Graflex.org

[vic valis]

Decided to wait until i was giving a lecture to a class of highschool kids on photography, told them I didn't know if everything was going to work. Was shooting with a restored WWII military model Anniversary model Speed Graphic with the Graflex flash. Aimed, focused, hit the red button and blinded the class... and then a full second later the shutter tripped! Three tries AFTER the lecture, when there was nobody around to witness, resulted in 3 shots in perfect sync! Now I just gotta work on exposure... I hate guide numbers... math is my worst subject.

jeff

_________________
That money talks,
I'll not deny.
I heard it once;
It said "good-bye."

[Les]

It seems that your camera is a comedian, because they know that timing is everything!

RE: guide numbers . Stick a reference mark on the standard (I just use the scale) and lay a piece of tape down on the bed. Focus at 20 feet, make a mark, focus at 15 feet, make a mark, focus at 10, & 6, etc.

Now run your calculations at home with only the dog to stare at you and write the aperture at the corresponding marks.

Now all you have to do if focus the camera and look at your new scale!

Next idea. Lets assume your using Tmax 400 and #25 bulbs. Sylvania gave me a guide number of 550. At 10 feet I would have a aperture of f55, which is imperceptably smaller than f45. For my fogged brain, the Guide number just became 450 and I gained a little latittude.

Okay at 10 feet it's f45. At 20 feet it's half of that or f22. 15 feet must be f32.

I would then mentally change that to: shooting overall dance floor, f22. shooting the flower girls dancing with each other, f32. Head shots, table shots, f45. Giving the obnoxious drunk a suntan with my flash in a compramizing postion: 6ft at f45 (overexposed but I wouldn't print it anyway). Notice at no time am I trying to divide 450 by say 18 feet. I'd just open a little from f32 or maybe not since I fudged the GN to start with.

Now I know that most Graphex shutters only go to f22, so maybe you should use Tmx 100 with #25s or use the smaller M3s or AG-1s with the 400, but the idea is there.

If you try to take Guide numbers to three decimal places, they will only frustrate you. Sylvania used the same GN with a 2/3 of a stop range.

[vic valis]

Wow, that's a lot of work for a lazy guy like me! Actually, I will very likely do exactly what you suggest; I've seen so many cameras with the home-made scales that my camera probably wouldn't look complete without one. I have a stash of the M3s and an adapter for the 5-inch Graflex reflector, so that may eventually be the way I go. I have an idea that one of these days I'll get into my WWII getup, bring my new WWII Speed to some event and probably end up shooting people from a fair distance with the flash as fill, so I'm not too teribly worried about overdoing it. But it was pretty funny in front of a classroom full of highschool girls (all-girls school - huzzah!) to hear that shutter go off a full second later and have to explain that that's just not right!

jeff

_________________
That money talks,
I'll not deny.
I heard it once;
It said "good-bye."

[Les]

Maybe your camera had the rare (nonexistant) optional "tail flash" sync like the Nikon F3 ? had!


Les