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[photo_trev]

well I shouldn't say its a new speed graphic, but its new to me, just got it today from a pawn shop, don't know much about the thing and I only have limited 4x5 experience.

Anyways im having trouble focusing (with the ground glass). seems I cant focus to infinity, things within say 3ft I can focus on, but beyond that, I cant get it to focus, its like the knobs wont turn enough.
the lens is a Zeiss-Ikon Compur 13.5cm f/4.5

My other question is there is no flash sync cord plug on the lens, is there a way to sync a flash to the rear shutter on the camera?

thanks everyone.

cheers,
Trevor

[Les]

Well there's more than one model of Speed Graphic and there's more than one solution to the problem of limited focus. But I'll kee my answers as generic as possible.

Can you move the rails on the bed more than an inch or two? If you can't look for a little lever near the front of the bed and make sure it's loose. If it's still stiff the rails may be bent. If the rails travel over an inch then it's the position of the front standard/ infinity stops.

How far out on the infinity stops? ( those things on the rail that stops the front standard) For a 135mm lens they should be somewhere close to where the struts hit the bed + - 1/2 inch.

Try this. With the camera on a tripod or table looking out a window, open the lens and look through the ground glass. rather than use the focus knob, push and pull the front standard until whatever is across the street is sharp. That's close to where the infinity stops should be.

[C. Henry]

The flash sync connection to the rear (focal plane)shutter on Speed Graphics is for use with Class "FP" flash bulbs only. They were a long burning bulb with quite even light output throughout the burn time to allow the curtain to complete its travel during the peak output of the bulb.
Electronic flash units fire much too quickly to use with the rear shutter.

C. Henry

[photo_trev]

yeah so im an idiot. I thought it was a 4x5 till I tried to load one of my 4x5 film holders into then I realised it is a 3-1/4 x 4-1/4, so I took it back to the pawn shop (they told me it was a 4x5 so they took it back in their error).
Anyways I loved the camera so much all the same that I just won a bid on a pacemaker speed graphic off of ebay, so I should have better luck with that one.

For some reason it didn't have any flash contacts anywhere on the body or on the lens, the lens I could tell was different than the one origionally on the lens board, so i think I just had to move the infinity stops or something and re-calibrate the thing. the rangefinder needed to be recalibrated to, but anyways its not my problem anymore, but I am sure I will post some more questions all the same when I get my new camera.

thanks everyone for your replys.

merry christmas - Trevor