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

[Lloyd Lim]

I have both an Arca Swiss F-line and a Crown Graphic. For studio shots and for shots near to the car, the AS wins hands down...

However, when I'm on holiday and backpacking, the Crown Graphic wins. It can be folded with a lens, ready to take photos in like 10 seconds (I always have it set up with a grafmatic or roll film back and focused with the "f32 - 16 ft to infinity method" or the rangefinder, if there is more time.) Together with a kalart rangefinder, I don't have to mess around with cams etc. The whole system is ready to photograph with a 120mm lens. For my other lens, I just use the ground glass or estimate. I can use a smaller tripod and the whole package is better protected and less bulky in my backpack. BTW, I have used this with a Gitzo table top tripod, and it is still easy to focus (tip: carry a small comb with an attached mirror, so that the ground glass image can directed upwards like a tlr.)

Are there any other cameras that can do this? sure, you have the toho, linhof technika etc but each of them has issues with cost, speed of setup, handholdability, ability to use horseman/graflex type roll film backs. All in all, this is the best compromise.

so for a camera that costs me $81 (at that auction site), I can purchase a very very good lens to go along (digitar 120) and still have a whole package that costs less than a toho sans lens.

I agree, there are many restrictions, as spoken of above, drop bed for reverse tilt, no swings, little shifts and rise, no revolving back...

I think of it as a large format point and shoot, and a restricted field camera for the times when I don't want to, or cannot, mess around with a proper field/do it all camera

For myself, I find this philosophy of a "everything, but kitchen sink" photography distracting as I have to keep track of a lot of stuff, carry much heavier loads and detract from my enjoyment of the scenery and photography, all for something which would take maybe 1% of the specialized photos which I might not have gotten.

my 2 cents....

[Stephen Adams]

I am very new to the larger formats, and photography as a whole, but one thing has definitely stood out about the Graphic line of cameras of which I now have a wonderful and useable collection, and that is the fact that for a minimal price I learned more in a couple months than in two years of reading and packing around a modern 35mm. I probably paid too much for my Crown 4x5 (200.00) and was disenchanted when it arrived all corroded and dirty, but after some research and TLC, the thing is in near mint cond complete with the RF light working and the RF calibrated to match the stock 135 Optar. At first the shear size of it was intimidating, but its mechanics are simple. I haven't used it much because I am a starving student and prefer to indulge my habit with the more economical 2x3 Graphics which I will be packing all over the Sierra and Utah this coming season. As I have been told, in large format there is no scenery more than a hundred yards from the highway, and may pack the Crown in the car if I can afford a supply of film. If I were to want a lot of movement, I would use the 2x3 roll back and would be hard pressed to be off the image circle using it in the smaller format using a 90, 135, or 162 Optar. It is really something to take the Crown out and shoot it hand held. I liken it to pointing an old typewriter at something. It is really not that heavy, and the weight is well ballenced with the 135 on board. I am anxious to take it out and do some sailing photography with it. I doubt there are too many people shooting 4x5 negatives on the water. Got a polarizer set up on a slip adapter just for this, and it will work on all my vintage camera lenses that are 1-1/4 to 1-3/4 dia. Thus, for my current abillities, interests, and economics, the Crown was an easy choice. Even without the RF I could use it handheld now that I understand the focussing scales, something I did not learn using a 35 on semi auto and even manual. While I do not take it out very often, when I do, it is a very gratifying experience, if not a bit nostalgic. Though some may not necessarily assign the press cameras to the realm of field cameras, I do, for what could be more in the field than photo-journalism, and or having to jump out of a car and start making exposures imediatetly. The way I see it, field work is field work, one uses what they have while in the field. This being the case, I think there are an awfull lot of people that have used Graphics that will attest to its adaptability to many situations whether on a rock solid tripod with a dark cloth or in the point and shoot mode. Movements may be nice every once and a while, as mentioned above, but my limited experience suggests that many an incredible image require speed and this is the realm of the Graphics. Besides, who would worry about tilts and swings when straddling a chainlink fence to get a shot over a tree or so on? It is a real camera with a real nitch, and it is in the field where this camera comes into its own, and based on this argument, but not to be argumentative, I think perhaps the definition of the field camera had perhaps been missleading. I have never heard of a "Combat Horseman", but there have been many a Graphic at or near the front of far too many wars. I can not at this time think of anything more "field" than a battlefield. I have had my Graphics in rain, snow, and sand storms, but so far thankfully no battles. I brush it off and it is fine. My modern Zooms and electronics were fairly ruined after one summer of dirt roads and a couple backpack trips. In the end, personal preference will prevail, but for me, I like rugged and dependable as opposed to expensive and fragile. Regards, Stephen Adams

[David Karp]

Hi all,

I was looking on the web for some information on my Crown Graphic and found a technique that this photographer uses to get front tilt forward on his Crown.

www.redrocks.net/equipment/camera/crown.html

This photographer puts his camera on the side tripod socket, then flips the tripod head on its side, thus turning the camera upside down. Then he uses the back tilt, which has become a forward tilt due to the camera's upside down position.

Not advocating it, just adding another option for users of this camera.

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

This photographer puts his camera on the side tripod socket, then flips the tripod head on its side, thus turning the camera upside down. Then he uses the back tilt, which has become a forward tilt due to the camera's upside down position.



Are you sure that is the reason? he was probably trying to put the image right side up...



Just Kidding Dave. I loved my Crown, sadly tight times forced me to sell it.

[Ernest Purdum]

Occasionally, someone has added a tripod screw mounting socket to the top osf a camera. Obviously this is not for the top rangefinder Crowns, but it might add to the versatility of a side rangefinder type.



From all the interest in Dave's article, it looks like there might be a small market for conversion parts to add full front movements to a Crown. Something fairly simple like the front standard of a B&J wooden flatbed should do and the tooling costs would be minimal.

[David Finch]

Great article! I really enjoyed it.

There's a fashion photographer in NYC who sells the hand-built "Littman 45 Single." It's a refurbished and heavily modified Polaroid 110 outfitted for 4x5 with a choice of normal lenses (e.g., a 127/4.7 Rodenstock Ysarex). The price? Merely $3,000 and up. No movements to speak of, but so what? The Littman offers the revolutionary possibility of hand-held 4x5 photography. That's why, according to a blurb in American Photo magazine, the Littman is the choice of Bruce Weber, Patrick Demarchelier, etc., et al.

I have an even more revolutionary idea. Start with the Littman concept and take it further. Take a fine, light-weight mahogany chassis off of a high-end field camera. Cover it in leather and reinforce the locking edges in steel. Attach a metal folding bed and a flat, retractable lens stack. Carefully configure all optical dimensions so that you can affix featherweight lenses (with small image circles) and still provide a few rudimentary front movements without vignetting the 4x5 negative. Put on not one, not two, but three viewfinders, plus a fine-focusing cammed rangefinder and a ground-glass back. Make the camera so light, solid, and reliable that you could use it to take hand-held combat shots at Iwo Jima. Keep the whole thing (with lens) under 5 lbs.

Call it the Crown Graphic. Sell it for $350.00.

Impossible.

[alban christ]

sorry i have a crown graphic and its nice i use it on a tripod but the LITTMAN is trully a marvel I shoot fashion and landscapes hand held with it for 3 years now and I will get a second camera. I have a gallery of the images I made with it on his site. there is no comparison between the LITTMAN and anything else