4x5 Back Interchangeability?

[picker77]

Sounds like I've got all the other equipment. I'm not planning on hauling a 4x5 around, yet at least. This is likely going to be semi-permanently set up in the basement for tabletop and occasional portrait experiments.

Never fear, Trooper. Once you look at some of those beautiful & humongous negatives, the bug will bite and like most of us out the door you'll go, lugging all your 'stuff'. It's a great addiction, though.

[ethics_gradient]

This thread fits my question, so might as well save myself starting a thread:

Where should I be looking for a small-footprint Graflok back? I want to swap out the back on my 4x5 Tele-Graflex for one that can take modern holders (which I already have plenty of, not to mention Polaroids), and the old Speed Graphic back I bought is going to be too big to fit on the rotating back with ease. My original intention was to cut it down, but doing so would make it tricky to screw in to the revolving back. On the plus side, it was pretty inexpensive, so wouldn't be a huge loss if I bungled it.

I have a Gowland 4x5 Pocket View with a removable back which fits into the Graflex almost perfectly, but I am not about to start drilling extra holes in it to accommodate it on the Graflex. Does anyone know what Mr. Gowland was sourcing his backs from, or where I could find something similar?

[rdenney]

This thread fits my question, so might as well save myself starting a thread:

Actually, this thread does not seem to me to fit your question at all, and you should indeed start a new thread. The question here was how to prop film up in a Sinar rear standard (though it took a bit of back and forth to ascertain that fully), not how to fit completely different back on your Tele-Graflex, which appears to be a unique and unusual camera unlike their press cameras. The answer to that will require expertise more specific than this thread might attract.

Rick "who does not know the answer" Denney

[tim o'brien]

Never fear, Trooper. Once you look at some of those beautiful & humongous negatives, the bug will bite and like most of us out the door you'll go, lugging all your 'stuff'. It's a great addiction, though.

And don't EVER look at an 8x10 negative.

It's all over then. Ask me how I know.

tim in san jose

[Dan Fromm]

Rick Denney wrote:

All three of those cameras have an International back which is the same as the Graflok back used by Graflex started over half a century ago,

Rick, there's more than one interpretation of International back. I mention this because my little 2x3 Cambo SC has what Cambo calls an International back. The little gem accepts roll holders what attach to a 2x3 Graflok back but not sheet film holders. A real Graflok as made by Graflex accepts sheet film holders, not all International backs do.

Close, but definitely no cigar.

[rdenney]

Rick, there's more than one interpretation of International back. I mention this because my little 2x3 Cambo SC has what Cambo calls an International back. The little gem accepts roll holders what attach to a 2x3 Graflok back but not sheet film holders. A real Graflok as made by Graflex accepts sheet film holders, not all International backs do.

I was talking about 4x5 backs per the thread subject, and I don't know of any exceptions, but I suppose it's possible. My Cambo, Sinar, and Speed Graphic all accept the same accessories intended for an international/Graflok back.

Rick "curious if there are any 4x5 exceptions" Denney

[Dan Fromm]

Rick, not that I doubt you very much, but I just took a look at my Cambo accessories catalog, also at the SC catalog on cameraeccentric.com. The C-168 international back in the accessories catalog looks uncannily like my little one. My little one's ground glass comes off to all a roll holder to be mounted and there's no provision for sliding a film holder in front of the ground glass, as there is on Graflex' own ...

The catalog illustrations are poor and I could very well be misinterpreting them.

[rdenney]

Rick, not that I doubt you very much, but I just took a look at my Cambo accessories catalog, also at the SC catalog on cameraeccentric.com. The C-168 international back in the accessories catalog looks uncannily like my little one. My little one's ground glass comes off to all a roll holder to be mounted and there's no provision for sliding a film holder in front of the ground glass, as there is on Graflex' own ...

The catalog illustrations are poor and I could very well be misinterpreting them.

I've certainly used my Cambo with accessories that mount using the Graflok-style tabs, including various roll-film holders as diverse as an MPP 6x9 and a Wista 6x9 holder for 4x5 cameras. And I've certainly used it with regular 4x5 film holders and with the slide-in Polaroid sheet-film holder. The ground glass has two push-in clips that allow it to be slid to one side and removed, just as with the Speed Graphic and the Sinar, for mounting Graflok accessories.

I suspect the International back is its own industry standard designed to be compatible with the Graflok back, which was not a standard but a proprietary product. Graflok is a trademark so they couldn't label it that. Perhaps the 2x3 design just didn't consider those who might use 2x3 cut film, which was probably a bit of an odd beast when the SC series came out. That was long after the heydey of the Century. Even with these de facto standards, I'm sure there are bits of stuff here and there that don't fit. But I'm really surprised a 2x3 Cambo doesn't accommodate 2x3 cut-film holders.

Rick "noting that the MPP holder had to be installed on the Cambo in vertical orientation because of a conflict with the opposite-hand dark slide and the axial tilt control" Denney

[Dan Fromm]

Rick, there's a bail back for the 2x3 SC. It accepts cut film holders but not roll film holders expect, of course, the unloved Adapt-a-Roll 620 and the 120 film equivalent from Busch.