Photography can be very complicated

[todd allen]

What with all the attachments, filters, settings, and film types.
66537

[Rick Losey]

if you want it to be

where is the soft box?

i had my 4x5 Graflex out doing a portrait of the Ithaca Super 10 the other day

digital is good, but i still like film - just too many cameras too little time

please tell me about the camera/lens set up

[Richard Flanders]

I know/knew an oldster, now deceased, who carried one of those to the top of Mt. St. Elias here in Alaska, on the first ascent with the Harvard mountaineering club in 1958. His pictures and especially his 16mm movies of the trip are stunning classics and his best work. I'm not sure where his 30,000ft of movie film is stored these days. The resolution those cameras produce in skilled hands is incredible. He had graduated to Nikons by the time he went on the first US ascent of Everest in '63 as the team glaciologist.

[Phil Yearout]

I love(d) film too, but it's kind of embarrassing to admit that I've taken better photos with my phone than most any I ever took with a film camera :(

[todd allen]

This was my Dad's camera, left to me with all the accessories, and invoices still intact, just how he left them.
My Dad was a freelance photographer, as well as a pilot, small businessman, farmer, and part time cop. I miss him, and get a little sentimental when I get his camera out.
BTW, he could have bought nice used a Parker, for the $97.00 he paid for that camera, in 1949.

[todd allen]

if you want it to be

where is the soft box?

i had my 4x5 Graflex out doing a portrait of the Ithaca Super 10 the other day

digital is good, but i still like film - just too many cameras too little time

please tell me about the camera/lens set up
The camera is a B & J Watson, I believe a 4x5.
I am so un-knowledgeble about cameras, especially the vintage ones, that I don't know how to determine the lens type.
There is no soft box, which may have gotten separated at the estate reconciliation, or some time before.
Fortunately, I have (I think) all of the paperwork from the purchase, and service, and my Dad's field notes on settings, etc.

[Rick Losey]

i was just kidding about the set up, it likely never had a soft box with the camera - that is a light diffusion device used for portraits

the lens will be mounted on a removable board, the size will be on the front ring

looks a little small for 4x5-as does the tripod- those film boxes should show the film size - Burke & James made a 2x3 (or 6x9 cm) baby press camera- that might be one, if so the film back in the lower right of the picture maybe for 120 or 620 roll film. that would be more useful as 2x3 sheet film is no longer common

as i say film is a lot of fun- two big camera bags ride in my truck- one for the digital equipment

and one is for film - that always has a Nikon F3 and a Mamiya 645 in it with an assortment of lenses for each - and a rangefinder of some make is usually handy between the seats for quick snaps-

[todd allen]

You're right. The film pack lists the size as 2 1/4 x 3 1/4. I would be very surprised if the film was still good.

[todd allen]

I found this amongst the accessories. I'm guessing this might be a Polaroid adapter.
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[Rick Losey]

I found this amongst the accessories. I'm guessing this might be a Polaroid adapter.
66558

yes

there was a small Graflex of the same size, so the back may have been interchangeable. They were very popular at one time, but i know the instant film for the 4x5 is no longer available - and i would expect the 2x3 disappeared even earlier

what a great camera to have passed down, I have never played with a baby press camera and i really couldn't resist taking pictures with it, but i might be a glutton for punishment when it comes to this part of history. Our club had its annual clam bake/gun show a few weeks ago, instead of displaying my modest field grade guns, i put out a history of cameras in the outdoors with vintage cameras and old advertisements. It was fun to do, just imagine a camera company these days advertising their product directly to hunters

[Phil Yearout]

Love those old cameras but I never had the ability or the patience. I was a Minolta guy; couple of SRT-102 bodies with a half dozen lenses and all the trimmings and in a nice Lowepro bag. I bought my first digital SLR and later I realized the 35's had been gathering dust in the closet for a couple years; the whole system went on the bay and I think it only brought $150 or so; seems like I paid almost that much for the bag :crying:. But I sheepishly admit I still use my phone 75% of the time.

[Bob Roberts]

Todd,

The film pack adapter you show was not for use with Polaroid file. The Polaroid adapter for a 4x5 view camera was a far more complex and heavier device employing cast metal, springs and levers which was only able to expose and process one shot at a time. Each unit of print paper was in an over sleeve which contained amounts of the activating chemical and a second “negative” piece of transfer paper. When the packet unit was slipped into the special camera back the over sleeve was withdrawn, the exposure made and the cover slipped back in place. Then a lever was thrown which compressed a set of sprung rollers and the entire packet pulled from the back, the rollers squashed the chemicals and rolled them over the surface of the positive and negative pieces of paper. After a period of time, one to three minutes if I recall correctly, the two pieces of paper were peeled apart and the positive print could be examined. If the positive print was to be preserved it needed to be wiped with a special preservative squeegee of fluid - rather sticky. After a studio session you might find yourself knee deep in test prints and trash. It was not a cheap process, but in the days of waiting for processed negative and color film it was an excellent way to test setup and lighting balance.

The film pack adapter shown was a different device used for speed, cleanliness and convenience. I do not remember exactly how many shots this afforded, maybe 6, 8 or 12. It was an alternative to thick base cut film ordinarily used in two shot reversible backs or six shot or 12 shot magazines where each piece of film was individually loaded into a rigid metal septum and then all into the magazine. A lot of hand work and a lot of attention was paid to avoiding dust. The film pack used a thinner base film much like the kind of film used in 120 and 35mm size roll film and the like. Being flexible each sheet could be interleaved with a green/black piece of papers which when pulled would roll the exposed film to the back of the pack and make the next sheet of film ready to be exposed. The pack itself was just over 4x5 inches and about a half inch thick. This made it convenient for a news photographer, for instance, to carry several packs in a jacket pocket. Look closely at the picture of the Graphic adapter you will see the pull arrow on the dark green tab and you will notice that the device also has a traditional dark slide too.

Mostly these were used in 4x5 inch press cameras by the news guys you think of with their press card stuck in their Stetson hat bands, but other sizes were available to, and often used by other sorts of photographers.

[Rick Losey]

Bob-

you are correct- i did not look close enough- it is for a film pack- although this is not a 4x5 camera-that is the right film pack model number for the 2x3 graflex

[todd allen]

Thanks for your educational post, Bob. What would be your guess on the year of manufacture for this camera?
The receipt is from 1949, but I think it was purchased used.

[todd allen]

Here's a copy of the receipt from 1949;
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[Rick Losey]

that was a great trade in value for an Argus c-3 - that thing was a brick with lots of dials added to the outside -

the case is great - i posted pictures of the similar - but off course larger - case for my 4x5 that Kevin repaired for me earlier in the year.

as i said - very nice piece of family history - film for that size is hard to find- but B&H and a few other big camera dealers do still carry it sporadically

[todd allen]

When I bought my current house, some 2 plus decades ago, it had a dark room, complete with plumbing, and dual lighting. I promptly converted it into a gun room, and parked a turn of the last century double door safe in it.
If I has been into photography, it sure would'a went the other way.

[Bob Roberts]

Todd,

It is a little difficult to see the detail of your Dad’s 2x3 camera to make an educated guess as to date of manufacture. However, below are three links to some pretty good sites for info on Graflex models - lots of pictures. It may be of some small interest that all of the pictures of Mike Stackhouse with a Parker that you will find here on the PGCA site were probably shot by my Grandfather using a 4x5 Graflex - his camera of choice for which he had a reputation. In the 1960s we were still using 4x5 Super D models synced for strobes in the studio making people story photographs in both color and b/w. At that time we were running eight active darkrooms for processing and printing - today it’s all soulless computers and scanners and software.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graflex

http://graflex.coffsbiz.com/

https://graflex.org/

[todd allen]

Here's a couple more pics;
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[Phil Yearout]

Those old cameras are so cool. I got to remembering my first ever camera, a Kodak fold out similar to this one, 126 film. B&W only of course, I still have some shots from it around someplace.

https://i.imgur.com/7fYh1Hul.jpg

[Rick Losey]

127 film maybe? or 122 for 3a'a 126 is the drop in cartridge i think

i have a 1a autographic version like that - still in its case with instruction book- that one takes 116 film

these old films are not easy to find - a company called films for classics still spools some of these sizes as does Lomography -

and i always get a kick out of the size of these and they were called pocket cameras

[Bob Roberts]

Todd,

Thanks for the additional shots of your Dad’s camera - a couple of interesting observations.
Yes, this is press type camera, but of a smaller size (2x3) than typically used by news photographers (4x5). I am not certain that the camera body itself is American made, there is no brand on it that I can see, but the focusing knobs with the long lines going around the knobs crossing the knurling is something, in my limited experience, I associate with German manufacturing. The Hugo Meyer Precision Range Finder is actually an attachment to the camera body and was certainly made before WW2, note that the range finder has U.S. patents and was made in U.S.A. - possibly the body, lens and shutter were made by Meyer in Germany, but I can’t say. Meyer was probably a big enough operation to have a New York sales branch???
In the bill of sale it says Watson(sp?) Palxxx(sp?), name not familiar to me - nevertheless, interesting that he traded in a 35mm range finder camera for this more serious range finder equipped view camera. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_Optik_G%C3%B6rlitz

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Meyer

https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrC3HxrCMpbHhsAcP4PxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTBy MjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=hugo+meyer+camera&fr=yhs-iry-fullyhosted_011&hspart=iry&hsimp=yhs-fullyhosted_011

https://graflex.org/speed-graphic/hugo-meyer.html

Meyer Optik in Germany survived WW2 after time and in fact is still in the lens business today.

[Phil Yearout]

126, 127...whatever it takes :) (I believe you're right though).

[Rick Losey]

126, 127...whatever it takes :) (I believe you're right though).

academic any way - they are all obsolete and if you find them- might as well buy some RST non tox at that price and go hunting :rotf:

[Randy Davis]

Had a passion for the old camera`s... When I was about 6 years old my aunt gave me a Kodak Brownie. About 30 years ago collected the old Kodak`s. Never collected any of the "Press" format cameras. Kept a few from my collection...

Trap3

[Rick Losey]

thanks Randy

this is the display I did at our club of cameras in the hunting world with some of my collection

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=588&pictureid=11307

[Randy Davis]

Rick, Very nice... Thanks for sharing.

Trap3

[Rick Losey]

BTW - the 4x5 Graflex shown in the middle of the cameras is not something that i would have considered a viable camera for taking hunting until i found this ad for the Super-X shell

the action shot in the ad was taken as the duck was shot was done with a speed camera, quite a stunt

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=588&pictureid=11315

[Rick Losey]

yeah - its an old thread

but- my wife added this rare one to my modest collection for Christmas - this "rainbow" model was only made for three years in the early 1930s and the rose color seems to be the rarest of the color choices - personally, i think its a piece of art on its own

[Randy Davis]

Great find...

RD