Graflex.org

disemjg · Joined: 10 Jan 2002 Posts: 474 Location: Washington, DC

I cannot help myself, I just keep on buying these things. I just got one that was described as "having all but one of the partitions removed", and upon close inspection the case seems to have been made this way. The interior arrangement is unlike any other case I have seen. It has one heavy center partition, evidently a wooden board covered in gray felt. On the right side of this partition is the usual fiber box to hold a mounted lens, with the vinyl flap. That's missing one of the wooden guide blocks. The lid contains the usual lenshood and Graflite holders. The rest of the case is open, and shows no evidence of ever having had partitions mounted. The rivets are there, but were evidently only used to fill the holes as they are all cleanly peened over the single layer of vulcanoid. There is no padding anywhere in the case, but what appears to be traces of old glue can be found in the back bottom on the right side.

So what did they intend to go in this case? The only thing that seems to make sense would be a big reflex like a 45 Super D or maybe just a RB-D. But I would have expected Graflex to have provided padding in the left side for the camera to go; no one would want to drop a nice camera in the unpadded side, where it would get marred unnecessarily. Maybe it was intended as a supplemental case for accessories, and not a camera outfit.

I'll try the RB-D for fit tomorrow. If nothing else, it will serve well as my case for extra (oddball) film holders, which is why I bought it in the first place.

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

Sounds like the case that was offered for the Graphic View series. They were very basic units. It only had two partitions. Maybe just one was removed.

disemjg · Joined: 10 Jan 2002 Posts: 474 Location: Washington, DC

I have two cases for the View; this is not like either of them. The one partition is right in the middle of the case, and has no notch for the rail. It is a thick board with the felt covering, and as previously stated it has a lens storage box mounted on it. Neither of my view cases has the storage places in the lid, althought it is possible that there are versions that include these for the view cameras.

It sure looks like a dedicated accessory case, one for the photog who already had a camera case but had lots of supporting equipment that was more than the basic case could hold. But I never heard of Graflex making such a case. It's doing a dandy job of storing all my extra holders.