Super Graphic

[Shootar401]

I just picked up a Super Graphic on the big bay for $75, I have no idea about them, but for the price I figured if I don't like it I could always resell it for what I bought it for. My plan of this is to use it as a field camera since it has tilts and shifts on the front standard. I'll probably refinish it and remove the stuff I don't need like the little red shutter release button, rangefinder (which is cracked in half), etc. and refinish it in some blue leather. Maybe skip the leather and do a nice walnut veneer.

Can anyone tell me a little about it? It's the regular super graphic not the speed.

[DrTang]

nice cameras - did it come with the back panel? those are dang hard to find for some reason

[BrianShaw]

I use on, in origianl condition. Nice camera.

What do you want/need to know? Information is easily found at www.graflex.org and butkus.com (I think is the URL) has the manuals.

[Brian C. Miller]

I own one. It has the same front movement range as the Toyo 45AX. As long as the bellows are light-tight and the main front standard mechanism isn't broken, it will be a fine camera. I have been using mine since, oh, 1998.

The same things that drive me nuts about the SG are the same things that drive me nuts about the 45AX. The front standard has little catches on it to stop movement in one direction or another, and make it easy to fold the camera. Unfortunately, when I'm doing complex movements, I invariably wind up catching on those little catches again and again. It's annoying, but I work with it.

I usually use the camera with its Wollensak Optar 135mm because it folds up into the camera, and I then I have a nice camera package that's convenient to carry around, and flip it out and make some photographs. Of course, that's what it was designed to do.

On my camera, the ground glass had been replaced, and the replacement was way out of alignment with the film plane. I bought a replacement, made some measurements, and shimmed it into alignment. You want to make sure that you have both a ground glass and a Fresnel lens in there. If there is only ground glass, then it needs to be replaced.

[Jim C.]

I seem to remember reading that Toyo bought Graflex's tooling, not that familiar with Toyo's but if the 45AX introduction
coincides with Toyo getting the Graflex tooling it may explain the same things that drive you nuts with the SG.

[IanG]

I seem to remember reading that Toyo bought Graflex's tooling, not that familiar with Toyo's but if the 45AX introduction
coincides with Toyo getting the Graflex tooling it may explain the same things that drive you nuts with the SG.

The Toyo A series and AX are much more modern cameras and differe from the Graflex & Toyo Super Graphics.

I bought a Super Graphic 3 or 4 years ago very cheap knowing it had issues but it took a year to get the right parts as none are available in the UK, still need to fix the rangefinder but it was the back and front standard that were the problem. I used the Graflok focus frame off a Cambo Cadet for a year

IAn

[Ivan J. Eberle]

I bought a well-used, light-tight one with no major issues for a couple of hundred here off the LFF a few years back; resold it her a couple of years later for similar money. It was okay, though I didn't take many memorable images with it. Best features were the Graflok back, and that the installed RF cam focused perfectly with a Wollensak Raptar 135mm I already had. Downsides were that RF cams for other modern lenses are not commercially available and must be hand-cut. I never really took to it, ergonomics wise. Rotating the back to portrait orientation blocked the RF with a Grafmatic installed. I also found it to be not very wide angle friendly (no focus gearing or RF coupling). Too the SG won't fold up with larger modern plasmats inside the body as will a Meridian. Sold the SG, kept the Meridians.

[Kuzano]

I have three... I buy sad ones and strip all the useless stuff off bringing the camera down about a pound. I even dump the GG system that comes with that camera in favor of just a bare GG from A Crown, and still retain the Graflok. Appearance is of no concern to me. Lightness is.

The sale of tooling to Toyo resulted in Toyo reproducing the very same camera (changes in fasteners to metric only change). The first one looked Identical to a Graflex Super, and the only telltale was a small script Toyo in front of "Super Graphic" on the door. there is one on eBay... .been running about six months. The seller thinks is it somehow special. It does not appear to be a precursor to the 45A. The 45A is it's own design.

There are a couple of good articles on WWW.Cameraquest.com.

One page on the camera stock with lots of information, and one page on modifications that have been made to Super and Super Speeds on the front standards for different movements and even a tilt back mod.

I usually pick up the ragged ones that appear on eBay and make them workable,,,, but only as ground glass viewing. I don't have the skills or parts to build up a stock camera. If I were going to do that, I would contact Fred Lustig in Reno, NV. He is one of "The Men" on Graflex cameras. He's listed in the phone book in Reno. I had Fred work on a couple of Supers. I had him replace a bellows on one. Nobody still makes the bellow with the internal wiring that carries current from the "red button" to the solenoid in the front standard. That wiring is three foil ribbons internally placed in the fabric and running through the pleats of the bellows. Unique, and I don't think anyone would attempt that fabrication. The bellows that are listed on eBay as for the Super Graphic are phonies and do not have the internal ribbon wiring.

That doesn't stop one, however, from using a standard cable release.

[Teodor Oprean]

The front standard has little catches on it to stop movement in one direction or another, and make it easy to fold the camera. Unfortunately, when I'm doing complex movements, I invariably wind up catching on those little catches again and again. It's annoying, but I work with it.

You can simply unscrew those two catches. That's what I did to my Super Graphic. Makes a big difference in use.

[Teodor Oprean]

This is how the modification looks: