Graflex.org

MillieNeon · Joined: 04 Aug 2010 Posts: 4

Hi. Hope someone can help me with my research for a filmscript.

One of the characters is a WWI French military photographer. His camera needs to be pretty portable for shooting candid shots on the battlefield. It also needs to be a camera that uses photographic plates.

Does anyone know of such a camera? What the brand name and model is, how fast it could shoot, how hard to carry around a supply of plates?

Thank you so much.

I've tried researching this online, and can't find much specifics. I did find this fascinating article about WWI being the first use of photography being used in planes to take pictures of enemy lines. Seems like a dangerous activity. I include this article for those of you who might enjoy reading about it.

http://www.oldmagazineart...rial_Photography-WW1.pdf[/url]

pv17vv · Joined: 22 Dec 2001 Posts: 255

The French Government Office for military photography and movies is here :

http://www.ecpad.fr/

Georges

MillieNeon · Joined: 04 Aug 2010 Posts: 4

I do not speak French.

Billy Canuck · Joined: 04 Apr 2006 Posts: 165

I imagine the French military photographers in WWI mostly used an SLR like the Graflex because of the fast shutter. I'm not sure if press-type (folding bellows) cameras with a fast shutter, like the Speed Graphic, were made during or before 1914-18. More expert forum members will know. For posed photographs they would have used view cameras on a tripod.
Cameras like the Graflexes were made in Europe even before WWI. There's a famous photo from that period by Jacques-Henri Lartigue of his father driving a race car. Lartigue used a German-made ICA reflex which looks almost exactly like a Graflex.
Early European SLRs are difficult to find and very expensive, unlike the Graflexes, of which there are always examples on the auction site. They look so much like the European models that even if you're an expert you'd only be able to tell the difference in an extreme close-up.

Billy Canuck · Joined: 04 Apr 2006 Posts: 165

PS: Graflexes all used glass plate or sheet film.

tsgrimm · Joined: 04 Apr 2004 Posts: 158

Quote:

I do not speak French.

Paste that URL in the Google search box and Google will offer to translate it for you.

MillieNeon · Joined: 04 Aug 2010 Posts: 4

Quote:

Paste that URL in the Google search box and Google will offer to translate it for you.

But I can't make my request to them in French. However, I have a French friend who is going to do it for me. Thank you for the link.

Billy Canuck · Joined: 04 Apr 2006 Posts: 165

The topic interests me so I did a little online research. I found a page on a website called Eyewitness to History that shows a drawing of a combat photographer using a plate or sheet-film SLR like a Graflex or its European equivalent:
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/cbpintro.htm
I was glad to see my guesswork confirmed!

pv17vv · Joined: 22 Dec 2001 Posts: 255

Millie, I assume folks at ecpad read/write English too and would gladly help you.
Why not drop them a line and ask ?
Good luck.
Georges

MillieNeon · Joined: 04 Aug 2010 Posts: 4

Thanks Billy. That's a very interesting site. And through that site, I found another one with some great WWI info.

pv17vv -- great idea. Europeans do generally speak more than one language. Guess I just feel like such a dunce not speaking their language.

bruiser · Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 260

Hi MillieNeon,

A Goerz Anschutz (Ango) or Ernemann Klapp type folding strut cameras would also be historically correct. These are German cameras but I am sure there would be a French equivalent, although at a premium price.....

Cheers,
Bruce
http://graflex.coffsbiz.com

Dan Fromm · Joined: 14 May 2001 Posts: 2165

Go here http://www.collection-appareils.fr/carrousel/html/index.phphttp://www.collection-appareils.fr/carrousel/html/index.php and look in the camera lists in the left stub. When it doubt, use Google Translate.

Also ask y'r question here: http://www.collection-appareils.fr/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=36&sid=10f7aa80a455c577bcc24f416bef0092 Very friendly people on that site.