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Phase One on a Speed Graphic...

gerald.d

Well-known member
Thanks Martin - the lens on the camera has no shutter. I'd be reliant on the focal plane shutter of the Speed Graphic...
 

MartinN

Well-known member
Yes indeed it should be possible to use the focal plane shutter, but this whole thing has kept me to stay away from the speed and I now use a Crown.
 

MartinN

Well-known member
Phase one had the Flex adaptor but i don't know if it is graflex and then it has to have the appropriate digital back plate.
 

ondebanks

Member
I think you'd have a problem with this combination - Graflex hasn't issued a firmware update for the Speed Graphic in over 50 years. :LOL:

Seriously...does the FP shutter trigger a flash synch port? That's all you need, I would think. And perhaps some playing with the back's latency, as the shutter opening is probably delayed for slower bulbs rather than for instant electronic flash.

Ray
 

MartinN

Well-known member
BTW to my mind comes that Kapture Group also has sliding back adapters for 4x5. These are the real Rolls Royce of the adapters and the third option.
 

MartinN

Well-known member
Seriously...does the FP shutter trigger a flash synch port? That's all you need, I would think. And perhaps some playing with the back's latency, as the shutter opening is probably delayed for slower bulbs rather than for instant electronic flash.
Yes this is very important and was something I also thougt of in my first post.
 

gerald.d

Well-known member
Been thinking about this, and worst case scenario, the following should work no?...

Physically mount the back (e.g. as per Martin's link) to the Speed Graphic.
Connect the cable from the back to my ALPA FPS.
Select a long shutter speed on the FPS.
Fire the FPS shutter.
Fire the Speed Graphic shutter whilst the back thinks it's being exposed by the FPS :)
 

MartinN

Well-known member
Umm this suggested setup makes my brain smoke:D

How about a new cheap lens with shutter and functional X-sync,
in addition to a adapter ? LF lenses are usually dirtcheap and mounting
it in a Graphic lens board is quite easy.

Martin
 

MartinN

Well-known member
The 'only?' real benefit of the Speed's FP shutter would be if one likes to try out an old Pezwal lens without shutter and mount it on a Speed.
 

gerald.d

Well-known member
Umm this suggested setup makes my brain smoke:D

How about a new cheap lens with shutter and functional X-sync,
in addition to a adapter ? LF lenses are usually dirtcheap and mounting
it in a Graphic lens board is quite easy.

Martin
It's not the camera that I'm interested in really - it's the lens that comes with it.

More later ;)
 

JeRuFo

Active member
Why mess with the timing of the shutters? Just open the shutter on the back with a longer exposure and set the real shutter speed with the focal plane shutter, just like you would do with film.
 

foster_jb

Member
Kapture Group makes a gadget which you can use to activate the digital back (so it thinks it is taking a long exposure), then you could use the focal plane shutter on the Speed to shoot, and then you deactivate the back via the Kapture Group controller.

I use it often for interiors when I need multiple flash pops to balance out a scene. Here it is:

Phase One digital back adapter solutions

Best,
Foster
 

stngoldberg

Well-known member
I am very interested in this thread. What does everyone perceive as the advantage of mounting a digital back to a speed graphic?
Stanley
 

gerald.d

Well-known member
I should stress that the only reason I'm interested in doing this is because of the lens that has been adapted to work on the camera.

I'm looking into whether or not I could get the lens adapted with an ALPA mount, but that would introduce its own problems.

Kind regards,

Gerald.
 

stngoldberg

Well-known member
The lens on my Crown Graphic Special is a Rodenstock 135mm f 4.5.
I doubt if this lens will be sharp enough for my HD50 digital back, but I have wonderful memories of using this camera when I was young. The flip side is when I look at some of those images today, they don't compare favorably with what can be done today
Stanley
 

gerald.d

Well-known member
OK, so the camera has arrived, and I think I've worked out what I'm going to do...

Back view...



Front view...



Back view with the back removed



Basically, remove the Graflok (?) back as above, and then I'll get an aluminium plate made to cover that back plate, with a circa 9cm by 9cm hole cut out of the middle. I'll then get a Alpa 6mm spacer fixed to the aluminium plate so that I can mount the FPS.

Simple, eh?

The image on the ground glass from this thing is like nothing I've ever seen before :)
 
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