8x10" SLR Graflex

[bbjorkum]

Just out of curiosity: Has anyone ever seen an 8x10" SLR Graflex? In my recently aquired catalogue of Graflex cameras, one of their first SLR's is listed as 8x10".

[Walter Calahan]

Nope, but I sure do want one.

I got two 5x7 SLR Graflex that I'm reconditioning.

Let us know if there are any pictures of the beast. Probably rarer than Big Foot.

[Ernest Purdum]

Is your catalog the 1904 edition? Many years ago I sponsored the reprinting of this catalog. One of the main reasons I did so was that it was full of cameras I never had seen.

I doubt that there were many 8" X 10's made, and I fear that most of those were probably discarded after shutter failure, Keep looking, though.

Incidentally, Folmer & Schwing was one of the makers (Newman & Guardia was another) who advertised that they would accept special orders for whatever you needed. There may be some really "rare" items out there.

[Glenn Thoreson]

Graflex would indeed build about anything you wanted. I have run across a reference to a whole plate Speed Graphic, too, though I've never seen one. No one else has either, to my knowledge. An 8X10 Graflex SLR would be an awesome thing to behold.

[bbjorkum]

I haven't got the real catalogue, but the book by Richard. P. Paine, wherein he lists all the Graflex cameras he has found evidence of. On page 10 there is a picture (well, it's a gravure ...) of the Graflex Camera from 1901, which was available in 4x5, 5x7, 6 1/2x8 1/2 and 8x10. It yields shutter speeds from 1/10 to 1/1200 second. The 8x10 must be somwhere, and I'm determined to find it. Yes, I will find it. I will set out one morning after breakfast, on my unicycle, and I will not rest nor have tea until I have found it. Pity there's very little chance of finding one in Norway.

[David A. Goldfarb]

If anyone has seen one, I'd suspect it's been at Lens and Repro in New York.

[Frank Petronio]

Can you imagine the price it would fetch? Maybe that Nabor camera museum guy had one? I should ask the Eastman House guy...

[Ernest Purdum]

If anyone wants to send me their mailing address, I'll send them a copy of the catalog page. My email address is ernestpurdum@aol.com.

[Toyon]

Last year there was an 8x10 shutter for sale on feebay, allegedly from a graflex.

[Captain_joe6]

I remember seeing that very curtain on the 'bay and my belief is that it is from an 8x10" focal plane shutter for use on an 8x10" view camera, like a Kodak 2D. I know for sure that these units exist because I almost bought one one eBay a couple years back. Now I wish I had one for me Century 10A studio camera.

God, I would love an 8x10" SLR.

[BarryS]

Over the summer, I bid on an auction for a 2D with a (Graflex?) focal plane shutter *and* a universal iris mount. Unfortunately, the seller didn't know much about the shutter, so there was no telling if it worked.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Now what I wonder is if one happened to have a defunct 5x7" or two, if the mechanical parts could be cannibalized to make an 8x10"?

The box seems to be a fairly simple thing, and I'm sure there's enough power in the spring to drive a larger curtain once you get past the two or three slowest settings. It would be necessary to fabricate a larger box, longer rollers, shutter curtain, back, top groundglass, front surface mirror, and the trickiest bit, I think, would be whatever mechanism it is that determines the distance of shutter travel. I haven't taken my 5x7" Press Graflex apart to the extent of understanding how that bit works. Maybe you would just get two slit widths instead of four.

[domenico Foschi]

I had one yesterday in my hand.
It was a wonderful experience: I had seen this beautiful woman walking on a local street.
It was late in the afternoon and the light was beautifully soft and it had that wonderful contrast and depth that only late afternoon light broken by clouds have.
She had great deep brown eyes and a pale skin that glowed in that light.
I asked her if I could take some quick pictures with my camera.
I was lucky to have this wonderful object in my hands.
She agreed graciously, I am sure that the camera titillated her curiosity.
I didn't have to tell her anything, she was perfect how she was and where she was.
As it happens in these instances when the light is disappearing rapidly I was a little apprehensive, but I managed to meter, cock the shutter and right at the moment when I was releasing the curtain a kid got between the lens and the woman.....
Then I woke up.
:)

[Frank Petronio]

And found a dismembered Gowlandflex 8x10 in bed with you!

[Frank Petronio]

And Annie Leibowitz towering over you shouting, "Domenico you dumbass! You had sex with my $20,000 camera!!!"

[domenico Foschi]

I and Annie sleep in separate beds now, luckily.

[domenico Foschi]

The incident of the dismembered Gowlandflex happened when Witkin was my room mate.
Always playing pranks.
One day I heard him begging our next door neighbour whose husband had just passed in the kitchen to sell him the body.
When she heard that he wanted to use it as a vase for a photoshoot she found the idea so interesting that she agreed.
The couple slept in separate beds as well.

[ic-racer]

I suspect you have all seen this. But, in case you haven't, here is the Gowland 8x10 TLR.

[Glenn Thoreson]

Over the summer, I bid on an auction for a 2D with a (Graflex?) focal plane shutter *and* a universal iris mount. Unfortunately, the seller didn't know much about the shutter, so there was no telling if it worked.

It doesn't matter if it worked. It could easily be repaired. You do realize, don't you, what the right person would be willing to pay for just the shutter? They are quite rare these days.

[rjmeyer314]

About 20 years ago I was just starting to collect Graflexes. I brought some stuff from J. O. Tepper, a well known dealer in photo equipment. I asked if he had seen an 8 x10 Graflex slr. He said that in 30 years in the business he had seen one. I think the Eastman House has one. I do have an 8 x 10 Graflex focal plane shutter on my Century Universal. It works.

[Daniel Unkefer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgnuF138FLw

Not a Graflex, but see here.

[Neal Chaves]

I remember at the show in Boston one time in the 1980s a dealer had an 8X10 contact print of the Wright Flyer in the air. He claimed it was made hand-held, which I doubted at the time but perhaps he was correct.

[ethics_gradient]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgnuF138FLw

Not a Graflex, but see here.

I saw an 8x10 similar to that (hardwood exposed, IIRC a British maker) sell on eBay a number of years back, can't remember the condition/whether it was operational, but think it fetched around USD 1,500-2,500.