This may win the "newbie of the year" award...

[PBrooks]

Don't feel bad, my first camera was a Graflex, sold it years ago. Then last month got the urge to have one again and when it came, I knew what I was looking for but it wasn't there. I did find it after a few minutes but it is one of those "what the ----" moments. lol

[Kirk Fry]

yup, took me 30 min., great camera by the way, (it is not a view camera) you can actually hand hold the puppy. k

[Kamox]

Thank you everybody, it wasn't obvious, indeed. Reading that I'm not the only one who had troubles with that eases somewhat the "newbie factor".

Had the time to play a bit with it yesterday (no film shot so far, it's on its way); some random impressions:

-It's built like a tank! The one i got may be rated as "mint-", it's almost 20 years older than me and I can see why it's still in great shape: the springs, the metal parts, it's really a "consistent" piece of hardware, every part which has to be pressed or manouvered is properly sized and everything works smoothly.

-It's light. Not so light to carry around one's neck, but still comfy to carry in a bag. A bit of a strain on the long run if shooting hand-held, those reporters had their muscles indeed!

-The rangefinder is a nice thing to have, not very useful for tripod shots, as one uses the ground glass, but for some hand-held shots (its'a Graflex after all!) it may prove useful.

-The focusing glass is huuuge the one in my Yashica Mat 6x6 looks like a stamp compared to that... and it's also dimmer. I've tried to focus without an enlarging lens on the glass and every time I hit the spot. Good, this means the fresnel lens does its job.

-There's a screen hood made of metal (a very neat piece of engineering). Unless there's some sky in the composition, I's very hard to see anything even @f/4.7; a black cloth is mandatory.

-The movements may be limited compared to the average LF camera, but they seem more than adequate for my landscape work (rise/fall of about an inch in either direction, the latter is done by lowering the rail and tilting upwards the standard to have it vertical again).

-Composition is easier than I thought. Takes its time, but it seems that the most difficult task is to preview the DOF (can't see anything @ f/22 in bright light, even with a dark cloth), I'll print some reference tables and bring them with me.

-Placing the camera in "portrait" mode is ok. It's a bit unbalanced on a side but my tripod doesn't seem to suffer too much.

-The shutter does not have "T" position. This is annoying as I need a separate shutter cable which blocks it on "B" position. I don't think the shutter itself may suffer if pressed for a long time, but there are no other ways to keep it open in order to focus.

[Jiri Vasina]

...
-The focusing glass is huuuge the one in my Yashica Mat 6x6 looks like a stamp compared to that... and it's also dimmer. I've tried to focus without an enlarging lens on the glass and every time I hit the spot. Good, this means the fresnel lens does its job.
...

Another one that is caught here. Just wait till you see a larger groundglass yet. Since I've started using 13x18cm, even the ground glass on a 4x5" seems small to me now. And I have not yet seen the larger ones...

Go ahead and enjoy your camera and I'm looking forward to your sharing first impressions after you see your first negative...

[Bill_1856]

-The rangefinder is a nice thing to have, not very useful for tripod shots, . I've tried to focus without an enlarging lens on the glass

Don't make a big deal out of it. Just focus with your normal vision, do the composition, and then do the final focusing with the rangefinder. No need for a loupe.

-Placing the camera in "portrait" mode is ok. It's a bit unbalanced on a side but my tripod doesn't seem to suffer too much.

There's a tripod socket on the side of the camera for portrait mode. Just unbuckle the carrying strap.

-.

[Joseph O'Neil]

-It's built like a tank! The one i got may be rated as "mint-", it's almost 20 years older than me and I can see why it's still in great shape: the springs, the metal parts, it's really a "consistent" piece of hardware, every part which has to be pressed or manouvered is properly sized and everything works smoothly.

-snip-

They are built like a tank - one reason I keep my Crown Graphic around.

You want a bad "newbie" story? I fell or slid down a 30 foot cliff into a small creek & ravine once with my Crown Graphic, and it survived the ride a lot better than I did. I had to get a new part for it to fix the top latch (mpex I think had that part in stock at the time, but that was ten + years ago), but it still works fine to this day.

I also carry band aids & iodine in my backpack whenever I go hiking with my LF gear now too.

Back to the CG, because it is so light weight and easy to use, you may find you will never want to get rid of it, even when you upgrade. I have two other 4x5 wood field cameras, but even so, there are days when the old Crown Graphic for one reason or another is my prime choice.

The only "drawback" is the lens boards are, IMO, a bit of PITA because of how they curve inwards at the edge. I remember 25 years ago at used camera shows you could buy them litterally for 25 cents each, now - if you can find them - they sell for more like $25 each. By comparison, the lens board for my Tachihara are fairly easy to come by, new or used. So stock up when you see them.
joe

[Ash]

You think that's bad? Try stripping off the leatherette, sanding everything down, then realising that you'd removed the bolt (that sits over the release) so now you can't even open the thing at all!

Gladly I put it back in place with some tape over it

[Kamox]

There's a tripod socket on the side of the camera for portrait mode. Just unbuckle the carrying strap.

Yes, that's precisely what I did. The rail sits on a side, but the overall weight balance is still more than acceptable.

BTW, I've tried to load the Riteway holder with a properly sized sheet of paper (still got no film, as I said) in the dark, and it seemed me quite easy.

One more question: when I expose, say, 8 sheets out a box of 10, as I need to keep the box for the remaining sheets, how/where do I pack the exposed ones to bring them to the lab?

[Jiri Vasina]

You need some spare box to store the film - the easiest way is, if you have someone shooting LF nearby, try asking them. If you don't have anyone close, try asking the lab if they have some.

If that fails too, buy 2 boxes of film, usually you can fit more than 10 sheets of film in the box where you originally had 10. - so if you spent 8 of the ten, move the remaining 2 into the second box of unexposed sheet - than you have a spare empty box that you can use to bring the film to the lab.

(if possible) the best method is the most rewarding one - shoot BW, develop it yourself...