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140mm Bausch & Lomb Tele f6.3, Bausch & Lomb 75mm f3.5, Graflex RB series B, Kodak No31 Anastigmat f4.5, National Graflex series II, RB Tele Graflex
‘Why do you like the Graflex so much?’ Mr Nikos Pikopoulos, the camera saint, asked me. ‘The truth is I can’t really say… maybe it is a feeling generated by the leather covering, the brass metal bits and pieces, the view on the ground glass, the glorious curtain sound, the various back options, being SLR, used by some of the all time greatest in photography, served in battlefields, 70+ years old and most of them still work…’
For an in-depth Graflex camera knowledge in various types of photography and some general photography writing, the ‘Graflex Graphic Photography – the master book for the larger camera’ is a nice book to own -for those who still like books…
Graflex made various types of cameras, I have used folding view type ones and SLRs. The view cameras were a Century Graphic and a Miniature Speed Graphic both in the 2 1/4 x3 1/4” (6×9) format. Both nice but both sold to finance new old cameras. As for the SLRs, I have bought four and eventually kept the two first ones I bought. The third one was sold and the fourth given as a present to a very good friend.
(This is not a guide nor a manual on these cameras, just some general words, photos taken with my Graflex SLRs and some photos of me with them)
‘RB’ stands for revolving back. The choice of vertical or horizontal framing without turning the whole camera.
- Graflex RB series B -in the small 2 1/4 x3 1/4” format.
It’s serial number place its manufacturing around 1932. On the Series B the lens mount is fixed. It uses screwmount barrel type lenses and the 5 1/2” Kodak No31 Anastigmat f4.5 was a standard lens for the 2 1/4 x 3 1/4. Kodak ‘numbered’ Anastimats (No 31,32,33,34,35,36) were the most common lenses on the various SLR Graflexes but there were other choices also from Bausch & Lomb and Cooke Taylor Hobson. Later, Kodak introduced the Ektar line which is supposed to be better.
The ‘small’ series B is one of the easiest to handle due to its size. Like most Graflex SLRs it has a vast choice of speeds from 1/10 to 1/1000sec + T as a result of a combination of spring tension and curtain slit opening.
In most Graflex SLRs you can use cut film or glass plate holders, Grafmatic sheet film holders with 6 septums, Cut film magazines with 12 septums, Roll film holders and Pack film holders.
The Wollensak Graflex Tele Optar 10” f5.6 is a telephoto option.
2. National Graflex series II
The National Graflex is quite different from the general Graflex SLR design. It uses 120 type roll film only. The format is 2 1/8 x 2 1/4 (6×7). It is a very small camera (for a 6×7 SLR). The first model (1933-1935) had a Bausch & Lomb Tessar f3.5 75mm lens. No other lens option. The series II (1934-1941) had some button rearrangement and a choice of an extra lens. A 140mm f6.3 Bausch & Lomb Telephoto. Although an interchangeable lens camera, the Series II can only accept these two lenses.
The National Graflex also differs in the choice of speeds. 1/30, 1/50, 1/60, 1/100, 1/125, 1/200, 1/250, 1/500sec and Bulb.
The 140mm Bausch & Lomb telephoto is very small and light. If you forget it is an f6.3 telephoto, with a slow film on a cloudy day, camera shake is easy…
If you are more carefull and the sun is shinning, despite a slow film you can use this lens with better results…
3. RB Tele Graflex 3 1/4 x 4 1/4
It is the next step up in film size from the 2 1/4 x 3 1/4. Identical speed choices and method of operation. Different lens mount not fixed. The lens is mounted in a plate which is then mounted on the camera. This allows more lens options provided the lens can cover the film area. (A negative of the Graflex SLR is you can’t use a wide angle lens. That’s because of the mirror. Even their ‘standard’ lens for each format needs to be a little longer than the ‘normal’ used for the specific format lenght, in order to be able to clear the mirror and still focus to infinity.)
Size and weight changes considerably. So does the depth of field…
According to information in the internet, the RB Tele Graflex 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 was in basic production from 1915 to 1921… From the serial number on mine I believe it was made around 1920. It worked as it should to my knowledge. The Fomapan 100 used on it was 4×5 cut to 3×4 and loaded to a Graflex Cut Film magazine.
4. Graflex RB series B 4×5
In all aspects identical with the small 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 hence the ‘series B’ in the model name. Of course it needs a bigger number Kodak Anastigmat lens to cover the format and the weight is way more…
As the negative gets bigger, the effort and patience for good results is higher. As in my previous attempts in 4×5, this one also was not very promising… it was not the camera’s fault, it is me not wanting to spend the time and money to make the 3×4 or 4×5 ‘work’.
I even had the nerve to use the 4×5 Graflex like a small SLR… handheld… a must for a healthy lower back…
My fond of these old Graflex cameras has not fainted. I don’t use them much, I also don’t use much my other medium format ones, because I have decided my main medium format camera will be one of Swedish origin I had the chance to aquire for a fraction of its price back in 2016… but that’s another musing…
Nasos Papathanasiou