Every time I pick up a new film format, I’ll tell myself I don’t need another one: 35mm was first; I don’t need medium format. Then came 6x4.5, 6x6, and now 4x5. I’ve been trying to build out a kit for my WWII Signal Corps Photographer impression which started with the PH-324 I picked up last year. While 35mm was used during the war, especially with Leica II cameras, 4x5 was still king. And an SPC photographer was almost guaranteed to have a 3 ¼ x 4 ¼ or 4x5 Speed Graphic on them for official portraits or more important work. Bigger negatives mean sharper prints and the Speed Graphic was the most portable large format camera of the time. You could either shoot cut film or use a film pack for quicker exposures (not sold anymore). Luckily companies like Kodak and Ilford still make 4x5 film and this camera can still be used today.
I got relatively lucky when I picked up my Speed Graphic on eBay, winning it in an auction for about $350. I couldn’t tell much from the pictures posted but the lens looked clean which is the most important part on these old cameras. A lens that’s been etched by fungus and mold is useless, but a slow shutter can usually be fixed. I pulled an all-nighter to completely disassemble the camera and put it all back together again using a combination of PDFs including old service manuals and WWII training manuals for similar cameras. The unique feature of the Speed Graphic is the cloth focal plane shutter which allows exposures between 1/10 sec. and 1/1000 sec. This was probably the hardest feature for me to overhaul because it requires oiling small bearings and setting the curtain at the right position so all the shutter speeds work correctly. I also had to refocus the lens, fix the infinity stops, and calibrate the rangefinder.
I did my best to date the camera based on the lens serial number using Kodak’s CAMEROSITY dating system. Because the serial number started with EO, I could tell the lens was manufactured in 1946. I think the camera body might be a bit newer than that but I don’t have a definitive way to tell. I’ve been shooting Ilford FP4 Plus at ISO 200 because it lets me use a faster shutter speed of the focal plane shutter. The test shots in this post are from a long drive I took out to the Delaware National Water Gap, a favorite place of mine to shoot because of the abundant abandoned buildings. The last shot I took of the lumber mill was actually overexposed two stops (if you open the lens up to use the ground glass, don’t forget to stop it down!). I’ve found FP4 Plus has great latitude and produces excellent negatives when developed in DD-X. While the Speed Graphic and 127mm Ektar lens don’t allow you to do all the movements normally possible with a 4x5 camera, I still enjoy shooting handheld large format. I’ll probably look to get a 4x5 rail camera at some point in the future, but no other setup will beat the Speed Graphic for portability.
