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.

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 When the packet unit was slipped into the special camera back the over sleeve was withdrawn, the exposure made and the cover slipped back in place.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.

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

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.

Here's a copy of the receipt from 1949;
Attachment 66633

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

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.

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/

Here's a couple more pics;
Attachment 66636

Attachment 66637

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