Restoring a Speed Graphic?

[Ash]

I have my Anniversary Speed Graphic and I managed a negative with it earlier today! To see the neg underexposed shows me that at least the slowest speeds aren't lagging - I think the shutter mech might be fine!

The rest of the camera is a bit manky though. The leather is peeling in a lot of places (or missing on some corners) and the rangefinder is misty and totally misaligned.

Has anybody stripped one of these 4x5 beauties or pulled apart the rangefinder mech?

Any tips, pics, walkthroughs you can offer?

I wanna use my barrel lenses on the camera, currently the bare-barrel Conley RR 10.5inch is on it. I'm thinking maybe the 180mm Dagor could be of use too.

The Conley isn't so great since it maxes out the bellows extension, but as a wide-open portrait lens, I'm tempted to leave it as it is (now that I have a shutter that I can use to compensate exposure).


So, who can help me out with this project?? I'll be using the camera as it is (GG focus only) anyway, but I'd like to know if anybody can help me work out RF focusing solutions and composition.


Thanks!

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y43/second-belated/DSC00104.jpg

[Paul Ewins]

Ash,
replacing the leather isn't too hard and the side mounted Kalart is pretty easy to work on. With a bit of luck you can peel the leather off in a couple of large pieces and then use them as templates for your new pieces. The replacement leather should be flexible with just a little bit of stretch. It does need to be thick enough to take a bump without tearing, but not too thick so don't bother cutting up old leather jackets. It can be glued back on with ordinary contact cement.

Instructions for adjusting the kalart rangefinder can be found at Graflex.org. If it's misty then you may just need to unscrew the cover and clean the little glass windows, the mirror and the prism. If you can't see the second reflection then the semi-silvered mirror may need replacing. There's a guy on eBay for time to time that sells these and they work well. The only problem is getting the old mirror out without breaking the mechanism.

Don't disconnect the arm inside the camera unless you absolutely have to as it can be fiddly to get it correctly lined up again. Don't mess with the little prism at the bottom unless you absolutely have to, as it is factory set. Mine turned out to have a bent arm and I simply bent it back until it rested on it's stop.

[Frank R]

I do not recommend stripping and replacing the leather. Unlike other cameras, the leather runs under the metal trim.

I stripped an old Crown that was in poor shape. I used a pair of pliers to grab pieces and tore it off in pieces. Not hard but not pretty. Then I sanded the wood down on a stationary belt sander.

[Ash]

ok sounds like the leather will stay where it is!!

Thanks for the HU on the rangefinder adjustment manual. Anyone done it?? is it easy?

[Oren Grad]

Thanks for the HU on the rangefinder adjustment manual. Anyone done it?? is it easy?

The procedure is fussy both because the things you have to manipulate are small, delicate, and often stiff in these old cameras, and because you have to go back and forth between calibrations for different distances to try to get everything reasonably aligned overall. Do read the manual and see what you think.

I'm sure some experienced Graphic hands will say that it's not so hard. I tried it once, adjusting the Kalart RF on a quarter-plate Crown, and couldn't get it even close to being right. It's possible that there's something broken in mine; I have sending it off to someone who really knows Graphics on my "to do one of these days" list.

[Glenn Thoreson]

I would recommend leaving the leather as is, unless absolutely necessary. One reason is the thickness. It must be awfully close to original thickness, as there are things on thee camera that are dependant on it being correct. The most usual missing pieces are on the door and the ground glass cover. These are easy to replace, however. The rest? Just polish it up with some paste wax shoe polish and consider the wear as "character". The rangefinder is fiddly to adjust, but if you have patience and follow the directions, you can do it. The scary part is replacing the mirror. You have to break it and pry out all the bits and pieces. Then, you must get the new one glued in there straight in all planes. More fiddling, but doable. Is it worth it? Unless you plan on doing a lot of hannd held street photography that requires fast focusing, probably not. Have fun with it. I have many of them, up to 5X7. They're a great camera.

[Ash]

Sounds like I might be removing all the unnecessary bits after all, stripping it down into another field camera. After all, I bought it for the shutter, not for the RF or anything else :D

[Ole Tjugen]

That's what I do with mine: Forget the rangefinder since I use a dozen different lenses, forget the leather since it's still mostly there, and never mind the missing finder - again since I use a dozen different barrel lenses.

I found a small iris mount which I could just barely squeeze onto a lens board, which saves a fortune in lens boards and (custom) mounting flanges.

here it is - with a Perken Son & Rayment "Optimus Portable" 3 1/2" WA Rectilinear:

[Donald Qualls]

I'll disagree with others on this one -- I adjusted the Kalart on my Anniversary Speed 4x5 to work with my 13.5 cm f/4.5 Skopar and had no problem doing so, though I did find I had to reset the curved arm that follows the front standard in order to get the adjustment in range. Not counting the time it took to replace the very, very thin original beamsplitter with a new one, it took me less than half an hour to adjust the RF, using a couple small screwdrivers, a loupe for checking the ground glass, and my tripod. I set up in a location where I had ready objects at or very close to the recommended distances, which greatly simplified things; I only had to adjust the tripod to aim the rangefinder at the various objects, focus critically on the ground glass, and then adjust the appropriate RF screw. The process is straightforward, though it does require a few iterations because the adjustments interact.

Ole has a point, however, in that the RF adjustment is really only accurate for a single lens (even another of the same type and focal length might differ by enough -- due to a 3% focal length tolerance, in early lenses, and 1% or more even in modern ones -- to make the RF inaccurate, even with manually set infinity position on the front standard). This inaccuracy is especially noticeable at close distances, which is where accuracy is needed most because DOF is the shallowest...

My compromise is to use the RF only for the Skopar, and use the ground glass when I mount my 150 mm Componon, or use it with its 265 mm rear group -- and I shoot hyperfocal, rails locked, when I use my 105 mm Agnar (because that's the only way it covers 4x5).

[Glenn Thoreson]

One word of advice: If you do remove all the leather, carefully cut it around the shutter controls, and leave it under them. You may well wind up with a binding shutter if you don't. Also, the corner joints were not always light tight, so if you peel it, check them.

[Ash]

Ole, I'd love to have an iris mount to suit. if you have one that would fit, let me know when you next have a clearout!!

[Ole Tjugen]

Ash, that's the only iris mount in that size I've ever seen. It came to in a big box of miscellaneous parts - some of which I wanted, some I didn't want, and a few I still haven't found out what are for... Among the goodies were the iris and nine top-class cable releases.
You can see from the picture that it was a tight squeeze to get in on the lensboard - the slant is not only intentional, but absolutely crucial! :)

[Ash]

I'll have to keep looking then - that size lensboard fits all of my cameras - the kodak, korona, and graflex! :D

[Filmnut]

Ash;
I have a Pacemaker Speed Graphic with the same Kalart rangefinder, and I adjusted it according to the instructions at graphlex.org, with good results. I would also second the other posters, take apart only what you need to, take your time, and hopefully you'll be fine. I do usually use the ground glass for composition, but a properly working rangefinder will speed up the use of the camera, at those times when it's benificial to be quicker.
Anyway, good luck with yours!
Keith

[Donald Qualls]

Well, to inject a note of caution re: rangefinders, it looks as if it might be a little tricky to use a rangefinder accurately even when it's perfectly adjusted for a given lens. I posted a couple days ago about the Kalart on my Speed, but just that afternoon I processed the first few sheets I've had time to expose with the RF since adjusting it -- and found that though the settings are perfect, in practice it was extremely easy to focus just behind the subject. I wonder if there isn't a little play and hysteresis in the RF mechanism, making it matter from which direction I approach the final focus setting. I think I know a way to check that, but it's not going to be a simple setup...

FWIW, however, when working with a lens that requires the focal plane shutter (as my Skopar does), it's a LOT faster to use the RF than ground glass, because I don't have to wind up the shutter from O to whatever setting it needs for the selected speed after focusing -- and when hand held, I have to compose with the wire frame or tube viewfinder anyway.

[Ash]

Using as a view camera, I tried to take a shot down at Lydiard park, a few minutes walk from my house (the surrounding fields contain the horses that I encountered with the Korona a while back).

The two negs were underexposed/underdeveloped due to the EI5 film and slowest shutter speed of 1/10. I've tried my best to pull out an image that is viewable, but obviously not printable. The Conley RR lens was shot wide open, as its barrel is gutted. This particular neg stuck to the base of my paterson orbital and suck caused the damaged development in the sky (I should have removed this in PS before uploading).

Leveled, toned, slightly sharpened. That's the best I could do with the neg. I'm worried as to whether my processing was dodgy, or whether I have a light leak somewhere, considering the two negs from the holder exhibit the same problem on the lower half of the image. It may be a number of things. I'll shoot another few shots this week and decide whether it's the camera or not.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y43/second-belated/conspeed1ba.jpg

[Donald Qualls]

Increased density in the corners only might be due to overagitation in a too-small tray, though that usually affects the edge of the print all the way around. Until you get the development worked out to produce a normal contrast, however, it's hard to be certain. That doesn't look at all like a light leak, to my eye; usually the corners are protected from in-camera leaks (bellows pinholes and the like cast shadows like any other light source, and as such the corners are most likely to be in shadow), while film holder leaks are unlikely to affect both the flap and dark slide slot end without one or the other looking more like a "cast light", a distinct ray structure.

I've shot my Speed with the focal plane shutter using the T setting on a couple occasions, for speeds as fast as 1/2 second (1/4 is a little tricky, but 1/2 isn't too bad with a suitable cable release). That gives a bit of a no man's land between the 1/10 setting of Slit A, Tension 1, and the T speed (though it occurs to me one might find 1/4 easier with T if one cranks up the tension to 5 or 6, shortening the opening and closing times to well under 1/10), but might put you in the right range for a slow lens and EI 5 film.

[Ash]

With that confirmation, it must have been the agitation. It was visibly inconsistent in the sky tones.

The shutter is a little sticky on the relax; I can open on T, but it will take a moment to click/engage again before I can press to close shut. My tripod wasn't nearly as strong as I'd have liked so I didn't want to risk further camera shake. I didn't manage to push the development enough. In future I will do so under a safelight to push to a finer degree I think :)