sacrilege?

[Jim Jones]

The Crown is a useful camera for backpacking, especially if you aren't concerned with it looking like new. The front standard can be reversed to give more convenient front tilt, although many Polaroid and 135mm lenses don't have enough coverage for anything but a drop-bed front tilt. If the rangefinder and tubular viewfinder aren't functional, take them off. If the leather covering is scruffy, good! you won't have to worry about making it worse in the field. Some pristine Graphics look fine in a display case. Others have earned the right to keep on working, and work they do! I have Graphics that have been altered for specific uses. They wouldn't have lit a gleam in a collector's eye when I got them, and a collector would be appalled at the way they look now. It's better to display the photographs a camera makes than merely the camera itself.

[Mike Anderson]

I recovered my Nikon F2 with gray Griptac so I'm all for sacrilege. And I like those Crown Graphics stripped to the wood.

[Robbie Shymanski]

Unless it is pristine and you are looking to play a press photographer in some LARPing scenario, strip it down, put some tape on the loose bits and make some pitchers! The tool is less important than the result.

[Ivan J. Eberle]

The added weight of a working RF is negligible, and greatly eases using the camera handheld and or with a 120 roll holder. I'd fix it if all the parts are there.

[Greg Bliss]

I have alway wanted to refinish a crown to its basic wood with a dark stain and furniture oil rubbed in well. I have seen a few and very impressed with the looks.
It may not change the way it functions but it will get more attention and make you feel better using it.
Good luck and post pictures when done.

[jp]

I would never put a 302 in an E Type! I'd go for a 429!

I don't think a 429 would fit with a normal front frame and bonnet without messing with the body that Enzo said was the most beautiful car ever made. Changing the engine is sacrilege.

Go ahead and do anything to the crown graphic. It's as common as a ford focus.

[UberSquid]

I don't think a 429 would fit with a normal front frame and bonnet without messing with the body that Enzo said was the most beautiful car ever made. Changing the engine is sacrilege.

Go ahead and do anything to the crown graphic. It's as common as a ford focus.

I have a ford focus that I'm prepping for autocross as we speak. Unfortunately the factory fuel pump is awful and the rear suspension needs a lot of attention but I digress.

I played with the rangefinder last night. I can't decide if I want to keep it or not. I played with focusing the camera just using the ground glass and I found it just as easy to do it that way as to try squinting through the rangefinder. (Not to mention that recalibrating it for every lens would be a pain in the ass!) I'm leaning toward getting rid of it simply because it sticks out and for a backpack camera I don't want anything sticking out that can snag and catch.

I have a Polaroid 180 that I've converted for 4x5 that I can use for hand held. It's already calibrated for a 121 lens and I've upgraded the glass on the rangefinder so it's nice and contrasty if I ever decide that I need to do hand held large format street photography.

I'll strip the covering tonight to see what it looks like underneath and decide where to go from there.

Thanks for the input! I'll post pics.

[E. von Hoegh]

I don't think a 429 would fit with a normal front frame and bonnet without messing with the body that Enzo said was the most beautiful car ever made. Changing the engine is sacrilege.

Go ahead and do anything to the crown graphic. It's as common as a ford focus.

The 302 and engines of that block family were about the narrowest V8 made in this country. If a 429 would fit (probably too wide, as you said), then a 427 cammer would probably fit. Still heresy.

[Louis Pacilla]

Nowhere near as bad as the heretic who put a 302 Ford engine in an E type Jag. That warranted being impaled on an old driveshaft. JMHO

Yea Von.How dare they ruin that fine Ford engine with that crappy Jag body.

[AgentX]

Although I think Griptac is pretty cool stuff, I can imagine that the vast expanses of it on a Crown Graphic would make it awkward to take in and out of a bag, since it's pretty grabby stuff. And the point of the stuff is lost, in a way, on a camera you don't use in the hand.

I might choose plain leather, myself, or some other finish applied direct to the body. (One of the smoother spray-on truck bedliners?) The Griptac would give a nice armored feeling, though, despite any slight negatives to it.