Graflex

Graflex Pacemaker Crown Graphic, 1947

Graflex was a manufacturer, a brand name and several models of cameras. William F. Folmer, an inventor, built the first Graflex camera in 1898, when his company was called The Folmer and Schwing Manufacturing Company, founded originally in New York as a gas lamp company. As the gas lamp market dimmed, it expanded into making bicycles selling cameras of other makers as accessories, then making cameras themselves, dropping the bicycle line. That firm in 1905 was purchased by George Eastman. In 1907, the company became the Folmer and Schwing Division of Eastman Kodak. After a few more interim changes of status and name, it finally became simply "Graflex, Inc." in 1945.

From 1912 to 1973 Graflex produced large format and medium format press cameras in film formats from 2 ¹⁄₄ × 3 ¹⁄₄″ (6 × 7 cm) to 4 × 5″. They also produced rangefinder, SLR and TLR cameras in a variety of formats ranging from 35mm to 5 × 7″.

Most sports photography in the early 20th century was done with Graflex and similar cameras with a cloth focal plane shutter. To get shutter speeds high enough to stop fast motion they had to use a narrow slit, which exposed different parts of the film at different times. To set the shutter speed, you wound up the shutter to one of a series of tensions with a key. Then you selected the slit width with another control. A table on the side of the box gave the shutter speed for each combination.

Graflex Speed Graphic folding cameras, produced from 1912 to 1973, also have a focal plane shutter, although they are often used with a between-the-lens shutter mounted to the lensboard. Crown Graphic cameras are similar to their corresponding Speed Graphic cousins; however they are an inch thinner and about one pound lighter because they lack the focal plane shutter. However, because of the shorter possible lens-to-film plane distance, the Crown Graphic can use shorter lens focal lengths, allowing a wider field of view.

The top-to-bottom shutter motion exposed the top of the film first (i.e. the "bottom" of the inverted image), so many photographs of automobile racing taken with Graflex cameras depicted the wheels of the car in an oval shape leaning forward. This feature became a conventional indication of speed, and many Cartoonists drew wheels the same way to indicate fast motion.

Graflex Cameras

Press cameras

• 1912–1973 Speed Graphic Models
  • 1912–1927 Top Handle Speed Graphic
  • 1928–1939 Pre-Anniversary Speed Graphic
  • 1939–1946 Miniature Speed Graphic
  • 1940–1946 Anniversary Speed Graphic
  • 1947–1970 Pacemaker Speed Graphic
  • 1947–1973 Pacemaker Crown Graphic
  • 1949–1970 Century Graphic
  • 1958–1973 Super Graphic
  • 1961–1970 Super Speed Graphic

Other large format cameras

• 1907–1923 Press Graflex (5 × 7")
• 1909–1941 Auto Graflex
• 1938–1942 Crown View
• 1941–1949 Graphic View
• 1949–1967 Graphic View II

Other 120/220 and 70mm film cameras

• 1952–1956 Graflex 22
• 1965–1973 Graflex XL
• 1953–1957 Combat Graphic
• 1971–1976 Graflex Norita (a.k.a. Norita 66)

35mm rangefinder and stereo

• 1949–1953 Graflex Ciro 35
• 1955–1962 Graflex Stereo Graphic
• 1955–1957 Graflex Graphic 35
• 1957–1961 Graflex Century 35
• 1959–1963 Graphic 35 Electric (a.k.a. Iloca Electric)

Aerial cameras

• 1941–1945 Folmer Graflex K-20 Aircraft Camera (a.k.a Fairchild K-20)
  • Folmer Graflex K-21 Aircraft Camera
  • Folmer Graflex K-25 Aircraft Camera

Military Cameras

• 1942–1944 Graflex PH-47-F
• 1942–1944 Graflex PM-47-E
• 1947–1949 Graflex PH-47-H
• 1947–1950 Graflex C-6
• 1949–1952 Graflex PH-47-J
• 1953–1957 Graflex KE-4
• 1953–1955 Graflex KE-12
• 1965–1973 Graflex XLRF KS-98B

The company name changed several times over the years as it was absorbed and then released by the Kodak empire, finally becoming a division of the Singer Corporation and then dissolved in 1973. The Graflex plant in suburban Pittsford, New York is still standing at 3750 Monroe Avenue and was the corporate headquarters of Veramark Technologies from 1997 to 2010.

Years	Manufacturer
1887–1904	Folmer & Schwing Manufacturing Co. of New York, NY
1905–1907	Folmer & Schwing Co., Rochester, NY
1907–1927	Folmer & Schwing Div., Eastman Kodak Co. Rochester, NY
1928–1946	Folmer Graflex Corp., Rochester, NY
1946–1955	Graflex Inc., Rochester, NY
1956–1968	Graflex Inc., Div. General Precision Equipment, Rochester, NY
1968–1973	Graflex Inc., Div. SINGER CORPORATION
1973	Tooling bought by Toyo Co.

Pop culture

The 3-cell Graflex flashgun was modified and used as the prop for Luke Skywalker's lightsaber in the first two Star Wars movies, A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. A black grip was added and the circular bulb housing was obviously removed, but little else was changed to create the lightsaber prop.

See also

• Fairchild K-20 (a World War II-era aerial camera made by Folmer Graflex Corp., which became Graflex Inc. in 1945)
• Press camera

References

• Kingslake, Rudolf, The Rochester Camera and Lens Companies (Rochester NY, Photographic Historical Society, 1974) OCLC 3335854

External links

• Homepage of Graflex.Org: "Dedicated to promoting the use and preservation of Graflex Speed Graphics and other classic and large-format cameras."
• The Graflex Speed Graphic FAQ on Graflex.org
• Graflex.org: Kingslake historical essay
• Information on the Graflex Press Camera (at a website run by a collector named Jo Lommen)
• Hendersonville Camera Club page on history of photography.
• Graflex camera instruction manuals English - PDF