Graflex.org

[Jack5541]

Hi all...
Subsequent to posts I made a couple of months ago and a couple of contacts with Paramount, they are now offering a new sync cord tip for the series outlets on the older Graflex battery cases (SW). Here is an image of the tip that they have added to their Graflex page...

I sent them an original, old, brittle cord that I had laying around and from that they measured it and they were able to reproduce the plug to fit the round ports on the flash handle.
So this is good news for all of us who might have this battery case & want to use it as a flash, without having to rely on dicey old cords. Of course, it's available as a custom cord and can be fitted with either a bipost or a solenoid tip on the lower end of either a straight or coiled cord.
Regards,Jack.

[Jack5541]

Just to follow-up...Got this new round port-to-bipost cord today, hooked it up & it fired a bulb on the first shot. So this old battery case of mine will be seeing service once again! I'll next have them make me up a round port-to-solenoid cord so I can really play, remote tripping from the red button. It's true what they say about Graflex addictions and boys with their new toys!!!

[essessem]

Hello Jack,
A very timely posting for me, as I just acquired a 2x3 Crown with flash and a very dilapidated cord. I've never encountered this flash gun before & would like to know model # and any pertinent facts, like: what's the electric-eye looking bit near the top?. I haven't yet figured out how to open battery case either. Any words of wisdom appreciated.
regards
Steve S.

[Les]

This is the original Graflex Battery case, or Flash unit, depending on how many parts you ordered with it (solenoid, reflector, etc)

It opens by rotating the top and bottom half against each other and then pulling the bottom out of the center band.

The electric eye is a flashlight--projects a semi-focused image of the filament on your subject so that you can focus in dim light.

While I'm glad to see Paramount making the round style end, it really isn't necessary, at least if your using a solenoid. If you have a sync'ed shutter, then you need to remove the red button in the back. Most of them unthread and then swing to the side on a pull-tab shaped bracket, a few early ones have an open key in the back that flips out of the way.

In either case once the button is out of the way, you'll see a round port, plug your new cord in there and the other end on the shutter and you can play Jimmy Stewart vs Raymond Burr* until you run out of flash bulbs.


*Climatic scene in Rear Window, Jimmy Steward fends off murderer Burr by blinding him with flash bulbs, too bad he used an Exacta instead of Graflex.

[ This Message was edited by: Les on 2005-03-02 16:00 ]

[Jack5541]

Well, Steve, I'm glad to see that you'll give this flashgun a try. I've been using mine with 2x3 Graphic for some time now. Functionally speaking, the older chrome Graflex flash can do pretty much everything the later 2773 Graflite can, especially when you're armed with a couple new cords for it.
As Les said, using it with a sync'd shutter just unscrew the red button, swing it down out of the way, attach the A-20 cord round plug to the port in the back & the other end to the biposts and you're good to go, so long as the shutter sync is 20 milliseconds.
Also, the 2 round ports in the front of the battery case are where the S-17 solenoid cord can be plugged in. Swing the red button up and screw in place and with the solenoid cord attached to either of the front ports you can remotely trip the shutter & fire the bulb in sync (if the solenoid is set up for 20ms).
It's been alot of fun to discover how to properly use this fore-runner to the Graflite, instead of seeing it in it's all-too-common Sci-Fi altered state.

[ This Message was edited by: Jack5541 on 2005-03-02 19:05 ]