Large Format Backs - New tutorial article

[Doug Kerr]

As most of you know, those who are new to the large format field are often confused by the differences between the three types of camera back we often encounter.

I have just posted to my informational site, The Pumpkin, a new tutorial article, "Large Format Camera Backs", available here:

http://doug.kerr.home.att.net/pumpkin/index.htm#LargeFormatBacks

It describes and distinguishes the three back types (with photographs) and gives insight into the historical evolution that led to them.

As always, I certainly welcome comments, corrections, or suggested additions to this article.

[Henry Ambrose]

Highly geeky site you have there!
I rate it "8.7 Pocket Protectors" on the international scale.

Seriously,lots of interesting stuff.

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Henry,


Highly geeky site you have there!

I rate it "8.7 Pocket Protectors" on the international scale.

Is that the "9-point international scale" or the "open-ended international scale"?

In any case, I'll take it.

I need to tell you a story about my pocket protector. When I had my first date with my bride, Carla, (we had both been widowed, and had met at church), I decided I had better not wear my famous pocket protector (which held ball-point pens of three different colors - two blacks, in case somebody asked to borrow one - an 0.5 mm drafting pencil, a small felt-tipped pen, and a small flashlight), as it might look "too geeky"', so I just put one pen in my shirt pocket.

Partway through dinner, Carla said, "Where is your pack of pens?" I told her why it wasn't there. She said, "Well, without it, it's just not you!"

A week later, we were engaged!


Seriously,lots of interesting stuff.

Thanks a lot. Hope you find some of it useful.

Best regards,

Doug

[Jack Flesher]

Hi Doug:

Nice write-up on backs! My only comment would be to include a mention of bail backs -- they get mentioned enough in forums as they're really popular with the larger format cameras and it might be nice to have a reference to them for future posts ;)

Cheers,

[Ralph Barker]

Nice article, Doug.

One suggestion: you might add clarification of how the terms "universal" and "international" are often used to describe "spring backs" and "Graflok backs".

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Jack,


Hi Doug:

Nice write-up on backs! My only comment would be to include a mention of bail backs -- they get mentioned enough in forums as they're really popular with the larger format cameras and it might be nice to have a reference to them for future posts

An excellent point. My firsthand experience was limited to the non-bail ones (we're an "all Graflex" shop in the LF department), but clearly they deserve to be mentioned. I'll try to include coverage in the next issue.

Incidentally, I would appreciate any links to good illustrations or discussions of bail backs. (My colleague Will Thompson has cameras with bail backs, and I'm sure he can help me out, too.)

Thanks again for writing.

Best regards,

Doug

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Ralph,


One suggestion: you might add clarification of how the terms "universal" and "international" are often used to describe "spring backs" and "Graflok backs".

Yes, I had wanted to do that, but realized that I hadn't yet done the research to be able to discuss it authentically, and decided to go to press with the first issue with only that glancing blow at the subject.

Can you help me out with some specifics, or point me to some good references? (Of course, I'll poke around anyway!)

(As you may have seen in many of my other papers, I am quite interested in formal standardization. In fact, in an earlier life, I did the final wordsmithing of the first complete standard for ASCII.)

Thanks for writing.

Best regards,

Doug

[BrianShaw]

I need to tell you a story about my pocket protector...

Nice article, Doug... thanks! I've learned a lot from you site.

p.s. My wife seems to be the polar opposite of yours... when we dated she told me that I had to stop wearing short sleeve dress shirts with a neck tie before she'd even admit to being my girlfriend. I gave up on pocket protectors quite early in life becasue they became too dificult to find. ;)

[Brian Ellis]

Very interesting and informative, thanks for posting it. I have one minor suggestion though it may be due to my ignorance. FWIW one source of confusion to me about the diffferent backs has always been the variations on the prefix "Graf" - there's "Graphics" and "Grafloks" and "Graflex" and probably other Grafs that don't come to mind. I think you might simplify things a little if you just called spring backs "spring backs" and forgot about use of the term "Graphics" for them since spring back is the term in use today (at least I think it is though perhaps that's where my ignorance comes in). Anyhow, thanks again for an interesting and informative article.

[Dave_B]

When I was a physics graduate student we used to pretend to be engineers when we were in a bar. The buzz among the physicists was that it was much cooler to be an engineer than a scientist and it was easy to fake because we knew at least as much calculus as they did. Boy, were we pathetic nerds. We were so uncool that the coolest thing we could think of to imitate was an engineer. Its amazing that any of us ever managed to get our DNA into the gene pool of the human race....
Cheers,
Dave B.

[BrianShaw]

Boy, were we pathetic nerds. We were so uncool that the coolest thing we could think of to imitate was an engineer.

Ahem... sir... what do you mean by "were"... some of us still ARE! :o

[Jack Flesher]

Almost forgot Grafmatic (AKA Graphmatic) holders! They are semi-automatic holders you could pre-load 6 sheets of cut film into via septums, and a push and pull on the darkslide stored the exposed sheet and loaded a fresh sheet without having to remove the holder from the camera.

Here is one illustrated resource: http://graflex.org/speed-graphic/grafmatic/

Cheers,

[Mark Sawyer]

Nice article. But if you want to be comprehensive, perhaps some mention of large format Polaroid backs? Or big roll-film backs? Or (*shudder*) digital backs?

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Brian,


I think you might simplify things a little if you just called spring backs "spring backs" and forgot about use of the term "Graphics" for them since spring back is the term in use today (at least I think it is though perhaps that's where my ignorance comes in).

You're absolutely right That's why in the article I do call them "spring backs" (although I mention that they are sometimes called "Graphic" backs, and they are, for the benefit of readers who want to know what's being spoken of when they read a reference to "Graphic" backs).

There are only three spellings relevant here:

- "Graflex" (I explain in the article various things that means).
- "Graphic" (I was going to explain that, but I decided not to; hopefully its origin is evident from the discussion).
- "Graflok" (I explain that in the article).

Thanks for writing in.

Best regards,

Doug

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Jack,


Almost forgot Grafmatic (AKA Graphmatic) holders!

Sure. The article is about backs, not every possible thing that would go into them. But I might expand its scope the next time around.

Thanks for the thought.

Best regards,

Doug

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Mark,


. . . But if you want to be comprehensive, perhaps some mention of large format Polaroid backs? Or big roll-film backs? Or (*shudder*) digital backs?

Again, I wasn't trying to explain everything that would go into a back. But I may expand the scope of the article the next time around.

Regarding digital backs, I am so far only aware of digital backs that play the role of a medium-format back (not any that go into a large format "film" back). And I had intended to make clear that the article was about film backs. But again, I need to see what I might do about this related field the next time around.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Best regards,

Doug

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Jack,

Well, now you've done it! I decided to write a section on bail backs for the article, but I didn't have any good pix (and no bail backs here to photograph), and my friend Will (who has several such) was out moving furniture. So I went to the evidently-unmentionable online auction site (not Sotheby's - can I say "Sotheby's" here?) to look for a nice picture of a camera with a bail back, and found a lovely picture of the bail back on a Calumet Standard 4x5, and the auction was about to close, and the camera looked really pretty, so I bought it!

Now I have another machine to learn about!

Are there bail backs that are basically of the Graflok formulation? The ones I am familiar with are all of the "spring" type.

Best regards,

Doug

[Henry Ambrose]

........and found a lovely picture of the bail back on a Calumet Standard 4x5, and the auction was about to close, and the camera looked really pretty, so I bought it!

Now I have another machine to learn about!

Are there bail backs that are basically of the Graflok formulation? The ones I am familiar with are all of the "spring" type.



I love this place!

[Jack Flesher]

Are there bail backs that are basically of the Graflok formulation? The ones I am familiar with are all of the "spring" type.


Sheesh! I didn't expect to send you out on a spending spree :o

I am no expert on backs, but most of the bails I have seen were there simply to make it easier to open up a spring back without moving the camera.

Congrats on your new toy!

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Jack,


Sheesh! I didn't expect to send you out on a spending spree :o

Well, it's dirty work, but somebody has to do it!


I am no expert on backs, but most of the bails I have seen were there simply to make it easier to open up a spring back without moving the camera.

That's what I've seen too, but of course that would be equally beneficial on a Graflok (international) back. But I don't know if it has ever been implemented there.


Congrats on your new toy!

Thanks. I'm sure it will be lovely.

Best regards,

Doug

[Ralph Barker]

The Toyo revolving 4x5 back has a single lever on one side to ease opening the back, instead of a full bail, whereas the "reversing" back lacks the lever. The 8x10 Toyo back has levers on both sides. I can send you photos if you'd like, Doug.

Then, there are the backs that are held on with bailing wire. But, within this context, that's probably an anti-bail. ;)

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Ralph,


The Toyo revolving 4x5 back has a single lever on one side to ease opening the back, instead of a full bail, whereas the "reversing" back lacks the lever. The 8x10 Toyo back has levers on both sides. I can send you photos if you'd like, Doug.

Yes, that would be very nice. My e-mail is:

doug.kerr@att.net


Then, there are the backs that are held on with bailing wire. But, within this context, that's probably an anti-bail. ;)

Indeed!

Thanks so much for the info.

Best regards,

Doug

[TEASER]

Hi, Henry,



Is that the "9-point international scale" or the "open-ended international scale"?

In any case, I'll take it.

I need to tell you a story about my pocket protector. When I had my first date with my bride, Carla, (we had both been widowed, and had met at church), I decided I had better not wear my famous pocket protector (which held ball-point pens of three different colors - two blacks, in case somebody asked to borrow one - an 0.5 mm drafting pencil, a small felt-tipped pen, and a small flashlight), as it might look "too geeky"', so I just put one pen in my shirt pocket.

Partway through dinner, Carla said, "Where is your pack of pens?" I told her why it wasn't there. She said, "Well, without it, it's just not you!"

A week later, we were engaged!



Thanks a lot. Hope you find some of it useful.

Best regards,

Doug

I looked at the site for 30 secs and Rate it a 10 on the TEASER Scale.

Network Engineer / Geek

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Teaser,


I looked at the site for 30 secs and Rate it a 10 on the TEASER Scale.

Well, if I didn't know your nom de guerre, I would find that a bit pejorative, but since I do, I'm proud to receive that rating. Thanks.

Best regards,

Doug