Speed Graphic shutter

[Rider]

Do all speed graphics have a shutter, or is it a removable/optional item?

[Dave Parker]

No,

There were some made with and some made without, I assume your talking about the rear shutter? You can remove the parts of the curtain shutter, but there is really no need unless your trying to save weight.
Dave

[Neal Shields]

Yes and no.

Triditionally a "Speed" Graphic had a focal plane shutter which had a maxium shutter speed of 1000 of a second which was much faster than leaf shutters which usually went up to 1/250th. Hence the designation "speed". "Speed" evolved to mean a camera with a focal plane shutter.

Then Graflex invent a leaf shutter that went up to 1/1000 of a second and introduced a "Super Speed Graphic" that didn't have a focal plane shutter as a perminate part of the camera. With that one exception, I think all "speed graphics" have a focal plane shutter.

[Dave Parker]

Then you throw the Crown graphic into the mix, that was offered with and without the rear shutter, trying to follow the lines of the graphic cameras can become a very interesting trip.....I have also seen "speeds" without the rear shutter, and as far as I can tell, these were custom cameras that were ordered by specific photographers ....a great site to gather information about graphics is located at

http://www.graflex.org

:cool:

[Mark Sampson]

There is some inaccurate information in the above posts. Speed Graphics and Graflex SLR's have the focal plane shutter. Crown Graphics do not, and rely on a shutter in the lens. The Super Graphic came later, and was an improved model w/o the focal-plane shutter. The Super Speed Graphic was a Super Graphic with the 1/000sec. leaf shutter in the lens- no focal plane shutter. All the details are at graflex.org.

[Dave Parker]

Sorry Mark,

I own a crown/pacemaker that has a rear shutter, it is currently my user camera for 4x5, and rest assured, it does have a rear shutter. Now I don't know, perhaps the lens board holding slide was changed somewhere along the way to a crown slide and the speed slide was discarded..

The camera line up is at this link:

http://graflex.org/speed-graphic/graphic-models.html

Dave

[Dan Fromm]

Dave, I suspect that your camera suffered a lensboard slide swap as you suggested. The link you gave says categorically that Crowns don't have shutters and so does Graphic Graflex Photography.

Cheers,

Dan

[Dave Parker]

Dave, I suspect that your camera suffered a lensboard slide swap as you suggested. The link you gave says categorically that Crowns don't have shutters and so does Graphic Graflex Photography.

Cheers,

Dan

Dan,

I suspect that is probably the case as well, so the information I posted is indeed not accurate.

Thanks

Dave

[Donald Qualls]

I own a crown/pacemaker that has a rear shutter, it is currently my user camera for 4x5, and rest assured, it does have a rear shutter.

If it's a Pacemaker model with rear shutter, it's a Pacemaker Speed. The Crown had a shallower body (and could thus accept about 15 mm shorter focal length lenses) specifically because it didn't have the focal plane shutter; it was the focal plane shutter (and accompanying differences in the body) that was the sole significant distinction between the Crown and Pacemaker Speed.

As Mark posted, the only model called a "Speed" that didn't have a focal plane shutter was the Super Speed, so called because of the 1/1000 leaf shutter (few of which are still operational, and without that shutter the camera is properly called a Super Graphic). No other model without focal plane shutter was ever sold as a Speed Graphic in the roughly fifty years from the original introduction of the "top-handle" Speed Graphic (the model with the small lens board) in 1928 until the Super tooling was sold to Toyo and the Graphic name finally dropped entirely.

[Dave Parker]

Donald,

I already posted that the information I provided was not accurate..

Dave

[Neal Shields]

There is one camera that I forgot, and I am looking at the origional Graflex press release.

There was the "Super Speed Graphic" which was a metal bodied camera with a 1/1000 second leaf shutter, (list price in 1960 $449.50, which we have already talked about, but there was also a "Speed Graphic Model 1000" which was a top range finder wood bodied, leather covered camera with a the 1/1000 leaf shutter. In essence a "Crown Graphic" with the "Super speed shutter". List price $379.50 with a 135mm optar 4.5

This is all from the Sept 1960 Graflex "trade notes". They also show the "Super Graphic" which was a metal bodied camera with the normal shutter.

[Rider]

The Super Speed with the 1/1000 leaf shutter, is that shutter independent of any lens you put on? Are there lens limitations?


If it's a Pacemaker model with rear shutter, it's a Pacemaker Speed. The Crown had a shallower body (and could thus accept about 15 mm shorter focal length lenses) specifically because it didn't have the focal plane shutter; it was the focal plane shutter (and accompanying differences in the body) that was the sole significant distinction between the Crown and Pacemaker Speed.

As Mark posted, the only model called a "Speed" that didn't have a focal plane shutter was the Super Speed, so called because of the 1/1000 leaf shutter (few of which are still operational, and without that shutter the camera is properly called a Super Graphic). No other model without focal plane shutter was ever sold as a Speed Graphic in the roughly fifty years from the original introduction of the "top-handle" Speed Graphic (the model with the small lens board) in 1928 until the Super tooling was sold to Toyo and the Graphic name finally dropped entirely.

[Mark Sampson]

Rider, The Super Speed Graphic came with a 135/4.7 Graflex Optar lens, mounted in the 1/1000 shutter. It had a small built-in lenshood which you twisted in order to cock the shutter. It has a bad reputation for unreliability. (On the only one I have direct experience with, the shutter blades had chewed each other up.) It was considered unrepairable 20 years ago...and from what I remember of the lenshood design, few other optics would fit. You could ask SK Grimes what they think; I'm sure they will have had some history with it.

[Rider]

Is the focal plane shutter on the speed graphic repairable? What do you look for in such a beast?

[Dave Parker]

Yes, it is repairable and has been reliable for almost 90 years now!

:D