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littlelou · Joined: 24 Jul 2004 Posts: 17 Location: lakewood wa

i'm close to acquiring a pacemaker speed graphic camera but it doesn't appear to have a side or top mounted rangefinder for critical focus. it only has a top optical tube viewfinder with parallax correction for composition along with the standard wire sports finder frame. is this camera missing that important RF focusing feature or could it just be a later model with a design change that eliminated the RF's entirely and the optical tube viewfinder is sufficient for both composition and focus ?

t.r.sanford · Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 9:19 am Post subject:

Early 4x5 "Pacemakers" could be purchased without a rangefinder or optical viewfinder (the frame finder is quite satisfactory), or with a "Kalart" rangefinder installed. Later ones came with an OEM Graflex rangefinder and optical viewfinder, combined in a housing that extended across the top of the camera.

The advantages of the factory rangefinder/viewfinder system are that it accepts a removable profile plate (or "cam") that could be changed to match the lens you wanted to use; and the lever that followed this cam also provides automatic parallax correction. The disadvantage is that the cams now are very hard to come by, and expensive when found. There are instructions for making one on this site.

My guess is that, if the "Pacemaker" you're looking at does not show signs of having had a side rangefinder removed, it was purchased as you see it, with the optical VF but without a rangefinder. The body will be drilled for a "Kalart" RF.

littlelou · Joined: 24 Jul 2004 Posts: 17 Location: lakewood wa

this camera has no right side KALART RF or top mounted OEM GRAFLEX RF. so without either my main question is can the camera be focused aside from viewing thru the ground glass or estimating distances ?
i want to handholdthis camera, critical focus with the rangefinder and compose with viewfinder. if the side mounted KALART RF or top mounted OEM GRAFLEX RF has been removed can they be purchased somewhere and calibrated to match a new body + lens combination ? i hesitate to get a camera which is missing a critical focusing component which can't be repaired. thanks again

t.r.sanford · Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 7:47 pm Post subject:

The only way to focus a "Speed Graphic" that does not have a side RF (Kalart or Meyer) or top RF (Graflex) is on the groundglass, or by scale (as we did in the old days). For your application, you want a coupled rangefinder.

Kalart rangefinders (and the odd Hugo Meyer one) do turn up used, and are not incredibly difficult to install. But if I were you, I'd look for a camera that comes with what you need already installed.

Kalart and Meyer rangefinders were installed for a particular focal length (in fact, for a particular lens). Kalart rangefinders can be readjusted, within some constraints, if you change focal lengths; but it it not the work of a moment, and cannot be done "in the field." If you want to use several different focal lengths, you want the later "Pacemaker" with its interchangeable-cam RF -- and, alas! you want the necessary cams...

littlelou · Joined: 24 Jul 2004 Posts: 17 Location: lakewood wa

t.r. sanford
thanks for your help
in understanding these great cameras
which were manufactured in my home town

glennfromwy · Joined: 29 Nov 2001 Posts: 903 Location: S.W. Wyoming

If you install a rangefinder, you will have to adjust it to match the lens you are using. If you buy a different camera that already has a rangefinder the chances are less than good that it will be calibrated to a lens you want to use and/or in proper adjustment anyway. Either way, you are likely to be doing some work to get what you want. Focus scales are another issue entirely but the same applies. Welcome to the world of Speed Graphics.

_________________
Glenn

"Wyoming - Where everybody is somebody else's weirdo"

t.r.sanford · Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 8:17 pm Post subject:

Indeed, many "Speed Graphics" have led adventurous lives, and you don't know the details when you buy one!

That said, the typical small newspaper or police department or school that owned a couple of "Speed Graphics" bought them with the rangefinders, focusing scales, viewfinder masks and infinity stops set for the lenses supplied with the cameras, and those cameras lived long and productive lives without anyone's ever messing with any of it. There are a lot of used ones out there like that; the trick is knowing whether the one you're looking at is that kind!

If you're not into camera restoration, there's much to be said for buying a used "Speed Graphic" from a knowledgeable dealer, or a knowledgeable owner, either of whom can work with you to make sure all is in good order.