Graflex.org

MikeS · Joined: 25 Nov 2003 Posts: 71 Location: East Tennessee

Hi All.

I just bought a junker Pre-Anny Speed Graphic for parts. The one part I really wanted was the rangefinder, which I could see from the pictures looked like the older model as described elsewhere on this site.

Now that I've gotten the camera in (Wow was it dirty!) I see that the rangefinder looks similiar to the earlier model, but I think it must have been an aftermarket model, as it doesn't use a hole in the side of the camera for the arm that connects to the focusing track, but rather has a metal arm that bends around the front of the camera. It also doesn't have the external adjustments like the early model should, so I'm at a loss as to how to adjust it.

This must be my lucky day or something, I decided to mount the RF onto my camera anyway, and I have a 150mm Symmar currently mounted on the camera (it appears to match up with the focusing scale that was on the camera when I got it), and amazingly it looks like this RF is also set for a 150mm lens! Tomorrow (well later today actually) when it gets light outside I'm going to setup the camera on a tripod, and double check to see how accurate it is.

I have another question. I have a 150mm Xenar as well that I'm planning on using on this camera (basically instead of the symmar, that way I can keep the symmar for use on my GVII where I can make use of it's larger image circle), and I'm wondering, other than possibly needing to reset the inf stops for the lens, if in fact the RF is currently correct to the 150mm Symmar, would it also be correct with the 150mm Xenar? Same for the focusing scale? Thanks!

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-Mike

Dan Fromm · Joined: 14 May 2001 Posts: 2148 Location: New Jersey

MikeS · Joined: 25 Nov 2003 Posts: 71 Location: East Tennessee

The camera is a Pre-Anniversary Speed, so the boards do interchange. I wasn't aware that the Xenar isn't as good a lens as a Symmar, I know it doesn't have as large an image circle, but I figured on a speed that wouldn't matter.

I also figured that as I already have both lenses, the Xenar is a better 'fit' on a speed, as it has plenty of coverage for the movements on a speed, and being f4.5 rather than f5.6 while a small difference, might be needed more on the speed than on a GVII.

I like to have my cameras ready to go, and normally I leave either my 150 symmar on the GVII or occasionally a 135mm Fujinon, so I wouldn't want to be in a situation where I want to use a lens only to find out I left it home on a different camera!

Now I need to figure out how to set the inf setting, as the rangefinder is off at inf.

-Mike

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-Mike

MikeS · Joined: 25 Nov 2003 Posts: 71 Location: East Tennessee

Hi All.

Here are a couple of pictures of the Kalart rangefinder that I have on my camera. I hope that somebody will recognise it, and know how to adjust it. Thanks!

http://www.agrijag.com/Images/Kalart1.JPG
http://www.agrijag.com/Images/Kalart2.JPG

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-Mike

45PSS · Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2004 1:31 am Post subject:

http://graflex.org/speed-graphic/early-kalart.html

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The best camera ever made is the one that YOU enjoy using and produces the image quality that satifies YOU.

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

That thing is really cool! I have never seen one like it, nor any literature for it. My guess is that it might have been a very early prototype, or at the least, an extremely short production run. Will the camera close with it mounted?

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Glenn

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

MikeS · Joined: 25 Nov 2003 Posts: 71 Location: East Tennessee

I was worried about the camera closing, as the camera I pulled it off of has an indentation cut into the bed for it, but it closes without a problem. Now to figure out how to adjust it, as it's NOT adjusted the same as the early model on this site (as somebody else suggested in a reply).

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-Mike

t.r.sanford · Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 12:21 am Post subject:

I agree with glennfrom wy: that thing is, indeed, really cool. The body shell looks for all the world like the later, black Kalart RF, but with a square cover plate in place of the round swing-away lid on the later ones, that covered the "Focuspot" bayonet.

Might you proceed, very cautiously, on the assumption that it is calibrated in the same way, and see how far you can get without doing anything you can't easily undo?

MikeS · Joined: 25 Nov 2003 Posts: 71 Location: East Tennessee

I'm not exactly sure if I could do that or not. Unlike the later models that screw down to the body of the camera seperately from the outer case, this is a single unit, although it does look like the back plate can come off, so I might try that. but then how would I adjust the rf when it's off the camera?

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-Mike

t.r.sanford · Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2004 2:55 am Post subject:

My reprint of the "Kalart Service & Repair Manual" may cast a faint ray of light on the question. It includes a page of line drawings that depict five rangefinder styles.

The one I think of as the "new" (black) model is identified as EDEL; the one I regard as the "old" (silver) version (with the external scale on the front) is called FRF.

Your photos show one that looks very like what Kalart called GRF, "Kalart Model G Range Finder for Old Style Speed Graphics." Unfortunately, there is no disassembly or adjustment information; the model is marked "discontinued." It closely resembles another, the KRF "Model K Range Finder for Film Pack Cameras" (also discontinued).

The text throughout the manual is a bit dense, especially if you don't have a Kalart rangefinder in pieces on the bench in front of you, but I come away with the impression that the coupling arm for the "Old Style Speed Graphic" is quite different from the ones we're accustomed to, at the lower end. How is yours linked to the track (or front) of the camera?

MikeS · Joined: 25 Nov 2003 Posts: 71 Location: East Tennessee

there's a bar coming out of the front of the rangefinder that bends around the front of the camera, and back into the body of the camera, and that's attached to a 'dog leg' that attaches to the bed of the camera via removing 2 screws from the bed, and placing a part on it, then replacing the screws. The part on the bed has a bar inside it, that's spring loaded pulling the dog leg forward. where the dog leg attaches to the spring loaded bar is another bar that sticks out maybe 1/2" and is bent downward at the end, and it's this that touches the back of the focusing track of the camera, and so follows forward/backward movement of the rail.

I went ahead and opened up the rangefinder, and figured out a couple of the adjustments, and have managed to get it mostly adjusted, but I can't seem to get the 4' adjustment set (it would help I suppose if I knew what the adjustments were supposed to adjust. One adjustment is a square headed screw on the back of the rangefinder (when mounted on the camera this sits next to the focal plane shutter winder) which seems to be a rough adjustment, and what appears to be the fine adjustment is the middle screw on top of the rangefinder, but what doesn't seem right to me is that there's no way of locking either adjustment once made. The square headed screw is fairly tight in it's threads, and in a place where it's not likely to get moved by accident, but the upper adjustment sticks out there, and turns fairly easily, so once I get it set I'll probably put some nail polish on the screw to hold it in place (and to alert me if it's moved).

I think you're right about it being a model G as the serial number is G1195.

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-Mike

MikeS · Joined: 25 Nov 2003 Posts: 71 Location: East Tennessee

I'm starting to think that this rangefinder might not be adjustable for different focal lengths, but rather preset at the factory (sort of like the hugo mayer ones), as it really seems to me that this rangefinder was designed to be installed by the user of the camera, rather than by a camera repair shop (no need to drill big holes in camera, and the bed mounted unit matched directly with factory holes), so it's likely that you ordered it for whatever lens you had, and it would arrive ready to be screwed onto the camera. At least this makes sense to me

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-Mike

t.r.sanford · Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2004 10:56 am Post subject:

The line drawings I mentioned show the novel out, around and back arm arrangement, which is similar in the "G" model and the (evidently similar) "K" model for "film pack cameras" (the "Recomar" and so forth).

What they do not show is the entire length of the arm. Is it possible that some fine adjustment is made to the arm extension, not the internal mechanism of the rangefinder?

You may be right about factory pre-adjustment for the user's lens, but I'd think that, even so, there would be a fine adjustment, to accommodate the acceptable variation in actual focal length of production model lenses.

And, of course, that would raise the question, what did the factory do when it received an order for (say) a RF calibrated for a 140mm. lens? And why could we not do that, too?

MikeS · Joined: 25 Nov 2003 Posts: 71 Location: East Tennessee

Well, I took some more pictures of the rangefinder mounted on the camera.
http://www.agrijag.com/Images/Kalart3.JPG
Shows the arm a little better
http://www.agrijag.com/Images/Kalart4.JPG
shows the pin that contacts the back of the focusing rails while the camera is set at inf.
http://www.agrijag.com/Images/Kalart5.JPG
show the rangefinder focused at it's closest distance
http://www.agrijag.com/Images/Kalart6.JPG
is a closer image of the same thing. Notice the brass (or just rusted) bar is angled back a bit, when I first put on the rangefinder it was straight, I bent it back to that inf on the groundglass would coincide with inf on the rangefinder.
http://www.agrijag.com/Images/Kalart7.JPG
shows what appears to be a rough adjustment (the square headed screw), what distance it's supposed to be for I'm not sure.
http://www.agrijag.com/Images/Kalart8.JPG
shows what appears to be a fine adjustment (the screw in the middle), again, what distance it's supposed to set I don't know, but I know that it surely doesn't look right having a screw stick up like that one is! I just won a lot of spare parts on ebay, and it looks like a similiar rangefinder is in that lot, so maybe I'll know more when I get it in. Thanks!

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-Mike

t.r.sanford · Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2004 2:20 pm Post subject:

Is the pin visible at the top of the pivoted arm, which evidently drives the stirrup-like linkage to the rangefinder itself, adjustable at all? It seems as though this would be a logical place to make fine corrections for lens focal length.

As you rack the front forward and the lever moves out to follow, its lower end must move up. What keeps it in contact with the stop on the focusing rail, when this occurs?