Need Advise on Crown Graphic w/Pictures

[lukethedrifter1]

Being offered a Crown Graphic and would like to know a fair price for it. Also, I'd like to know what kind of film it takes and how readily available it is. I know these are newbie questions but I really can use your advise. Pictures of the camera are at:


http://picasaweb.google.com/pobox4115/CrownGraphic#

Thank you

[Steven Tribe]

Late model with horizontal range finder. Check graflex.org for info and e**y for prices. Looks like a 4x5" (sheet film with option for roll film (120) adapter).

[ki6mf]

Also look for buying history on E Bay. I bought a reconditioned crown in the Boston area, know the repair shop that did the work, and got a clean machine with a 127 lens and fully operational accurate shutters (front and back on the Crown) for $400. It was a crown with the rear shutter fully functional, range finder cleaned and calibrated,and it did not smell like bad old shoe leather. The rear shutter adds to weight so if you are going to hand hold this beast may think of the models with out the rear shutter or think about a conversion. I choose to not convert to preserve the history of the camera. Still it does add to the carrying weight. Also check out www.KEH.com for prices in the USA. They tend to have better prices that E Bay. Currently bodies with range finders and NO lenses are $200 -250. Lenses are what you choose to pay for them and if you get something that has not been used probably needs cleansing. When done you get back to the $400 range after the cleansing.

[panchro-press]

Rear shutter on the Crown?
I think you have Crown and Speed mixed up.

-30-

[Mike1234]

"From the pics" it looks like a nicely done reconditioning on a very good example. As for pricing... that's always been all over the map but, with today's crazy economy, it's even more unpredictable. If everything is pristine including the RF, lens, shutter... I'd say it's worth a min of $200 and a max of $350... in today's market. I remember a few years ago a flawless example might have brought $450+ (on a good day on the feeBay).

[ki6mf]

Pancho! You correct! I always thing of Pacemaker, Speed and Crown Graphics as Crown Graphics

[Dan Fromm]

Since no one else has mentioned it, which back does it have? I'm not sure that all top RF Pacemaker Graphics were delivered with Grafloks. Luke, check on www.graflex.org, one of the regular posters will know. Since you don't, roll film holders attach to a Graflok back, can't be inserted in a Graphic ("spring") back. Read the FAQs on guess where.

Also, check to make sure that the front standard is stady, not wobbly, when on the inner bed rails. The inner bed rails are inside the box, the outer bed rails are outside the box, on the front door. I raise this because when someone who doesn't know better tries to close a Graphic without first running the front standard and focusing rails all the way back the tracks the inner rails ride in can break.

Wally, Pacemaker is the model. It was made in two versions, Speed, with a focal plane, and Crown, without. Three versions, if you count the Century Graphic, a bargain version of the 2x3 Crown; purists don't count the Century as a Pacemaker.

Cheers,

Dan

[Jack Dahlgren]

Being offered a Crown Graphic and would like to know a fair price for it. Also, I'd like to know what kind of film it takes and how readily available it is. I know these are newbie questions but I really can use your advise. Pictures of the camera are at:


http://picasaweb.google.com/pobox4115/CrownGraphic#

Thank you

Looks OK from the pictures...

It appears to be a 4x5, but you should ask the seller if it is. If it is 3x4 avoid it.
4x5 film is readily available in a wide variety of emulsions. It runs about $1 a sheet for black and white and more than that for color. If you develop the film yourself, then it won't cost much, but sending film to a lab for processing can get expensive pretty quickly.