Graflex.org

[Urchinn]

With the lens back in, you can't force the door to close...or even get near to closing the door. Dang!

[45PSS]

1. You have a Century Graphic 2 1/4 X 3 1/4 camera.
2. The Century Graphic is a Crown Graphic in a Bakelite body in place of a wooden one with a non removable back.
3. The only way to download from Camera eccentric is to save each page in the larger view window.
4. Download the Pacmemaker Crown and Speed Graphic manual as described in item 3 at
http://www.cameraeccentric.com/html/info/graflex_5.html
and study it. The back will be different on your Century.

Check that the focus lock is not set. Yours may not have one.
Unlock the front standard and slide it as far rearward as it will go then lock it with the lever at the bottom center of the front standard.
and not behind the rails.

All parts called by me are their technically correct names in the instructions and repair manuals. Direction is with the camera in normal shooting position in front of you.
_________________
The best camera ever made is the one that YOU enjoy using and produces the image quality that satifies YOU.

[Dan Fromm]

Tony, on an unrelated topic, may have bought a pup. Not because you can't close the camera or because you have trouble following directions, but because you seem to have bought a Graphic without a focusing panel.

The pictures you posted shows a Century Graphic with an RH 12 roll holder attached to the back. Fine, wonderful, you can shoot 6x6 negatives or transparencies.

If you're lucky and the rangefinder is calibrated for the 105/4.5 Xenar now on the camera you can use to RF to focus. If the RF isn't calibrated for that lens or you pull the front standard -- that's the vertical thingy with the lens board on one side and the bellows on the other -- out to the wrong bed stop you'll never get a shot in good focus.

About the bed stop(s). It is harder than I like to be sure, but your camera appears to have two stops on the right outer bed rail and none on the left. This is wrong, they have to be mounted in pairs. With a bed stop on just one side, it is very easy to get a little inadvertent swing.

So how to focus the lens you have if the RF is out of calibration? On the focusing panel's ground glass, which you don't seem to have. That's also how you'll have to focus other lenses. Focusing panels not abundant sofinding one can take a while.

I don't know why, but too many of the Century Graphics offered on the great auction sites have a roll holder and no focusing panel. IMO a Graphic without a focusing panel is pretty useless.

Good luck, have fun, don't give up,

Dan

[Henry]