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.
The Graflex is a reflex camera made for film formats from × ″ (6 × 7 cm) up to × ″.
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.
Because a top-to-bottom shutter motion exposed the bottom first, 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.
Cameras
35mm Rangefinder
1949 Graflex Ciro 35
1955 Graflex Graphic 35
1958 Graflex Century 35
1959 Graphic 35 Electric
Medium Format
1912–1973 Speed Graphic
Graflex manufacturing history
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 has been the corporate headquarters of Veramark Technologies since 1997.
Pop culture
The 3-cell Graflex flashgun was modified and used as the prop for
Luke Skywalker's
lightsaber in Star Wars: 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
Category:Photography companies
