I recently acquired a Graflex Pacemaker 45 Crown Graphic camera from National Camera Exchange in Minnesota (see my Vendor Directory for a link). The camera is in really outstanding physical condition (look for a review soon), but it does (or did) have a couple of unsurprising issues.
First, the shutter is a bit gummy, at least on the very low end; a 1 second exposure runs too long and the timing mechanism groans a bit in the process. Given its age (my camera dates to 1953), and likely lack of use for a long period, this is to be expected. While I will get the shutter serviced, I’m not in any particular rush; the camera is still taking great pictures at more typical shutter speeds.
Second, the Kalart side-mounted rangefinder needed to be adjusted. Most obvious was horizontally; the two images were significantly misaligned side-to-side, but I suspected that it wasn’t right vertically either. I assumed this was a job for a pro, but it turns out not to be the case.
NOTE: As just noted, my camera has the side-mounted Kalart rangefinder. Some Graflex Graphic cameras have a top-mounted rangefinder, and the information here will not be a direct help. However, I have to believe that the general approach is similar, and I’d still encourage you to find the matching details for your particular configuration and give it a try.
Where’s the Focus (Really)?
The first step, however, was to establish which of the three focusing scales installed on the camera bed’s track was the right one for the 135 mm lens it came equipped with, and which infinity stops went with it. There was a lot of trial and error and use of the focusing screen on the back of the camera to figure this out, but in the end, it appeared that the middle set of infinity stops and the forward-most focusing scale were the obvious right choices.
With the camera set for infinity focus, and with it pointed at a nice view in the distance, I checked the rangefinder. Did the two images coincide? Um, not even close.
With the assumption that this was a job for professionals already in my mind, I threw caution to the wind and did a web search. This article on the graflex.org enthusiast site gave me hope. While they did have a textual version of it, and a link to an illustrated version, it was a bit hard to follow, and I wanted something a little better quality.
Pacific Rim Camera, which has a great resource library of expertly scanned documents as PDFs, came to the rescue. In a section devoted to Kalart, I found the one document they had, and the one I needed: an instruction manual. With the clear, crisp, high resolution scan, everything was there and laid-out.
That document has all the details you need, and I won’t be replicating them here, but before you jump-in, following are some thoughts about the process.
It’s Tedious
First, there’s nothing particularly complicated about the rangefinder calibration process, but it is most certainly tedious. It involves adjusting it initially for infinity; you being by using the ground glass focusing screen on the back of the camera, and a magnifying glass, to get and verify that an object well in the distance is as sharply focused as possible, then adjust the rangefinder so the two images coincide properly on the vertical plane. This adjustment is easy and quick, although you may have to ignore any horizontal misalignment for the moment.
Next, repeat the procedure at 15 feet (from camera to object), and again at 4 feet. Different adjustments are needed at each step. And when you make an adjustment at 15 feet or 4 feet, you have to go back and start over again at infinity to make sure things don’t go out of whack. As I said, it’s tedious, and I went through these steps roughly four times.
Note that the 4 foot adjustment is tricky due to parallax. Follow the directions carefully; if the camera and the subject are not centered and perfectly parallel, you’ll be getting the wrong information from the rangefinder, and may be making adjustments needlessly. Regardless, I have some advice on this: If you’re focusing really close to a subject in day-to-day use of the camera, you’re best using the focusing screen to ensure both sharpness of focus, and composition; as a result, I didn’t really try to fine-tune my rangefinder for this level of focus. It was pretty close — and I deemed “close” to be good enough at the 4 foot step, when both 15 feet and infinity seemed perfect.
Once the focus adjustments are done, the side-to-side adjustment is quite simple, although it too seems to involve an endless cycle of adjust, check; adjust, check; adjust, check — oops, too far, go back — and so on.
Keep in mind that with the exception of the infinity adjustment, which can be done using a dime coin with the bed extended nearly all the way, other adjustments (15 feet, 4 feet and horizontal) all must be done with the rangefinder’s cover removed, which also necessitates removing the flash bracket. That’s not difficult, but placing and holding the rangefinder cover on while checking the results of your adjustments just adds to the tedium. You need to be careful and work slowly; it’s easy to disturb the rangefinder mechanism if you just smack the cover on to check the view.
Additionally, small precision screwdrivers will be needed for some of the adjustments.
I toyed with the idea of applying a tiny bit of thread lock fluid to the screws once the adjustments were perfected, but decided against it for the moment. Should the adjustments start to drift from camera handling alone, I might reconsider. But for the moment, I didn’t want to gum-up the works or make it necessary to remove the residue later should adjustments be necessary for whatever reason.
One Helpful Tip
After spending a chunk of an afternoon trying to get my rangefinder adjusted and finding that I was making it worse, I noticed a little table in the manual:
Let me just say this: This table is your friend. Find your camera, find your lens (which hopefully is there), and begin the adjustment process by setting the scales to the values shown. Then, dive into the alignment process. As it happens, my camera’s rangefinder didn’t really start out at the 15 and 3.5 settings it says are approximately right, and once I established that baseline, the fine-tuning became significantly easier.
In the end, I have a rangefinder that’s well aligned, accurate, and useful in the field. I’d argue that a focusing cloth and the ground glass will give the most accurate results, but that’s not always practical, especially if you’re using a roll film back. Having the rangefinder properly set-up makes using the Graflex a lot easier, a lot faster, and a lot more fun.
Happy adjusting — and happy shooting!
