Graflex Speed Graphic Cameras
In many ways, the Speed Graphic was America’s first and last great camera. It was manufactured by Graflex, a Rochester, New York based camera producer. It was the dominant portable professional camera from the 1930′s through the end of the 1950′s. The Speed Graphics and their brethren, the Crown Graphic and Century Graphic are remarkable cameras capable of the highest quality of work. The older Graflex SLR with its patented focal plane shutter and reflex focusing had been so successful as a press camera that the Graflex company set out to design a camera specifically for the emerging “press” photographer. The result was the original Speed Graphic of 1912.
The Speed Graphic camera has two shutters – focal plane and in-lens; three viewfinders – optical, wire frame and ground glass; interchangeable lenses; a rise and fall front; lateral shifts; a coupled rangefinder; and a double extension bellows adaptable to lenses from 90mm to over 300mm. The Speed Graphic looks complicated, but is one of the simplest and most flexible cameras made. The concept of having two separate shutters was a new idea. The focal plane shutter was the same as used in the Graflex, the front in-lens shutter provided extra versatility.
In 1940, Graflex announced the Anniversary Speed Graphic with Kodak Anastigmat (or the then all-new Ektar) lens. The new features included the coupled rangefinder and flash solenoid to use the then popular flashbulb. The bed would drop past horizontal, allowing the use of the new wide angle lenses. It was engineered for general purpose commercial photography such as wedding, portaiture, product, documentary, advertising and landscape photography. The Speed Graphic was the still camera of World War II, and took many famous images striking today for their technical and artistic beauty.
In 1947, the Pacemaker Speed Graphic was introduced bristling with new features such as a body mounted shutter release and simplified focal plane shutter, now with 6 direct-reading normal speeds rather than the 24 tension/shutter combinations possible before. The Graflok back, with a metal focusing hood and removable ground glass was introduced in 1949. The Graflok back is now the standard for 4×5″ view cameras today. The Graflok back accepts sheet film holders, “Grafmatic” 4×5 sheet film magazines, 120 roll film adaptors, Polaroid backs, the Kodak ReadyLoad and Fuji QuickLoad backs, and the now-obsolete film pack.
The Speed Graphic, like other “press” cameras, is designed to be operated either handheld or on a tripod. In this sense, there is a kinship between the Speed Graphic and 35mm gear. In the larger format world “kinship to 35mm” cannot be considered equivalence of features. The 4×5″ Speed Graphic could not be farther from modern 35mm gear in terms of construction or configuration. Yet with a Grafmatic one can shoot six successive images handheld using shutter speeds as high as 1/1000 second.
The Speed Graphic has not been manufactured since 1973. Post-1940 Graphic cameras may be considered usable cameras, rather than antique or collectible cameras. The Speed Graphic was manufactured in a number of sizes, 4×5″ being the most common, but also in 2.25×3.25″ 3.25×4.25″ and 5×7″.
The Graflex company name changed several times over the years as it was absorbed and then released by the Kodak empire, finally becoming a division of the Singer Corporation and then dissolved in 1973, when Graflex corporate history ends.