Hello, It's me again. So today, I went to the park with my crown graphic (I just got it yesterday). I found that I had dificulty getting the front standard to transfer to the front section of rails. I also noticed the focusing bed did not want to move. So then I saw that the Kalart rangefinder finger was caught and the rear section of rails and the rails were kind of twisted. Eventually I got thing loose. Too loose maybe? The little hinge between the front and rear rails is broken :-(

I think maybe I have not enough experience with this camera. I probably don't know about the proper position of the rails and focus bed before closing it's little box. This might have caused the rear rails to.... derail? a sort of cause and effect. It worked so perfectly yesterday!

Finally: Any suggestions on where I can send it for repair? I live in Baltimore. I know Abe over at Service Photo has some shop where he sends this sort of work and I may go see him. I called my regular camera repair guy who suggested I buy a junker for parts. I would really rather pay somebody at this point. since I fear it was my error that caused my Crown that I searched so hard for to be broken within 24 hours.

any assistance in my Graphic drama is greatly appreciated. Is there a Graphlex help board somewhere?

thanks,

paul schuster

-- paul schuster (paul@schusterphoto.com), April 06, 2000

Answers

If you haven't already found it, you might want to look around http://www.graflex.org/

There's a commercial section that lists places that sell them, that might be the best place to start looking for help. There appears to be a help board and technical setion to the site as well, so it's probably worth a look.

Hope this helps,

Paul

-- Paul D. Robertson (proberts@clark.net), April 06, 2000.

Paul, when closing the camera, you must retract the bed completely before trying to close it. If the hinge is broken, you may have to replace the rails. You should be able to do this yourself. Slide the front standard off of the rails. Do this by flipping up the infinity stops on the rails, loosening the front standard lock, and pulling it forward, off the rails. Now you can move it out of the way and see the problem. The rails can be easily removed, you will see the svrews that hold everything in place. Try to take them out, remove the rails, and maybe you can repair them. I have seen some replacement parts for these cameras on Ebay. there are a couple of people who sell sell them regularly there. Good luck.

-- Bill Moore (wmoore@provide.net), April 06, 2000.

I did search the graflex site several times. Finally I found an old interview with a guy in Reno, it was from 1995. His phone number was listed so I called. Fred Lustig answered his phone after two rings and assured me he does rebuild these cameras and even manufactures new parts etc. I was very impressed and I will send him the Crown. He did tell me he is in the middle of moving and asked me to wait a month before shipping it.

It does look like I could acquire and old graphic to attempt the repair myself, but I chose not to. My eyes are already suffering from searching ebay every day. I just want it fixed and hopefully with nice clean parts. Nothing worse than getting that caerma on ebay for parts and finding the rails on it are all worn and twisted as well! Mostly I am hoping to avoid more headaches. Waiting for the UPS guy, getting money orders, checking my bids .... I just want to go hiking with my camera. Looks like it will be medium format on the trail for a couple of months!

thanks for all the insight. I will surely be more careful when shutting the lid next time!

paul schuster

-- p (paul@schusterphoto.com), April 06, 2000.

One thing, was it in this condition when you bought it? If so what was it sold as exc, good, average, or as seen? Did it have a guarantee (even if it is only 3 or 6 month)? If it was sold as exc or good perhaps even average, then you would expect it to be in working condition even if it looks shabby. Therefore, if the shop sold you it telling you it was in working condition, whereas it seems clear that it is not, then this (as far as I can see, though I'm not a lawyer) contravines many Sale of Goods Acts and as such you can return it for a refund (I think buy law you can demand money instead of shop credit) or for repair (best to go the softly softly approach first don't wish to put their noses out of joint if you don't have to). As far as I know there is a helpboard at the graphlex site, though currently it seems unavaliable as I have been searching for some where, preferably in scotland to repair a graphmatic film back.

-- David Kirk (David_J_Kirk@hotmail.com), April 07, 2000.

You can access the help board on graflex.org by clicking on the site map. The whole archive is there but as the site link is broken there isn't really any new activity. However browsing through old Q&A was very helpful to me as a graflex novice.

-- Jeff Moag (ptera_dactyl@rocketmail.com), April 14, 2000.