Reflex large format cameras....this weeks obsession!!

[Drew Bedo]

I have always wondered about convwering a vier camera reflex viewer to sit on top of a LF SLR.

A few years ago I got a reflex viewer from a Polaroid MP-4 and adapted it to my Speed Graphic. It clipped on replacing the viewing hoodd.

Anybody ever done something like that with a SLR?

[djdister]

Photos taken with my Graflex Series B 5x7, circa 1985. The lens on the Graflex is a Kodak No. 34 8.5 inch Anastigmat, and the film for all shots was Ektapan. Shots either handheld, braced on my lap or sitting on the table top - the last one was a handheld panning shot.

[HtheD]

Yes, some of my favorite portraits were done with an RB Super D 4x5 with the 190 Ektar in ambient light. The previous owner did a fantastic series of street work with it--printed in platinum.
---Harry.

[mdarnton]

I like watching old newsreels, seeing the news guys on the sidelines of events, bouncing around with their huge Graflexes. Obviously they were OK with it as a hand camera.

I'm still thinking about that neck strap. My Super D is just about mint--it spent its life on a tripod in a portrait studio in Detroit--and I'd hate to punch a couple of holes in it, but still. . . .

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

I have been using a 4x5 Super D for 10 years, and really love it. I recently switched to Graflex 5x7 Home Portrait. All the things mentioned above--the good and the bad--are certainly true, but for me the worst is that these are orphans, and there are few people out there who can repair them, and even fewer parts.

I almost bought an Arca reflex a few years back. It has a higher sync speed than the super D (1/50 versus 1/5, IIRC) but was dissuaded by an Arca repairman, who told me it was a nightmare to fix.

[Richard Johnson]

I also have used them on and off over the years. A monopod gives you most of the mobility you want but also helps fix your position momentarily so you can focus. Reading glasses help with focus, as does really pressing into the hood with your face. The 190 Ektar on the SuperD with the auto-aperture is a very fine lens that people would be hunting down to modify if it wasn't the stock lens ;-p In any event the auto aperture is worth using and not complicated after a few minutes of familiarization. Finding a Super D that is clean and properly converted to Graflock is certainly the best way to go if you shoot a lot but even a much older version with the normal aperture and slot back will likely be usable.

Arthur Elgort and many fashion photographers have used these. Especially with Polaroid and portraiture sometimes the slight misfocusing can look OK, at least if you hit their nose and not their ears. I actually used a Grafmatic so I could shoot (waste film) quicker, 0.33 fps.

[Hugo Zhang]

I have lots of fun with my Graflex super D 45 in Tibet. I like to use it for portraits.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I love my 5x7" Press Graflex. I found the quick rack-and-pinion focusing and reflex viewer ideal when our son was a toddler (really!), and it's a well-balanced camera, despite appearances. I usually use it with a bag mag that holds 12 shots, and it's a great size for contact printing.

The mirror slap isn't so big an issue--it lands on what seem like velvet pads, but the shutter vibration can be, especially if you try to shoot a vertical. To start with, the finder is totally impractical for vertical shots, and then there's no real way to stabilize the camera. Even on my biggest tripod with my strongest head, you've got that big mirror and big shutter both pushing sideways with not much supporting it, so there's often some camera movement. Maybe sandbags would help.

Lately, though, as my eyesight changes, I'm thinking I'm going to need different glasses for it, because the viewing distance isn't quite right with or without my glasses, and if I push my glasses down on my nose, like I normally do for reading, it doesn't quite work mechanically with the viewer. Unfortunately, normal positive reading glasses from the drug store don't do it.

[arca andy]

I have lots of fun with my Graflex super D 45 in Tibet. I like to use it for portraits.

Your Tibet thread was one of the first things that started this slight obession....must have been a hell of a trip! Got anymore Super D adventures planned??

[Oren Grad]

...I'm thinking I'm going to need different glasses for it, because the viewing distance isn't quite right with or without my glasses, and if I push my glasses down on my nose, like I normally do for reading, it doesn't quite work mechanically with the viewer. Unfortunately, normal positive reading glasses from the drug store don't do it.

That's where I am too, alas. Without glasses is impossible because I need way too strong a correction, but all the reading glasses and supplemental lenses I've tried so far are either optically not quite right, mechanically far too fussy with the viewing hood in the way, or both. A very long-barrelled loupe might be good for certain subjects, but so far I've struck out on that idea as well.