My Crown Graphic Project

[William Barnett-Lewis]

Awhile back I bought from a member a Crown Graphic for the purpose of turning it into a usable field camera. It already had the RF & leather handle removed, so I started from there.

This is a first progress report, I suppose. It's hardly complete, but I wanted to show off a bit of what I've gotten done so far.

I stripped the leather from the case, filled in the huge hole from the side release with wood putty, sanded it down and put on a couple of coats of stain. The leather on the front panel was still in nice shape so all I did to it was a bit of Kiwi. Then I added a nice brass window sash pull as a handle on the top. When I find some brass nails that are thin enough & short enough, I have the accessory shoe from a 1954 Kiev 2 (that was a basket case when I bought it :( ) to put on top as well.

The pics are from my phone cam, so they aren't exactly splendid, but I think they'll show what I'm up to.

The next phase involves modifying that 2nd pacemaker front standard to provide both directions of tilt & some swing as well. I've decided how I'm probably going to do it, but I'm still dithering a bit before I cut metal.

Hope someone else finds this at least a bit interesting.

William

[Merg Ross]

William, very interesting indeed! Is that my old Crown? Glad it worked out for you, be sure to update the progress. Looks like a fun project!

[William Barnett-Lewis]

Yes, Merg, that's the one I got from you. It's proving to be a very enjoyable project so far.

William

[Bob Gentile]

Looks like a fun project!

I wish I had taken pics of my B&J Grover restoration.

[Ash]

Ah! so you are another RFF member!

Seems like a lot of people are getting the LF bug :D

I stripped the RF from my speed graphic. I'm waiting to see if I can be bothered to strip the leather or not.

[Glenn Thoreson]

William, be sure you check the box joints for light leaks where there is any access to the film. They often leak and depended on the leather to cover them up. Happy shooting!

[William Barnett-Lewis]

Thanks for the tip, Glenn. I was already wondering about the seal for the back after having it off, so I was planning on checking the camera for light leaks by putting it in the sun with a holder & and just pulling the dark slide for about 15 minutes or so.

William

[Bob Jones]

I did a Crown too and yours looks good so far. For the brass nails you might ask at the local hardware for escutcheon pins. They are available in a few diameters (18 ga. being most common) and you can trim them to length with wire cutters if you can't find them short enough.

[wclavey]

William, I just completed a similar project, only mine did not start with a complete Graphlex. I had 3 junk box cameras, 1 Crown, 1 Anniversary Speed, and 1 bag of Crown parts. I used the Crown body, although the leather was in bad shape. So I stripped it off, filled the holes with putty and wood blocks and pained it with several coats of satin black. The front was in terrible shape, too, with the screws popping through the leather so I stripped, cleaned ad painted that, as well.

The bellows from the bag of parts was in the best shape but it had the Crown front standard, and I wanted the old Anniversary Graphic 4x4 lens boards... those lens boards are much easier to make by hand, so I had to modify that standard to mate with the end of the Crown bellows using a small grinding tip for a dremel and a lot of patience. Finally, I added a satin snow ground glass and it's done.

Here are a few pictures (from my cell phone... I do not have a digital camera). I have a Kodak Anastigmat f/6.3 170mm lens mounted in a Kodamatic shutter on it right now, while my Graphex shutter is being CLA'ed at Flutots.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m149/wclavey/DSC00016.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m149/wclavey/DSC00017.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m149/wclavey/DSC00018.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m149/wclavey/DSC00019.jpg

I'd be happy to answer any questions that may arise while you do yours, and I certainly have may extra parts that could be yours for the asking.

I know that a lot of people get upset when you talk about transforming a Graphics like this, but it has made a big difference to me usability and weight-wise, and I had a lot of fun doing it. I consider it my "assess my real interest and skill in LF" opportunity before I invest in a real field camera.

And I apologize for the poor picture quality

[William Barnett-Lewis]

I'd be happy to answer any questions that may arise while you do yours, and I certainly have may extra parts that could be yours for the asking.



Great project. I may take you up on those parts, still not completely sure of my needs. The main thing for me, right now, is to be absolutely sure what I want to do before taking my dremel to my second front standard.




I know that a lot of people get upset when you talk about transforming a Graphics like this, but it has made a big difference to me usability and weight-wise, and I had a lot of fun doing it. I consider it my "assess my real interest and skill in LF" opportunity before I invest in a real field camera.



To a certain extent, I can agree with them. The Anniversary Speed Graphic I have is one from the US Navy in The War and still has it's original 127/4.7 Ektar & Hugo Meyer RF. That one is going to simply get restored/refurbished back to it's historic past. OTOH, this 1962 Crown is an anonymous one of thousands that had already been taken halfway there before I bought it. As a result it was a perfect candidate for hacking up.

Best of both worlds, I'd say :cool:

William

[Ernest Purdum]

I am particularly interested in the idea of modifying the front standard for more movements. I hope you'll tell us all about this since I adding a good tilt capability would be a major improvement to a Crown.

[IanG]

The major problem with Crown & Speed Graphics is the lack of forward tilt, I've tried reversing the front standard, this works well but you can't close the camera. So any useful tips would be greatly appreciated.

Like one or two others I bought a couple of Graphics to build one good one, sold together for just such a project the seller neglected to add one was pre-anniversary, the other post and and almost nothing was interchangeable. However both are now almost restored, and fully functional.

Ian

[Glenn Thoreson]

Forward tilt is not a problem with Crown or Pacemaker Speed Graphics. It just takes a little imagination and/or reading up on the subject. For forward tilt in landscape orientation, pull the standard out to the stops, drop the bed, raise the front and tilt back until you have the amount of forward tilt you want. Focus travel is limited with the bed dropped, so you may need to move the standard a bit to compensate. Don't force it! It's simple and can give you way more tilt than you can use. In portrait orientation, you're just out of luck for tilt. But then, these cameras were never meant to be field view cameras.

[IanG]

Glenn, forward tilt is a problem when using a 90mm lens hence the reason for a modification. I use a Crown Graphic in locations where no tripod is permitted and anything to improve versatility is useful.

Ian

[65Galaxie]

I accomplish front tilt with my Speed by either mounting the tripod head on the side panel and flipping it 90 degrees effectively putting it upside down or just flipping my Bogen 3028 head over (have to move the head setscrew for more clearance so the camera doesn't hit the tripod). The base of the camera makes a good lens hood in this direction also. For forward tilt in the portrait position I simply use a big spring hand clamp after removing the standard from the front rail. Just a little forward tilt is all that's usually needed. I find that bed drop with my 135 Optar always puts the lens in a position that it interferes with the rear bed and just flipping the camera upside down works better. The limited coverage of the 90 Optar works good upside down also because one just needs to lower the lens as well as tilting it to keep the corners from vignetting. My Speed just has enough room to allow a little of both.

[Gene McCluney]

These modifications are interesting...but, I don't understand how they improve the use of the camera in the field? Perhaps a bit lighter? I use a graphic all the time, as a field camera on a tripod, and I have never found the "press" camera bits to get in the way at all.

[wclavey]

In my case, I had no single working camera. The closest one had a bunch of non-working stuff on it and the leather covering was one step above sawdust. But removing the non-working stuff (shutter release mechanism, viewfinder, rangefinder) left gaping holes in the body. I use mine mostly hiking or bicycling to places, and my son's Crown, "as-issued" weighs 5 lbs 4 ozs, while my stripped version weighs 3 lbs 10 oz. I suppose that if all the press camera bits worked, I might have kept them, but when starting from a junker and a bag of parts, why keep stuff that doesn't work? Especially if you do not intend to use them...

Besides, at 54, I need it to be as light as possible... I'm getting too old to carry all this stuff... I'm thinking of taking my 120 film out of the boxes to save weight. :)

[IanG]

Besides, at 54, I need it to be as light as possible... I'm getting too old to carry all this stuff... I'm thinking of taking my 120 film out of the boxes to save weight. :)

Camera formats tend to increase in size & weight as you get older so be thinking of switching to a 57 Graphic soon :-)

And in your old age a 108 . . . . . lmao. Yes we know what you mean but some of us have a long way to go to catch you up though, well . . . . in months, but a Crown Graphic, or a Speed Graphic stripped down is a great light weight camera, I do however find a lack of versatility compared to my Wista, restrictive moments, poor with wide angle lenses (useless with my 65mm SA) but with a saving grace Graphics are very usable hand-held.

Ian