Graflex RB Super D
Posted by boombadeus on August 28th, 2008 in geeky, hobbies, photography
Graflex RB Super D SLR 3x4 camera
What’s 7 inches tall by 7 inches deep by 6 inches wide, has a big 152mm lens, and a giant mirror inside?
A World War II era giant SLR camera, that’s what. And now, thanks to Marisa’s Closet of Photographic Mystery, I have one of my very own: a Graflex RB Super D 3×4 camera!
Adjustable Aperture
Yes, once again, Marisa found an old camera in the deep, dark depths of what used to be her grandparents’ closet, and figured I’d be able to provide it with a good home. I was pretty thrilled with the Vigilant Six-20, but this is just another couple of steps beyond that.
View through the Viewfinder of the RB Super D
It’s a really neat, well-designed, well-made, interesting machine. You look down through the top at ground glass, and focus using the knob on the bottom right. The view in the finder is 3-d in appearance, and really something if you’re not used to large format cameras. (I’m not used to them, and it’s definitely still “wowing” me.)
How I got the view of the viewfinder
The shutter is a big wind-up vertical plane shutter. It’s like a curtain with five different sized slits cut in it. The film gets exposed as the slit passes by; the larger the slit, the longer the exposure. This also means that the entire image doesn’t get exposed all at once, which apparently is an interesting looking phenomenon.
Graflex SLRs are a surprisingly difficult kind of camera to find information about. There’s graflex.org, which has a bunch of information and a discussion board. Precious few photos are attributed to these on Flickr. Photo.net has some active and archived discussions about them, which helps.
Graflex RB Super D folded up
As I mentioned, this one is a 3×4 model. Strictly speaking, it’s designed to take 3 1/4″ x 4 1/4″ sheet film in a variety of different film backs. It actually came with a Graflex Mode 2 Film Pack Adapter, with film still inside! (Ancient Kodak Super-XX film.) It holds 12 sheets of film, and you pull out a paper tab every time you take a photo. Whichever of Marisa’s relatives that used this never finished off the pack that’s in it. I thought about trying to develop it, but it’s so old it’s almost certainly completely fogged and unsalvageable.
Side View of the Graflex RB Super D
Of course, 3×4 sheet film is difficult to find (4×5 is easy to find), and these film packs haven’t been produced in at least a decade. So the Model 2 Film Pack Adapter goes in the “interesting old oddity” category.
The camera’s kind of hard to take pictures with without a usable film back! Fortunately, they are interchangeable, and possible to find on the used market. In addition to 3×4, you can also get various Medium Format backs. I stumbled onto one at a used camera vendor’s website: a Graflex “22″ Roll Film Holder back, which holds 120 film and exposes 6×6 photos. Looked reasonable at $35 plus shipping, so I ordered it.
It turns out $35 plus shipping was extremely reasonable! Since then, I have read that these rollfilm backs are very rare and expensive. Then, I started finding dealers asking as much as $145 for it! I think I just lucked out on that one! Though I really want a 6×9 back for it, I can certainly deal with 6×6 for the price. It’ll get me started…
Yep. There’ll be a lot more to read about this neat-o new camera in the future right here. 
8 Responses to “Graflex RB Super D”
By Marisa on Aug 29, 2008
I’m so glad you’re having so much fun with this camera! I’m really looking forward to seeing what you do with it.
By erik on Aug 30, 2008
Best of luck, these guys are a lot of fun. You did get a good deal on the roll film back. The plate can be machined out and you can put a 6×9 insert in the shell if you wanted to go that way, but 6×6 is good too. 152mm is long for that format, but a nice portrait length, and you’ll get some nice out of focus effects. Thanks for joining my flickr group, hopefully I’ll get a chance to put more of my stuff up soon. I got my first one of these in 1984 (you find it hard to stop at one) and if I can be of any help I’ll be happy to try. Have fun!
By Neil on Sep 2, 2008
Wow. I’ve always wanted to use one of these.
There is a great photo in my National Geographic photography book showing a Buddhist monk peering into a Graflex-D in 1921.
Good luck with it… can’t wait to see what it can do.
By boombadeus on Sep 4, 2008
Erik, Thanks. I’m sure I’ll end up bugging you about some aspect of using the Super D. The good news about this camera is, those that have one seem particularly interested in sharing whatever they know about it.
152mm definitely seems like a good portrait length for 6×6. I’ve never done much portrait photography myself, but I’ll have to try it to see…
I took it on a photo walk around the Philly Art Museum recently. I got some decent compositions with it, but my tripod definitely wiggled a lot when the shutter released. I hope the images aren’t blurred too much. Time will tell. I think a better tripod is in order…
Neil… National Geographic? Wow, no pressure! We’ll see what I can come up with.
I’ll probably try to bring it out on a Philly photo walk in the future, so you can definitely try it out and take a few shots then.
By Bruce Grant on Sep 7, 2008
Nice going. The Super-D was the pinnacle of the Graflex line. Previous models had required you to view at maximum aperture (the only really practical way to see anything) then stop down before making the exposure…one more thing to slow the process down, and since the Graflex was designed to be hand-held (as opposed to the view camera) slower was not better. The 4×5 Super D is the real find. Bigger, of course, but makes a full-size 4×5 neg. The 3 14 x 4 1/4 models seem, for some reason, to be more plentiful on the used market, but as you’ve discovered, you can’t get cut film (let alone film pack) in that size anymore. The rollfilm back makes it usable…but basically winds up creating the world’s hugest, clunkiest Hasselblad. At any rate, enjoy. I used to have one of these, but never really got comfortable with the ground-glass image being reversed left-for-right.
By boombadeus on Sep 7, 2008
Bruce, that’s right, this Super D has a plate on the front that says “Super D for Automatic Diaphragming”. Though I didn’t mention it in the post above (and probably should have), I read up enough to know that this Super model is a good one, because it has the automatic stop-down feature and more flexible Graflok-style film back holder.
I actually did find an outfit that sells 3×4 film for it. They’re not even cutting down 4×5 themselves or something– it’s 3×4 from the factory. Very reasonably priced, at under a dollar a sheet. One day, I’ll buy it and some 3×4 sheet film backs, and see what happens.
I also had the thought that with the 6×6 back, this is the world’s biggest Hasselblad. Unless you bought a 6×6 back for the 4×5 Super D model! LOL…
By GraflexBob on Oct 23, 2008
Boombadeus, can you provide the name of the outfit that sells the 3-1/4 x 4-1/4 film? I have the same RB Super D camera as you and would like to shoot some of the original film style for some family portrait shots. I also have two of the 6×9cm (2-1/4″ x 3-1/4″) rollbacks, original flash unit and other stuff as well. These are fantastic cameras. I’m glad my Dad invested in it 50 years ago.
By boombadeus on Oct 23, 2008
Hi GraflexBob! The one place I found it is FreestylePhoto.biz. The film brand is Efke, which I’m pretty sure is an Eastern European manufacturer.
Note, I haven’t actually ordered any of this, because I don’t have any single sheet film backs for my Graflex, just the 6×6 120 film back. So if the film is awful, please don’t blame me!
Very lucky that you have the 6×9 rollfilm backs! The 6×6 back is OK, but seems a little small for the size of the camera. Not to mention all the other accessories… What does the flash unit look like? I’ve never even seen a photo of one. That’s gotta be one of the rarest accessories.
Anyway, thanks for writing, and I hope that the Freestyle Photo film source helps you out. Let me know how it works out!