Near Mint! 1956 Graflex Crown Graphic, 4x5 coupled Rangefinder, CLA'd, FRESHLY SERVICED!

Arguably one of the best classic rangefinder cameras of all time…

This is a Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5 camera. It was produced by Graflex in the good old USA and was a fine quality, professional camera. It was also a very expensive camera when new. Its body was carefully constructed and equipped with the finest items of its era and fitted with a coupled rangefinder. This rangefinder made focusing quick and easy and never leaves you guessing about distance or focus when the action is fast and frantic.

Naturally it also has a removable ground glass at the rear of the camera for calmer moments and allows very precise control of composition and focus. It features very well thought out folding metal sun-shade. This glass back is spring loaded. (You simply slide a sheet film holder under the ground glass, pull out the dark slide and you’re ready to shoot.)

This camera is fitted with a top of the line Kodak Ektar lens and the best shutter of its era, a beautiful Synchro-Compur shutter. This shutter was designed so that with the flick of a switch, it could work with either electronic flash or flash bulbs. Tis feature made it perfect for the diehard press photographers who loved the extremely powerful and lightweight Graflex flash-unit which accepted big bulbs.

In short, this is a large format camera capable of producing extremely sharp 4x5 inch images. However for photographers who prefer to use 120 roll film, Graflex also made roll film backs for this camera. The Graflex 22 back allows you to shoot 6x6 and the Graflex 23 allows 6x9. The nice thing about these backs are that they’re easily available on eBay at very inexpensive prices and they feature a unique auto-stop winding system.  Basically this allowed the photographer to advance the film until it without having to look at numbers through a red counter window. 

The lens is a superb coated 4.7/127mm Ektar lens (the Ektar set the highest professional standards of their day and still perform extremely well today.) The glass is exceptionally clean and clear. There are no scratches, just a few very light cleaning wisps (but you’ll need a magnifier to see them). And it’s capable of producing superb results with both color and black & white film.

This camera has been carefully cleaned, lubricated and adjusted. Everything works. The rangefinder image is easy to see and easy to use. The shutter fires smoothly and all speeds are appropriate. The slow speeds buzz along smoothly and the.

It’s beyond the scope of this description to go into the many fine features of this camera but just let me say this, if you’ve been looking for one of the finest folding cameras available then look no further, you’ve just found it.

All in all a wonderful classic camera. Load it with your favorite film and keep it handy for that perfect shot you’ve been looking for. You know the one... the one with the perfect Ansel Adams light breaking through the dark storm clouds that leaves you wishing you had large format camera with you.