My "new" Speed Graphic and four questions

[ProfHankD]

Although I own many film cameras, including a B&J Watson and a B&J 4x5, I have always wanted a 4x5 camera with a focal plane shutter. Although Speed Graphics come up on eBay pretty regularly, it isn't a great bet that the focal plane shutter works in them, and they're usually not cheap enough for me to take the risk. Then I saw this:




From eBay seller kiev-201...

It was clearly a Speed Graphic, but one that has seen much better times. I guessed that it was an Anniversary Speed Graphic that somebody had stripped all the black covering material from -- along with the top finder and right-side rangefinder. It was listed as "For parts or not working," but bidding still had a low price on it, so I figured I'd bid. Well, I got it for $36 plus $28 shipping. That price seemed worth the risk...

After it arrived, while unwrapping it, I have to admit to having some serious doubt about my purchase. It had a pretty strong mold smell, with fungus on the rear element of the lens and obvious mold on the cloth that shades the ground glass. It looked significantly worse in person than it did in the photos. So, I took to cleaning it. It took about two hours of cleaning and a lot of alcohol (used on it, not on me ;-) ) to get rid of the mold. However, much to my surprise, almost everything was remarkably structurally sound, and a lot of the finish roughness seemed to be from the glue that originally secured the black covering material.

Here's what it looks like now, after cleaning and stabilizing the wood with a few coats of clear polyurethane:









Much to my surprise, the bellows seems to be OK after cleaning. Most shocking, however, is the fact that the huge cloth focal plane shutter seems fully operational! It took a little work, but the leaf shutter in the 127mm Ektar works now for T and for speeds around 1/50s and faster. Needless to say, I'm very happy with this purchase.

However, there are two things I wonder about, and would like some input from folks here:

1. The metal parts that originally had a covering over them still have an interesting patina after very heavy cleaning. Should I leave them that way? I see three options: leave them as is, apply a clear coat to show the patina but prevent further degradation, or paint those parts black.

2. Although the focal plane shutter works, the curtain doesn't look perfect, and I have doubts about how many times it can operate without developing issues. Do any of you know sources of appropriate shutter material?

3. Any recommendations for reasonably-cheap 4x5" cut film and processing? Ideally, I want a slow, low-grain, high-accutance B&W film approximating the look of Kodak Panatomic-X I used to shoot @EI25 and develop with Agfa Rodinal 1:100.

4. Any ways to easily shoot Instax Wide with this? The spring-loaded cut film carrier holder comes off easily with two screws...

Thanks.

 

[Gesture]

1. Great find.

2. I would try fine steel wool on those metal parts as a trial; then, enamel paint.

3. No films are cheap these days, but for trials you could get some Litho film from Freestyle Sales or that company in Oxnard and develop in dilute D-76. I expect the cheapest 4x5 is Fomapan or Arista EDU from Freestyle.

Film > Black and White Film

Freestyle has the largest selection of 35mm black and white film from every major manufacturer like Kodak, Fuji, Ilford, Arista, Foma, Woflen and Cinestill. In addition, we carry a complete line of 120 film and sheet film in stock and ready to ship.

www.freestylephoto.com

Actually, some of the prices I see for 120 film makes 4x5 look like a bargain to me.

 

[Vinc1973]

I buy the shutter cloth for my 35-mm cameras from ebay. Not sure though that it's the right material for large format cameras.

Japan Hobby Tool Replacement Camera Shutter Curtain for Focal Shutters 100% Silk

Out of curiosity, why did you want a focal plane shutter?

 

[KCK14]

Use of the rear focal plane shutter opens you to barrel lenses that don't have a shutter

 

[ProfHankD]

Use of the rear focal plane shutter opens you to barrel lenses that don't have a shutter

That's part of it...

I believe the original reason Folmer & Schwing did it was to get a faster shutter speed. That's why the versions with the focal plane shutter are called "Speed" rather than "Crown" Graphic. The Speed Graphic focal plane shutter can do 1/1000s, whereas leaf shutters generally went no higher than 1/400s. In fact, many old leaf shutters top out at 1/200s or 1/100s, and it wasn't unusual that the fastest speed could only be used with the lens stopped down somewhat because the leaf mechanism didn't have time to fully open. Ironically, reprogramming Canon PowerShots using CHDK reveals that many of them have leaf shutters capable of up to 1/30000s, which is faster than I've ever seen for a focal plane shutter, probably because the slit for such a speed would be narrow enough to cause objectionable diffraction.

It is also cheap and easy to use a LCLV (liquid crystal light valve) as a global shutter -- I published on that in Electronic Imaging 2021: Programmable Liquid Crystal Apertures and Filters for Photographic Lenses . The catch is that you only get about 9 stops of darkening with an LCLV, so it can't be your only shutter. Pitty. I found cheap LCLVs are able to implement global shuttering at up to about 1/2000s.

Anyway, I actually have a different primary motivation. It turns out I'm also trying to build my own large-format camera that needs something like a focal plane shutter for technical reasons I'm not quite ready to talk about yet. ;-) The Speed Graphic shutter mechanism is one worthy of emulating: in fact, that's essentially what the new SmartFlex 4x5 SLR is doing.

 

[ProfHankD]

I buy the shutter cloth for my 35-mm cameras from ebay. Not sure though that it's the right material for large format cameras.

Japan Hobby Tool Replacement Camera Shutter Curtain for Focal Shutters 100% Silk

Out of curiosity, why did you want a focal plane shutter?

That silk curtain material costs about the same for a 220x300mm sheet 0.2mm thick as I paid for the whole Speed Graphic! Beyond that, there's a lot more curtain in there because there are essentially five different size slits in the curtain in sequence. It would probably be over $100 of curtain using that material.

At about 1/3 that cost there is polyester shutter curtain material with one side coated with high-quality rubber. Despite the rubber layer, it is only about 0.15mm thick.

Incidentally, my impression is that my circa 1945 Speed Graphic has a somewhat thicker curtain. There is an eBay seller with a full polyester+rubber replacement one for $65...

 

[ProfHankD]

2. I would try fine steel wool on those metal parts as a trial; then, enamel paint.

The parts were already pretty much clean and flat except for minor pitting, they were just of uneven color.

Here are the unfortunate-looking metal areas as the camera was shown on eBay:





That patina may have been interesting, but it is in no way original to the camera. As a wartime Anniversary Speed Graphic (the Ektar lens serial number starts with ER, so the CAMEROSITY scheme dates it 1945) , black is the original color of all exposed metal. In that light, I think black paint is most faithful to the original scheme. So:



Enamels tend to be high gloss; I used a matte black with a "chalkboard" finish. This is actually one of the paints I stock for giving a light-tight black finish to 3D-printed parts. The paint originally on the camera is very mildly semi-gloss, so it is a slight mismatch in finish, but it is close. Compare the untouched original handstrap bracket to the newly painted black on the bottom and back.

 

[ProfHankD]

A few years ago, I acquired three Logetronic 135mm f/2.2 Logetar barrel lenses for a total cost of $23 (including shipping)!

Here's my initial DPReview Adapted Lens Forum posting about them. They are pretty weird lenses, but basically are competitive with the famous Aero Ektars in speed without being radioactive. Here's my Printables posting with the 3D-printable designs for a 4x4" mounting plate and a set of Waterhouse Stop plates for f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, and f/32 (the Logetar doesn't have an iris, but a slot for a Waterhouse Stop).

Anyway, I immediately tried it on my B&J 4x5:


Logetar 135mm f/2.2 @ f/11 on Burke & James 4x5 Press View

I have to say, that all-metal B&J 4x5 is much more solid than the wooden-framed Speed Graphic. Unfortunately, the B&J cameras don't have a focal plane shutter, so I just used it with a Sony mirrorless mounted on the back of the 4x5 using a 3D-printed sliding adapter. The Logetar resolution isn't impressive on a FF sensor...

So, the next body I put the Logetar on was a 3D-printed DCO (digital camera obscura):


Logetar 135mm f/2.2 @ f/2.2 on Faboky DCO

Here's my DPReview posting about my DCO, Faboky (Flexibly Adaptable Bokeh Obscura from KentuckY), which uses a BSI 144x108mm screen. On that format, the Logetar is equivalent to a FF 32mm f/0.53. Faboky is also described in my rather long 3D-printed Digital Camera Obscuras Instructable, with all the part designs posted as STLs at Printables. The actual image capture with Faboky is done using either a cell phone or (better) a Canon PowerShot programmed to optimize the images using CHDK.

Anyway, now that I have the Speed Graphic cleaned up, I finally have a practical way to shoot 4x5 film with the Logetar. I just don't yet have any 4x5 film. :-( Anyway, here is what the setup looks like:


Speed Graphic with Logetar 135mm f/2.2 @ f/2.2


Speed Graphic with Logetar 135mm f/2.2 @ f/2.2

I think that's pretty cool, especially for a total cost for camera and lens of under $75. Certainly, the Sony A7CR and Minolta Rokkor-X 50mm f/1.4 lens I used to take the above two photos cost a bit more... ;-)

I guess at this point I should also admit to having been partially inspired to do this by something I found online after I cleaned-up the wood on this camera: Building a naked Aero Ektar Speed Graphic: The AEROgraphic project . Theirs looks like:


Completed AEROgraphic from the Emulsive.Org article linked above...

OK, theirs looks cooler and is more capable. And the Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm f/2.5 will give more defocus than my 135mm f/2.2 Logetar (135mm would need to be f/1.9 to match the Aero Ektar DoF). Still, theirs is radioactive, cost more than $75, and took more than several hours to complete... So, I'm happy enough with mine -- for now. ;-)