{"id":325,"date":"2009-07-27T09:44:40","date_gmt":"2009-07-27T14:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/27\/309-graflex-groove\/"},"modified":"2022-05-29T08:20:25","modified_gmt":"2022-05-29T13:20:25","slug":"309-graflex-groove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/27\/309-graflex-groove\/","title":{"rendered":"#309 Graflex groove"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-count=\"vertical\" data-url=\"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/27\/309-graflex-groove\/\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>I have eluded to a new project I am working on with a Graflex camera. So today &#8211; some more info.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.graflex.org\/articles\/roskin\/crown-graphic.html\" onclick=\"return TrackClick('http%3A%2F%2Fwww.graflex.org%2Farticles%2Froskin%2Fcrown-graphic.html','Graflex+camera')\" title=\"Graflex camera\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Graflex camera<\/a> cornered the photography market for decades. It was the ultimate camera for many uses. Vast quantities of the camera were produced because of its merits:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>tough, fail proof mechanics<\/li>\n<li>compactness (for its time) and portability<\/li>\n<li>excellent results<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.HarryNowell.com\/Photo\/blog\/Graflex.jpg\" alt=\"Graflex\" height=\"371\" width=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Graflex cornered the editorial or press photography market for many years including WWII. The last of the Graflex cameras was produced in the early 1970s.<\/p>\n<p>Look at any newspaper photo in the 30&#8217;s 40&#8217;s and 50&#8217;s and chances are it was shot with a Graflex. The work was amazing.<\/p>\n<p>Many people still use the Graflex for artistic projects and the technical merits are still there:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>simple technology<\/li>\n<li>enormous file sizes<\/li>\n<li>matched with modern view camera lenses the Graflex knocks the socks off modern cameras<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Enormous file sizes?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Traditional 35mm film and new &#8216;full frame&#8217; digital cameras capture subjects with a sensor or film size of 864 square millimetres.<\/li>\n<li>Most digital SLR cameras use a sensor that is 384 mm2.<\/li>\n<li>A 4&#215;5 Graflex uses 12500 mm2 film.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For web use or small prints the extra size is wasted. Large prints is where the Graflex will shine. Many accomplished photographers use larger versions &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.karsh.org\/\" onclick=\"return TrackClick('http%3A%2F%2Fwww.karsh.org%2F','Karsh')\" title=\"Karsh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Karsh<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edwardburtynsky.com\/\" onclick=\"return TrackClick('http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edwardburtynsky.com%2F','edward+burtynsky')\" title=\"edward burtynsky \" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Burtinsky<\/a> both use(d) an 8&#215;10 film camera.<\/p>\n<p>So, why don&#8217;t people use these cameras more? There are limitations.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The camera is slow to use. You load 4&#8243;x5&#8243; sheets of film individually. That&#8217;s time consuming.<\/li>\n<li>Each piece of film costs ~$6 to purchase and process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One of the beauties of the Graflex is it slows you down. Being a high cost per shot forces you to get back to basics and think through the shot before exposing the film.<\/p>\n<p>On a recent shoot I exposed 10 sheets of film in an hour &#8211; that&#8217;s fast! I then shot 41 frames of the same subject in 10 minutes on a digital camera. They&#8217;re different technologies with different uses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tweet I have eluded to a new project I am working on with a Graflex camera. So today &#8211; some more info. The Graflex camera cornered the photography market for decades. It was the ultimate camera for many uses. Vast <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/27\/309-graflex-groove\/\" onclick=\"return TrackClick('http%3A%2F%2Fwww.harrynowell.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F07%2F27%2F309-graflex-groove%2F','Continue+reading+%26rarr%3B')\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[86,6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6573,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions\/6573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}