Right, I don’t have any usable 3×4 film backs for the Graflex. The sheet film magazine sounds like the most convenient way of shooting 3×4 cut film on this camera. At this point, I bet most of them need replacement leather to stay light proof. But that’s probably not too hard to fix up.

I definitely appreciate how the Graflex, or pretty much any large format camera, slows you down. I’d say that using these cameras has improved my photography over all.

My friend Albert recently gave me an old book he found at a used book store, “Graphic Graflex Photography, The Master Book for the Larger Camera” by Morgan and Lester, eighth edition, printed in 1948. It’s pretty awesome, and has all the contemporary equipment available for the Graflex at the time.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find Mr. Tepper’s eBay items under Diamond Camera when I looked the other week. But I’ll look again…

Thanks!
–Thad

It seems that you do not have the most common of all the Graflex film backs: the sheet film magazine. This was an early predicessor of the Grafamatic magazine. It is basically a (gray painted) wooden and metal box that fits to the Graflex back. It holds 12 sheets of film, each in a folded sheet metal ’septum’. The septums are loaded in a darkroom and stacked within the magazine box (which has a darkslide).

The magazine has a leather bag on its 3 1/4 end. A hinge-covered ruby window allows you to read the rear-most number painted on the back of each septum. After you take a photo, you pull a metal slide-rod on the bottom of the magazine, pulling the front septum into the bag. Then you grab this exposed septum (through the soft leather), manuver it to the rear of the stack, and push it in.

I guess one of the camera’s greatest features is that it inspires careful composition by being so slow between shots! (Advance the film, measure the exposure with an external meter, wind or release the shutter tension and wind or release the shutter curtain to select the desired slit, cock the lens, set the diaphram, cock the mirror [always last to avoid a double exposure], compose and shoot.) Now think about all those great peak-action sports shots shown in GRAPHIC GRAFLEX PHOTOGRAPHY!

There is a fellow in (Darian?) Connecticut who collects and deals in old cameras including Graflex. His name is Dr. Jay Tepper and he is a very honerable businessman. His daughter handles his listings on e-bay as Diamond Camera. Try him for a magazine or some holders.

Awesome! I just checked, and mine’s from 1946 as well.

I’ll have to hunt down a copy of those books and read them. This camera is largely an interesting, functional mystery to me, so any additional information I can get is good.

Thanks for telling me this!

Your 152 mm f4.5 Ektar is a great lens! Wide open it is very soft – perfect for portraiture. Stopped down it becomes razor sharp. That automatic diaphram mechanism was invented by by a baby photographer named Torkel Korling in the early forties. It was also used on the 190 mm Ektat and Optar lenses fitted to the 4×5 Super D.

While there are no date codes on a Super D (only a sticker with US Patent numbers under the lense hood), the Ektar lenses were dated. The two leading letters in the serial number give the year (with 19– assumed!)in accordance with the codeword CAMEROSITY = 123456789. Hence my 1946 lens has a serial number of EOxxxx.

You might enjoy reading a copy of GRAPHIC GRAFLEX PHOTOGRAPHY by Morgan & Lester or A REVIEW OF GRAFLEX by Richard P. Paine.

Anyway, check out http://www.graflex.org. They might be able to give you ideas on how to tell if your cameras still work, and maybe about value…

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!

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…