There are a great many cameras that could arguably be considered “iconic.” Ones that come to my mind right off are the Hasselblad 500 series (also known as the V-System) across its many models. The Rolleiflex TLRs. Certain Leicas. And then there’s the Graflex Graphic cameras, which have appeared often enough in movies from the 1940s and 1950s (and more modern movies and TV shows set in those decades) that it’s practically an amusing stereotype at this point.
I’d seen the cameras long before I ever knew what they were. But getting back into film photography has (re-)acquainted me with many cameras, and the Graflex rapidly became one I wanted to own. Initially I wasn’t sure I wanted to get into large format, but as I explained in this article, I’d made the decision to do it sometime in 2020 — and then it was a Graflex that pushed me over the edge.
The Back Story
The full back story is provided in a little more detail in the article I just mentioned, published a few months before this full review. But in short, I periodically browse many of the major used gear shops online, seeing what catches my eye, and a particularly nice Graflex Pacemaker 45 Crown Graphic (its full name) came-up for sale at National Camera Exchange in Minnesota. Priced at just US$300, it was without question the most beautiful, clean and well presented example I think I’d ever seen. Buying it was practically a no-brainer. The only thing missing, I would discover later, was a viewfinder mask for the lens that was included, but that was easily handled.
The Camera
While the Graflex Graphic cameras can trace their history clear back to 1912, it seems their heyday was from the 1940s to the early 1960s. I don’t know if the facts truly support that statement, but as I said at the start, their frequent appearance in film and television during that period is the basis for my saying that.
The Pacemaker version of the camera was introduced in 1947, and was made continually until 1973. A model lifespan of 26 years is pretty good by any measure, but all good things eventually come to an end, and I have to imagine that the Graflex Graphic cameras looked pretty antiquated by the time the Disco Era started.
Like other Graphics, the Pacemakers came in multiple versions, and over the years, they received a number of modifications. Starting with the name, the Crown Graphic is the less complex of the two basic siblings, and depends on the leaf shutter built into the lens. The Speed Graphic, on the other hand, has a focal plane shutter in back that adds a certain amount of complexity to the camera but offers slightly higher shutter speeds than most leaf shutters of the day, hence the “speed” in the name.
Both cameras were available in three sizes: The Pacemaker 23 (which uses 2-1/4 x 3-1/4 inch sheet film), the Pacemaker 34 (which uses 3-1/4 x 4-1/4 inch sheet film), and the Pacemaker 45, the subject of this review (which uses 4 x 5 inch sheet film). The smaller sizes of film are now fairly unusual and somewhat difficult to find, while 4×5 is still fairly common, and the choice of the majority of large format shooters. In addition, 4×5 film holders — which are required to use sheet film with the camera — are quite common and easy-to-find.
So Many Ways to Compose and Focus
One of the most interesting things about the Graphic cameras is the long list of ways you can compose and focus an image.
For visual focus, you can use a rangefinder if the camera is so-equipped, which makes it possible to shoot the camera handheld.
Or, you can place it atop a tripod and use the ground glass focusing screen as with any view camera.
For non-visual focus, you can use the focusing scales on the camera’s bed — assuming they are present, and calibrated for the lens you’re using — estimating the distance to your subject, dialing it in, and using depth of field to your advantage to cover for any inaccuracies.
For composing the image, of course, the ground glass it the most accurate if you’re already using it for focusing the image. But you can use the optical viewfinder mentioned earlier — if you have the appropriate mask inserted, and are not using a short focal length lens. And you can always pop-up the open finder bail and peep sight, and use those for coarse composition.
Handheld shooting, as already mentioned, is possible — but the rangefinder is a must for accurate focus, provided the camera has one.
On early Pacemakers, the optional rangefinder was side-mounted, while later models used a top rangefinder. My particular camera, which evidence suggests was made in 1953, has a side rangefinder, and those were made by Kalart. The Kalart rangefinders are adjusted for a specific focal length of lens, and I cover how to adjust one of them in this article — it was something I had to figure out how to do, then do it, because it was quite out of adjustment for my standard 135mm lens when I received the camera. Once calibrated to and adjusted for a specific lens, you’ll be tied to that specific lens, so I’d suggest doing so with the lens you expect to use most often, as it’s a tedious and time consuming process to go through.
My understanding is that the newer top-mounted rangefinders have a changeable cam to allow you to change the rangefinder’s adjustment when you change the lens, but having not seen or used one, I don’t know the details on that.
This does bring-up a peculiarity with the Graphics, and that is, so much about the camera is tied to the lens you use. The focusing scales mounted to the bed (visible in the shot above) came in dozens of pairings, and each was designed for a specific lens. From everything I’ve read about these cameras, the fact you’re using a 135mm focal length lens, for example, doesn’t mean the focusing scales are accurate for all 135mm lenses. Given the age of these cameras, unless your camera already has a lens and corresponding scales, you probably won’t be able to match them up in a workable manner today. I stumbled across some online resources that tie specific scale pairs to specific lenses, but that information may be hard to find, or inaccurate if you do.
Long story somewhat shorter? You should pretty well count on treating the Graflex like any other view camera should you decide to invest in one. Unless you get lucky with the focusing scales, or use the same single lens all the time and have a rangefinder it’s calibrated for, it’ll virtually require a tripod, and the use of the ground glass, for pretty much every shot.
Gotta Love the Bellows
One of the benefits of view cameras, including press cameras like the Graflex, is the bellows. As with other bellows-equipped cameras I’ve reviewed, including the Mamiya RB67 and the Mamiya C220, the main advantage of the bellows is that it allows you with many lenses to get close-up focusing without resorting to the use of a special lens, or any sort of lens attachment. It’s great to be able to get nice, tight shots of flowers, still life setups in the studio, or what have you with nothing more than the lens you might use for any other shot.
The Graphic is equipped with “double extension bellows,” meaning that they extend to approximately double the focal length of the camera’s standard lens, and that translates to a bit shy of 300mm. Obviously if you equip the camera with a longer focal length lens, you may not get a ton of bellows draw, since the infinity position of the lens on the camera’s rails is always a focal length’s distance from the film plane to the optical middle of the lens (roughly the location of the lens board). Said another way, stick to your standard lens for close-up work.
Film and Film Holders
The Graphic, like any view camera, can be used with sheet film loaded into standard film holders for the size you’re using (and that the camera is designed for), or you can use a roll film back.
When I bought my Graphic, I also found a reasonably-priced 6×9 roll film back from Horseman in good condition and at a good price point on eBay. The ground glass and spring back of the Graflex Graphics uses a standard Graflok mount, so any Graflok-based roll film back designed for the size camera you’re using can be mounted easily in its place. In my case, that’s a 4×5 Graflok; anything designed for it can be fitted in place of the ground glass.
Using the roll film back does complicate things a bit. If you have and can use your rangefinder, that can always be used for focusing the image if the ground glass is removed. With the right viewfinder mask to match the frame size of your roll film back, you can then use the optical viewfinder to compose. But if you end-up using the ground glass for focusing, there are two issues:
- First, the frame size of your roll film back is probably not marked on your ground glass, so you can’t accurately compose the image with the ground glass alone. You can guess, or you can mark it out yourself, but I prefer using the optical viewfinder with the correct mask inserted so I can see for myself what the framing looks like.
- Second, once you’re composed and focused with the ground glass, you then have to remove it, and attach the roll film back. This is no different from any other view camera, but it is tedious and time-consuming to get a shot.
Using sheet film and film holders is slightly easier. However you compose and focus, you do the deed, then simply insert the film back behind the ground glass, remove the dark slide, release the shutter, and replace the dark slide.
Again, like any view camera, it’s about as far from point-and-shoot as you can get with film photography.
The Experience
I’ll start by pointing out something about the Graflex that I really like: its portability.
The front standard — the surface to which the lens board is inserted — moves backward into the camera housing. Once in-place, the bed can simply be folded up into the body, leaving you with a reasonably compact and easy-to-carry camera. “Compact” is relative; this is no 35mm or medium format camera, and you’ll still have to carry your film holders separately. But it does mean you don’t need a huge bag or backpack to carry it with you, something I truly appreciate after getting a monorail view camera recently (something this is really tough to carry around).
As for shooting, I’ve covered (or hinted at) some of the many aspects of the experience of using the Graflex Graphic already, but I’ll emphasize that it can be a tedious process, no matter what the lens, situation, film choice, etc. might be.
To a very large extent, these aspects are the same with any type of view camera, so they’re not particularly unique to the Graflex Graphics. There are simply a lot of details to understand and keep sorted-out in your mind when you use one, and if you’re accustomed to more conventional cameras, it takes practice and discipline both to get successful shots out of it — and to avoid making mistakes.
Chief among them is the tedium involved with the use of the ground glass focusing screen. You need to open-up the aperture all the way to let-in as much light as possible. Then you operate the press focus lever to open-up the shutter. Then you compose and focus. Then you can set the aperture to verify depth of field if you choose. Then you have to remember to close the shutter with the press focus lever before you do anything else. Then you insert the film back, remove the dark slide, and finally you can take the picture. (I skipped numerous steps in there for brevity; it’s even more complicated than I just described, and I provided a complete list in the article I mentioned earlier on if you want a clearer sense of the tedium I’m referring to.)
The main issues? Well, there are several, and I’ve done each multiple times:
- You can easily forget to close the shutter with the press focus lever. If you do, you’ll likely ruin the shot because the film will be exposed to light for the entire time the dark slide is out.
- You can forget to set the aperture properly because you want the lens open all the way to see the ground glass more clearly while focusing. If you don’t get it back to the desired, metered setting, obviously your exposure won’t be great, so the order of operations is important.
- You can forget to remove the dark slide, because there’s no interlock to prevent you from snapping a shot with it still in-place. Of course, that’s an easy fix; cock the shutter, remove the slide, and simply snap it again — provided that you catch the fact in-time.
I ended-up creating a short checklist to help remind me to follow all the steps in the right order. I made two, actually: one for sheet film, one for roll film. There’s just too much that can go wrong, and when it’s been awhile since I’ve used the Graflex, having a reminder is helpful.
Potential photographer errors aside, the extremely technical nature of the operation of a Graflex Graphic (or any view camera honestly) has some serious appeal. They say that film forces you to slow down, but a view camera forces you to slow down a lot. You learn to really embrace the slowness, the methodical nature of taking a picture; checking and rechecking to make sure you didn’t screw something up.
That meticulousness can pay dividends in the form of incredible photographs. There’s really nothing quite like pulling a 4×5 negative from the development tank for the first time, and it’s a joy that keeps on giving. The detail, the sharpness; it’s a feeling that’s surpassed only by seeing a scanned image of one for the first time. Even with the vintage lenses from back in the day, long before computer-aided design and manufacturing entered the lens making craft, and before multi-coatings and what-not were introduced, these cameras and their lenses are capable of capturing things that 35mm film cameras can only dream of, and even medium format cameras can’t match. Pair these cameras with more modern large format lenses, like a Schneider-Kreuznach from the past few decades, and even more detail and clarity can be extracted from these 60 and 70 year old beasts.
Just 2 or 3 shots in, I was hooked on large format, and that ultimately led me to acquire a conventional monorail view camera in short order to make-up for the Graphic’s shortcomings.
And There Are Shortcomings
One of the main reasons I wanted a Graflex Graphic was for the movements — the ability to tilt, shift and swing for specialized control over both depth-of-field, and perspective. I’ll spare you the detailed discussion over movements and why they’re interesting (I’m working on an article that covers that subject in detail), but the bottom line is that the Graphics have a pretty limited array of movements.
First, Graphics have only front movements — not front and back.
Second, you can tilt upward…
…you can shift side-to-side…
…and shift up (generally referred to as a rise).
But, you can’t tilt down. You can’t swing. You can’t fall (shift down). So if you want to experience the fullness of what view camera movements can provide, this isn’t really the camera for you. That’s not to say they have no use, but the use is limited. (You can see one sample image below that uses tilt.)
Finally, as I already mentioned above, one shortcoming is that you can’t exactly walk into a camera shop these days and get parts for one of these cameras. So if you want things like rangefinder cams for the later versions, or focusing scales, or infinity locks, and so forth — you’re at the mercy of whatever happens to be available used, which may (or may not) be the right thing for your camera, your lens, your situation, or your needs.
It’s worth noting that many of these cameras have been modified in various ways over the years as well. It’s actually quite difficult to find an original camera, in good working order, in good physical condition, with everything intact that it had back when it was new. Many of the cameras show extremely hard use, and people have modified them to have cold shoes, or have removed parts they don’t want on their cameras, leaving cosmetic scars, or leaving certain pieces inoperative. Most examples I’ve seen have coverings in poor condition, badly chipped or scratched paint, and damaged or non-original leather hand straps. Bottom line? Shop carefully.
The Accessories
For the most part, the accessories for these cameras are pretty limited in scope:
- Viewfinder Masks
The optical viewfinder has insertable masks (as mentioned earlier). These masks are designed to match specific frame sizes for specific focal lengths of lenses. Especially wide angle lenses don’t work with them at all since the viewable area is larger than the viewfinder itself can show you. The masks are numbered, and the instruction manual (see the footnotes at the bottom of this article) has a table that shows which masks to use for which film or frame sizes with specific focal lengths of lenses. They’re not terribly difficult to find on eBay, and they’re generally listed by their mask number.
- Lenses
There are numerous vintage lenses available for the Graphics, and additionally, newer ones with a Copal 0 and Copal 1 size shutter can be fitted as well with the proper lens boards — which are relatively easy to find online. With vintage lenses, beware that shutters can be gummy and slow, and may not always be serviceable. Parts for vintage lenses and shutters are hard to impossible to come by, but often they need only a basic cleaning by a professional camera repairperson to be restored to relatively accurate shutter timings and general operation. The shutter in my original 135mm lens needed a cleaning, and I got lucky with a vintage 90mm lens that operates well with accurate timings. I also purchased a lens board and will sometimes mount my Schneider 210mm Xenar lens for use with the camera, but more often just use it in my more recently purchased monorail view camera.
Depending on what resource you consult, many believe that a 135mm focal length lens is the standard prime choice for a Graflex Graphic, and indeed many are so-equipped. You see them frequently as well with 127mm lenses. In practice, I’ve found my 135mm lens to be slightly wider than I often like, which was the driver for purchasing the 210mm I mentioned above. But there are times when you want a nice, good wide angle view of things, which is why I ended-up with the 90mm as well. For my monorail view camera, I modeled the same basic approach, with 90mm, 120mm, and the same 210mm — which covers the right bases for me personally. (YMMV.)
- Film Holders
Conventional dual-sided film holders work nicely for the Graflex, including Fidelity, Lisco, and Graflex’s own brand, Riteway. Graflex also made the Grafmatic, a multi-sheet film magazine. Many film holders are quite old, and not all are completely light-tight. I would recommend buying them from a source that permits you to return them, then promptly test the holders with film on receipt to determine if there are light leakage issues. New film holders are still being made by Toyo, but they’re expensive, and some report that even they are not consistently good quality. - Focusing Scales and Infinity Locks
When these cameras were sold new, the camera shop would equip the camera with the correct focusing scales for the lens(es) you purchased, along with the proper folding infinity locks, and then install, align and calibrate everything properly for use. Because it’s quite unusual to find a camera with its original lenses, you may end up with scales or stops for lenses you don’t own, or lenses for which you have neither proper scales nor locks. As I said in the body of the review, you’re probably best off accepting this disconnect, and just using the ground glass focusing screen to compose and focus the shot; if you do, it’ll work just fine. You can find scales and locks sometimes, and the folding locks are not specific to a lens — only their mounted position on the bed is. The scales, on the other hand, are designed for very specific corresponding lenses. You may luck out and find a matched set for your lens; more likely, you won’t, and it’s just an idiosyncrasy I try to accept. (My camera, by the way, has three sets of scales and locks, and only one lens for which one set is accurate.) - Bi-Post Flash Cables
The two prongs on most vintage Graflex lenses (see some of the photos above) are the old-style equivalent of the ubiquitous PC cable, and allow you to connect the lens’s shutter to a flash. If you want to use a flash or studio strobes with your Graphic camera, adapter cables can be purchased. B&H stocks some from Paramount Cords, or you can order cables directly from Paramount. They provide custom cables with a bi-post connector on one end, and virtually anything you might want or need for flash or strobe on the other. Make sure your lens supports X sync speeds specifically before using with electronic flash units. - Original Bulb Flash Guns
As many know, the light sabers of the original Star Wars movie in the 1970s were made by the film’s props department from old Graflex flash guns from these very cameras. As a result, sci-fi fans who want originality have snapped them up over the years and converted them into light saber props, and the supply of original flash guns has diminished while prices have increased. There’s little reason to get one, in my view, other than to complete the “look” of the camera. If you truly want to use flash, go modern. If you want completeness, well, they do look nice!
The Results
Large format photography might not be for everyone, but I’ve personally found it to be addictive. It has its downsides — cost being the most obvious. But it has upsides too, such as being able to take just a few shots, and get them processed in the darkroom immediately, rather than waiting to shoot an entire roll of 120 or 135 film.
Below are some of my favorites so far from my Graflex Pacemaker 45 Crown Graphic. I intend to revise this post as I get more film shot with the camera. One of these is a 120 roll film shot from the 6×9 Horseman roll film back, and the remainder are 4×5 sheet film shots. The format and lens used is noted.
Footnotes
I’m very pleased to have scanned and made available non-watermarked, unencumbered, high quality PDF versions of the two manuals for the specific vintage of Graflex Pacemaker Graphic camera that I have. The first is the Instruction Manual, which is a mini-manual with just the highlights, and was provided with my camera. The second I purchased later, and is the Instruction and Reference Manual, which goes into considerably more depth. I hope if you own one of these cameras from this vintage, and you’ve been trying to find decent copies of the manuals, you’ll find both of them helpful in using these fantastic vintage cameras. Happy shooting!
