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

[Jim Rhoades]

Bill: I use a 90mm Optar and it just clears the front of the bed. Just, by maybe 1/8 of an inch or less. Another Optar might be blocked. A Schneider, who knows. YMMV.

Christopher; I think Dave did an outstanding job in his “accurate description” of using forward tilt. The problem is there are a lot of us “Graphic Avengers” out here who are tired of guys taking pliers, files and hacksaws to a nice Graflex to try to make a press camera into a technical or field camera. Or ruin the versatility by reversing the standard. If more people read his article and begin to understand how the camera works and what the limits are there will be less camera abuse.

In the horizontal, landscape mode the camera will do 95 percent of what you need. It has, rise, fall, shift, forward and rear tilt as well as rear standard tilt if so desired. And yes even my down and dirty swing. The lenses have limited coverage but they are so light.

When I don’t want to backpack my field camera, I can carry the Crown a 90mm, 135mm, and 207mm lens, three series 6 filters and shade plus holders & meter in a pretty small bag. The camera is damn near bullet proof. Not so, my Zone VI or Dorff. Eloquent? Nobody’s ever accused me of that before. Take it back. :-)

[Bill_1856]

I just tried my Schneider Angulon f:6.8 (mounted on a flat lens board) on both the Crown and Speed Graphics, and to my surprise the front door wasn't visible at infinity on either of them (close, though, on the Speed). Another great feature of the Graphics, Jim, is that taking a big-old clumsy 6-7 pound tripod is optional, if you have the correct viewfinder masks and infinity stops for the lenses.

[John McDevitt]

Thanks for the article Dave. I'm a newbie in more ways than one. I just signed up with the forum yesterday, I'm new to LF, and I am waiting patiently (not!) for the Crown Graphic that I snagged on ebay. I think the Crown will be my best intro into LF photography at a price I can afford.

[David Karp]

John,

Good luck with your new camera. It is hard to beat the combination of value and quality you get in a Crown Graphic. I think you will enjoy large format. Keep looking at largeformatphotography.info. It has a wealth of information. Also check out www.graflex.org. Congratulations.

[mick boyce]

hi dave, great article. when i first started in large format, i thought i would someday want to move up to a linhof after learning the format on my humble crown graphic. now after having handled both, i stick with the crown. you said in your article that you do not use your camera handheld because it lacks a rangefinder. mine lacks a rangefinder as well, but i very much wanted to go handheld. so, after several false starts involving CAD generated focusing scales, i found an accurate foolproof way to focus w/o rangefinder. i epoxied a cheap 8x agfa loupe to the center of the groundglass, masked the eyepiece of the loupe with tape and painted the exposed and transparent glass/loupe skirt with flat black paint. it works magnificently. i can stand in sunlight and focus on an interior-the image is bright enough. i can do a depth of field preview down to about f32. focus is always accurate-no cams or other gizmos to let me down. no cams to change. i would reccomend this technique to anyone who wants to go handheld with their graphic and has no rangefinder or mistrusts it's accuracy. mick boyce

[Les Newcomer]

I used a 90mm f6.8 Angulon on a Crown for a couple of years while shooting construction. In my case the bed showed up every time I fogot to drop it.

I never set inf stops for it, rather I would drop the bed, run the standard out until it ran into the dropped bed and locked it. since the 90 needs very little throw for focusing the linked rails provided ample movement, and it brought the standard out just enough out of the body to give me rise without sacraficing the sport finder.

As to the shortest lens a Crown can focus. I have a 58mm Grandagon and a 65mm f8 SA in a helical mount, on flat boards that focuses to infinity without a problem (getting cams for them is another story ;-) I have also that it can focus a 47mm SA, to be used with a roll back obviously. I have yet to confirm that.

Les Newcomer moderator, Graflex.org helpboard

[Lloyd Lim]

I use a Digitar 120 on my crown graphic and it is a pain to drop the bed to get front tilt. This is because the flange distance for the 120mm is just right at the hinge of the bed and after dropping the bed, I cannot move the front standard enough to focus on infinity... What I want to say is that the only way out is to reverse the standard, so that I can get forward tilt without dropping the bed. There are cases where it is necessary to reverse the standard...

[Alex Hawley]

Great article Dave. Its amazing how the Graphics keep soldiering on and on and on. That speaks for itself I think.

[Jim Rhoades]

Les; After reading your comment about the bed showing up with the use of a 90mm I measured the distance to my infinity stop. The rear of my stop is 5/8 of an inch out on the front focusing rail. This is measured with my scale set on infinity for a 135mm lens. I have stops set for 90, 135 and 203 mm. lenses. I keep my rangefinder set for the 135. If I go to a 90 or 203 lens I pull it out to the pre-set stop. With the scale set on infinity, for a scenic I would not have to focus. I wonder if what you have seen in your photo's is the forward section of the focusing rails and not the bed? Of course I may have a true 92mm and you a 88mm. That's why we always have to test. The downside of this is that front standard base straddles the hinge so I can't use bed drop. With the almost non-existing coverage of the Optar this is no loss. I can still set it on the rear rail and use the drop but why bother?

Lloyd, You make my point. The Graphic was not designed for wide coverage wide angle lenses. Can you make it work? Sure, but now you have limited the versitilty for other lenses. You are in the 5% of the time when you need a monorail or field camera with full movements and maybe even bag bellows.

[Peter Lerman]

I love my Crown Graphic. Since this is, in fact, a press camera it is most surprising that it has any movements at all. I rarely use them.

I keep a 135mm Symmar-S mounted in my CG. It folds neatly into the camera. I have used a Fujinon SW 90mm on this camera and it is just fantastic. The 90mm f/6.8 Angulon is good too but manages to include the drop bed along the bottom of the frame.

The camera can be re-built by a semi-talented amatuer (like me). I replaced the two mirrors in the rangefinder and adjusted the thing myself for the Symmar. It works great. I cleaned and lubed the focusing rails and re-set the infinity stops. The thing is just terrific and has truly amazing capabilities for a camera you can find everywhere for under $300.