Series B that dates to early 1922 when they did not offically start production until 1923 and the Tele Graflex that ended production in 1923 have serial numbers from 1926.

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hhhhphoto · Joined: 02 Aug 2007 Posts: 3 Location: Wisconsin

Well, if production on the Cycle Graphic ended, as listed, in 1922, the Folmer Graflex name plate would have to be result of great precognition! The only other explaination is that they made some Cycle Graphics post 1926. Any idea who might know the straight poop?
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"What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing,
and what do we think we might see?"
-Kermit T. Frog

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RichS · Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 5:38 am Post subject:

The main problem is that you're asking a question where there is no known answer. There is no "straight poop" with graflex. If you spend some time (days or weeks) reading through this forum, you'd realize that Graflex was not what we would consider a normal corporation by today's standards. They made production runs which may have taken years to sell off. They took old cameras in for refurbishing. They also produced custom orders that could have included anything for anyone willing to pay. You could just as easily have a camera that was produced in 1922 and sold in 1926 or one that was from a custom run in 1926 or an older camera taken in and refurbished. No one will ever know. Dates and production runs are all approximate at best. Enjoy what you have as maybe the last run of that model.

The closest you could possibly get is with the serial number itself which will tell you the date that the particular production run was scheduled, not finished...
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45PSS · Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 6:10 am Post subject:

The only people that know the straight poop, as you put it, were buried several decades ago and they did not leave detail records of what they did. The best historians state that production ended in 19xx for a piticular model according to company records but many cameras of the discontinued model show up for several years after the end of production date by virture of their serial numbers. Even when one has researched fully and have the rule set then another camera crawls out of the atic, basement, cellar, barn, or shed that defies all that you thought you knew.
You have an exception to the rule and there are a lot of exceptions to the ruels in Graflex!
Example: http://www.graflex.org/helpboard/viewtopic.php?t=4762

Need more be said??????????????????????

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