IanG
No longer a newbie, moving up!
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2007
- Messages
- 604
- Reaction score
- 283
- Location
- Turkey or West Midlnads UK
- Website
- www.lostlabours.co.uk
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos NOT OK to edit
A couple of years ago I bought 2 Speed Graphics off ebay, sold as 2 to rebuild as one good camera, and they were cheap.
However they were very different, this one was pre-Anniversary, the other a Pacemaker dating from the 60's. Despite being sold as such no parts were interchangeable. Both were awful, total wrecks, leatherette almost completely missing or loose.
I began with this one first, and found a strange non standard pre-Anniversary Speed Graphic. It had been modified when new for wide angle work, it had never folded up, the top of the casing was cut away, there were no screw holes for a hinged front, nor for the struts required for one to function.
Naked with no leatherette there was a problem with the aluminium base plate which was again non standard and ha corroded badly.
The reality was suddenly quite different, the camera was functional, missing no parts, only the leatherette was beyond redemption, so I stripped the remainder off. Then taking off all the hardware I sanded the wood work and french polished it. I cleaned up the metal work, totally rebuilt the back, repainted metal parts and re-assembled. Somewhre in the middle I fixed the Focal Plane shutter.
Now it's a fully functional 5x4 camera, the range finder's working but is set for a WA lens, not sure quite what yet, I'm not really too interested in using the range-finder at the moment.
The other Speed Graphic is also re-built, re-covered and the rear track-bed replaced but it's run of the mill, this one's special.
Ian
Last edited: