Graflex.org

jdman · Joined: 13 May 2001 Posts: 302 Location: Midwest

Anyone notice the one ******* on Ebay. Russ

Nick · Joined: 16 Oct 2002 Posts: 494

Is it over yet so you can tell us what it is?-)

Somebody is selling a 19" process like the one I got. One word of warning it's HEAVY. I think mine is close to five pounds.

jdman · Joined: 13 May 2001 Posts: 302 Location: Midwest

These cameras were used at ball games so as to get long shots from far away. Looks like this one has a 700mm (70cm) lens and to be about 3 feet long. Uses a 5x7 graflex body. For a little more information consult the Graflex and Graphic photography books they mention these cameras and have some pictures. Russ

Les · Joined: 09 May 2001 Posts: 2682 Location: Detroit, MI

If it is a 700mm then it's equivent to a 160mm lens on a 35mm SLR for full frame, which I suspect they rarely did.

jdman · Joined: 13 May 2001 Posts: 302 Location: Midwest

Les, look at ebay item 2925520461, this looks like the genuine article. Russ

jdman · Joined: 13 May 2001 Posts: 302 Location: Midwest

The Big Bertha brought $720.00

Les · Joined: 09 May 2001 Posts: 2682 Location: Detroit, MI

Has anybody come up with why we call these things Big Berthas? I know of the WWI era Krupps gun of the same name, but would have thought with the emphasis on modernity during the 40s that they would have called it a Howitzer. I have one article that does call them that, but maybe Big Bertha is easier to say.

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JoePhoto · Joined: 13 Oct 2001 Posts: 75 Location: New England

You have to look at a lot of golf clubs when searching eBoo for Big Bertha....

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pberg · Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 5 Location: Wayne, N.J.

This might interest 'Big Bertha' fans. When I was a kid in the 1950's working for UP Newspix in N.Y. one of my jobs was to run up to Yankee Stadium and Polo Grounds to pick up the BB coverage. I'd try to get there early because the cameraman would give me pointers and let me sit with them when they shot from the outside or inside press box. They would focus and mark the camera for each base and player position beforehand, then sit with the long lens between their legs, aiming it kind of like an artillery piece. It had a metal lever on it jutting out next to the ground glass for focusing. So, the cameraman would be looking down on the camera from his seated position. They were able to follow the ball or the play with their eyes, and manipulate the camera position by hand virtually by instinct. This remembrance is known as ancient history.

Joe Koski · Joined: 09 Feb 2004 Posts: 39 Location: Southwest USA

I had heard that they actually used two persons to run the Big Bertha camera. One person to change the focus, and the other to press the shutter. The guy on the shutter would call his desired base (or other position) to the person controlling the focus. True or false?

alecj · Joined: 09 May 2001 Posts: 853 Location: Alabama

I've seen lots of pics of the BBs being used. Never saw a set up like that. All I've seen were "one-man" setups.

pberg · Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 5 Location: Wayne, N.J.

I don't recall any two man team like that running the Big Berthas for United Press Newspix in the 50's. I also recall that it would have been out of character for UP to use two men for that since UP was a very sparse (cheap) operation then. Some proof of that was that they paid me only $5 per used shot for my freelance work. That work usually involved eight to ten hours on a day off from my normal job as telephoto operator/runner/slave...but it was all worth it.

Joe Koski · Joined: 09 Feb 2004 Posts: 39 Location: Southwest USA

Leading into a some questions, here's a quote from the January 1954 Edition of Graphic Graflex Photography: "The Revolving Back Home Portrait Graflex was a 5x7 camera intended primarily for professional use, equipped with a special focal plane shutter with a maximum speed of 1/500 second. ... The Revolving Back Home Portrait cameras have more recently been used as a basis for constructing the "Big Bertha" Graflex which is used by all major news syndicates and big city newspapers especially for sports photography. The basic camera is fitted with 28-inch or 40-inch lenses with special supporting beds. ..."

My questions:

1) Was the maximum shutter speed really only 1/500 second? This seems slow for sports photography, even in the 1950s. (Yes, I realize it was a 5x7.)

2) Who did the "Big Bertha" conversion? Graflex? Was it ordered in its final configuration, or did some outside third part make the modifications?

Just curious.

Les · Joined: 09 May 2001 Posts: 2682 Location: Detroit, MI

The original Home portrait graflex did indeed have only a 1/500th of a second shutter, but it also had an odd contraption to shoot very slowly---1/2 to 2"

After all it was designed for the pro photographer to shoot at someone's home in available light.

In the last week or so there was an odd HP Graflex on ebay that didn't have a bellows, focus knob or even a lens board. Further it had the hardware of a Super D as well as the shutter ie 1/1000 shutter. The concensus is that this was built to be modified by somebody else into a big bertha.

Now before the Detroit News redid their website they used to talk about building Big Berthas for other newspapers and claimed they were the first to design it. I suspect every other paper says the same thing. The truth lies somewhere in between. Like kids in the 30s 40s and 50s hot rodding their cars, they all did similar things by themselves, then a few started a business doing for others. There may have been a couple of third party companies making Big Berthas ( which by the way, were called Howitzers in the Graflex trade paper)

But I don't see any evidence of Graflex making them. Oh and they went up to 60" lenses in the last days. Which is equal to a 387mm lens on 35mm.