A Graflex Frankencamera Thornton Picard substitute?

[Drew Bedo]

Lookinig for ways to work with different antique (brass) and vintage barrel lenses on my Kodak 2D.

I do not want to modify the 2D. I have seen a Folmer & Schwing focal plave shutter in 8x10 twice in my life; once in hand at a collector's meeting and once on e-Bay. Price point for each was at the serious collector level, not the take it out and shoot with it level..

One way around that is to mount each lens to a separate lens board with its own Packard Shutter. Ok for one lens, but not for several.

Thought to adapt a 2 1/4 x 3 1/4Speed Graphic as a sort of Thornton Picard shutter. It would mount o the front of the 2D. Each lens would mount to the front of the camera body with some lens board like arrangement.

The Speed Graphic's GG back would have to come off. Tthe bellows, front standard and hinged front would have to come off. It might be that the Speed's body would be cut back some . . .but not a lot and maybe not at all.

I think the DIY part could be done. I don't know if the little shutter relatively far from the 8x10 GG would work optically. My guess is yes as that is how the Thornton shutters worked..

Anny thoughts?

[LabRat]

The old rear FP shutter adapters I have seen were well past their prime years ago, so would be difficult to restore due to the limited current supply of curtain materials, and shooting would be difficult due to some vibration that happens when a large curtain operates... Yea, Weston used one. but asking for troubles these days...

The 2X3 Baby Graphic shutter area is a little small for large diameter lenses (asking for cut-off there in front) and added weight mounting, hard to change lenses on the fly & complexity in use...

The simplest option is to make a recessed board that sits in the lensboard opening with a Packard on the rear, and a mount for regular lensboard on the front, with a hole for the air hose on the adapter... Are your lensboards 6X6" or different??? Many board cut-outs are larger than that and lends itself to a custom adapter for your sized boards (I made one for my 8X10 Ansco Universal that originally took 7.5 X 7.5" boards, and allowed 6X6 boards to be used with no camera modification)...

Steve K

[Drew Bedo]

So, I was thinking it over some more and this idea came to me:

Get an adapter lens board for the 2D that accepts other lens boards. I am seeing them on e-Bay now. Mount a large Packard shutter to the back of that. Mount various lenses to the interchangeable lens boards. Put lenses with some rear extension on top-hat bords.

Only one speed, but workable and period correct for the brass lenses.

The idea is to keep the through fittings of the Packard shutter on the adapter board and not drill up the frame of the 2D. This way I'd still be able to use modern lenses on the 2D too.

[Dan Fromm]

Not to be a complete idiot or anything, Drew, but why don't you think hard about hanging a large Packard in front of your big fat old lenses?

[Tin Can]

eBay has few large affordable Packards

Very glad I have what I need

[Drew Bedo]

Not to be a complete idiot or anything, Drew, but why don't you think hard about hanging a large Packard in front of your big fat old lenses?

Thank you Dan:

While that is a workable idea, it just doesn't seem "right" to me. It seems inelegant. . .. which, I know, is the opposite of the pragmatic form-follows-function concept.

[BrianShaw]

Hanging a speed graphic on the front of a 2D is a more elegant solution than the well-established packard shutter? We must be working with different definitions of “elegant”. LOL

A packard shutter certainly seems more efficient if you can settle for its shutter speed constraints.

[Drew Bedo]

eBay has few large affordable Packards

Very glad I have what I need

I envy your good fortune. If I do go forward withis idea, I will work with the Ideal outfit to get together the parts needed to make it happen. I may have to wait a while to be able to get authorization for committing the funds behind genuine household maintinance nd appliance repplacement issues.

[Dan Fromm]

Thank you Dan:

While that is a workable idea, it just doesn't seem "right" to me. It seems inelegant. . .. which, I know, is the opposite of the pragmatic form-follows-function concept.

Well, yes, but that's because naked Packards are ugly. The Compound #5 (industrial, with no diaphragm) that I hang in front of my 900/10 Apo Saphir with the help of a nice holder made by Skgrimes is much prettier. Hanging the lens on the shutter doesn't work, the lens is fat. When it is as close as possible to the shutter, to minimize vignetting, the shutter's controls are inaccessible.

Hanging a lens in front of a mutilated Speed Graphic is, at least in my eyes, ugly. But then, I like my Graphics.

More seriously, tastes differ. In my view, cost and ease of fabrication should be more important than beauty. But that's my preferences, not yours.

[Drew Bedo]

Dan: All good stuff. I respect your view on this. Eye of the beholder and all that . . .

I will probably mount a larg-ih Packard behind an adapter lens board that will let me swap out these vintage or antique barrel lenses as I change my inventory. I do something like that now with a trick adapter lens board that lets me put a few of the lenses from my 4x5 Zone VI on the Kodak 2D.