New article by David Karp: The Pacemaker Crown Graphic 4X5 as a field camera

[QT Luong]

A new article by David Karp,
The Pacemaker Crown Graphic 4X5 as a field camera has been posted. Please feel free to leave any constructive
comments in this thread.

[Christopher Nisperos]

Thanks, Dave, for another good article. The Crown Graphic is a fine camera worth keeping alive.

The lens can tilt forward just by not "correcting" the lensboard when you drop the bed.

[Jim Rhoades]

Thanks Q.T. for the link and thanks Dave for the article. This question of movements for a Crown Graphic comes up often. Just this past week was a question of who still uses the back tilt front standard.

To me the question is; do you really think you know more about camera design than the people at Graflex 70 years ago? Or the photographer’s that have been using them for the same amount of time? Those experts considered it the King of cameras.

When you need front tilt to focus you will be using a tripod. The amount of time to drop the bed and raise and tilt the lens board is insignificant. This is still much faster than setting up a field camera. By reversing the front standard you loose the ability to tilt the rear back as well as wide angle lens use.

Down and dirty swing: If you drop the bed then run the front standard off the track, raise the bed, pull it out to the infinity stops, adjust the swing then gaffer tape the front standard to the rails. Fine focus and shoot. This will not work in the wind but it will work. When there’s a will there’s a way.

The though of taking a file to a good front standard repulses me. (Front and rear tilt) Reversing the standard cuts the flexibility of a Graflex by more than half. Learn to use the camera the right way.

[David Karp]

Jim,

I never claimed to know more about the camera than the designers. I talk about using the the drop bed, front tilt back, and front rise to accomplish front tilt in the article. Personally, I would prefer simple front tilt. Perhaps others did too, and that is why the Super Graphic was designed with front tilt also.

I did not advocate reversing the front standard or taking a file to the camera. I have not done this to my camera. I just made the information available in case someone else wants to do so. Obviously some people do, because they they did it.

Thanks for the suggestion about the swing. I had not heard that one before. It is not something I would plan to do, but others might.

I think that I know how to use the camera in "the right way." Everything you describe is a workaround to making a press camera work as a field camera. That is one of the points of my article. I like my camera. It is fun to use. It is easy to use in many respects, and difficult in others. Its just that the difficult parts are the ones where we are working around the fact that the camera was designed primarily for press use. I believe that my article fairly discusses those issues.

Of course, modern versions (and direct descendents) of the Crown, or perhaps more accurately, the Super Graphic, are the Toyo field cameras. These have front tilt, front shift, and the AII and AX have some rear movements too. Further refinements on a great camera. Of course, these refinements take away from the camera's ability for handheld use.

[Jim Rhoades]

Dave, Sorry, I did not mean you personally. Just by your fine article and photo's you are showing the Graphic world how to do it right. (Beddrop) My point is that modifying (reversing) a Crown will reduce the cameras usefulness not increase it. Filing the front standard will only weaken a tough camera. I wish photographer's would just drop the damn bed, it only takes seconds.

I too would like a simple front tilt. And rotating back, with front and rear swing and...

[gfen]

You can replicate swing by simply mounting it via the side tripod socket and suddenly all the tilts become swings, as well as still having limited rise/fall on the front standard (since its no longer a front shift on its side!).

[Christopher Nisperos]

Hi Dave, I'm back to repeat: the Crown Graphic does have front tilt. In your article, you said:

"Even though the front standard does not tilt forward, it is possible to achieve a front tilt by combining two movements. First, apply the drop bed. Next, apply the back tilt, but not all the way back. Stop tilting back when your lens achieves the desired amount of forward tilt."

This is not just a little trick you happened to find. It was deliberately designed that way. Don't need to turn the camera upside-down. Don't need to reverse the front standard. Nothin'. In the words of the eloquent Jim Rhoades, "just drop the damn bed, it only takes seconds".

Another point: To obtain the most from your movements, the Graflex folks used to suggest using the next longest focal length lens (I suppose that meant longer than 135mm, since that was the lens typically supplied with the camera).

[David Karp]

Christopher,

Didn't claim it was a trick I happened to find - never said that. I know it was designed that way. It just does not work like other field cameras in this regard. I was just describing how to do it, and I feel that my description is accurate.

Perhaps you would have preferred I wrote, "Unlike other cameras, including the Super Graphic, the Crown Graphic does not include a provision for tilting the front standard forward in small increments without combining movements. You can however, accomplish an extreme front tilt by simply dropping the bed. Most situations do not call for such an extreme amount of front tilt. To accomplish less than the maximum front tilt, you must first drop the bed, then apply front tilt backward until you reach the desired amount of front tilt. You may also need to apply some front rise, depending on your situation."

Either way, it is an accurate description of how to accomplish front tilt with a Crown Graphic.

Personally, I prefer a mechanism where you can just tilt the front over the method used in the Crown. And its not just a matter of dropping the bed, unless you want extreme tilt. It is a matter of making two or three movements to accomplish what you can do with other field cameras by just tipping the front standard forward, which is the procedure that only takes seconds. Apparently Graflex thought front tilt by just tilting the front standard was a good idea too, since they included this feature in the later Super Graphic and Super Speed Graphic.

[Bill_1856]

I've often wondered why they had that rather elaborate mechanism for rear tilt. (It is necessary for changing the cam in a top RF camera, but that came 20 years after the Pacemaker was first introduced). Has anybody tested it with a 90mm lens to see if the front door really does have to be dropped to keep it from blocking part of the (horizontal format) picture.

[Christopher Nisperos]

Sorry Dave. You're right. I should have asked, "Did you know..". And, yes. Your description of the manoeuvre was accurate. That was never the question and I never said otherwise.

My point is that your text makes the feature seem haphazard. If you did know that it was deliberate feature, OK...but that is not made clear, that's all. No big.

And, yes, I would've preferred the version you've included above (if a bit simpler), although it looks strangely like something I've seen before.

The bottom line is — helping the uninitiated learn the qualities of this great camera, isn't it? So, in all, thanks and congratulations for improving an already good article!